Illinois Democrat State Reps. Daniel Didech and Jonathan Carroll have introduced legislation in Springfield that would require gun buyers or current gun owners to “reveal their public social media accounts to Illinois police before they’re approved for a firearm license,” according to WBBM News in Chicago.
The legislation, according to the Herald & Review in Decatur, would also allow revocation of the Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) card for posting “disagreeable content,” without defining what that might be.
Similar legislation was introduced last year by New York State Sen. Kevin Parker, a Brooklyn Democrat, for gun owners in the Empire State, but that legislation has not been considered yet.
Critics say such legislation translates to an invasion of privacy.
The CBS affiliate in Chicago noted that the ACLU is opposed to the measure, contending that the legislation does not clarify how such information would be retained, and for how long.
Richard Pearson, executive director of the Illinois State Rifle Association, told a reporter, “When people look at this everyone who has a Facebook account or email account or Twitter account will be incensed or should be.”
Arguments for such legislation both in New York and Illinois have been essentially the same. Mass shooters, such as Florida’s Nikolas Cruz and Ian David Long, the Thousand Oaks, Calif. gunman, posted messages on social media, gun owners and prospective gun buyers could be further investigated by law enforcement before being allowed to exercise their Second Amendment rights.
But such intimate scrutiny turns a right into a regulated privilege, opponents argue. ACLU spokeswoman Rebecca told WBBM, “A person’s political beliefs, a person’s religious beliefs, things that should not play a part in whether someone gets a FOID card.”
Didech reportedly believes his bill is “less intrusive” than the legislation Parker introduced in New York before the holidays. But just how “less intrusive” is it?
Didech argued that his bill “gives Illinois State Police additional tools to make sure that dangerous weapons aren’t getting into the hands of dangerous people.” But isn’t that always the argument by proponents of increasingly intrusive “background checks” that may be more designed to discourage prospective gun owners than prevent criminals, who do not go through background checks, from getting firearms?
When he submitted his bill in New York last year, Parker contended that, “Although New York State has some of the strictest gun laws in the country we can no longer provide protection to gun owners at the expense of the rest of society.”
