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Legislators shoot down Daley, gov's gun-control bills
April 15, 2005
BY DAVE MCKINNEY AND BEN FISCHER Sun-Times Springfield Bureau
SPRINGFIELD -- Illinois lawmakers Thursday mowed down a series of major gun-control bills favored by Gov. Blagojevich and Mayor Daley during a marathon day of legislative sausage-making.
Lawmakers also voted to let bettors purchase lottery tickets over the Internet, took aim at the dinner table delicacy of foie gras and derailed an effort to preserve private high school dominance over public schools in post-season sports tournaments.
Facing today's deadline to pass bills, the House and Senate churned well into the evening Thursday, with the biggest news of the day involving the fate of the gun initiatives.
NRA-backed bill passes Senate
By a 37-21 vote, the Senate overwhelmingly approved a National Rifle Association-backed package that would require purchasers at gun shows to undergo criminal background checks, force the State Police to destroy those background records after 90 days and scrap most local gun-control laws outside Chicago. That bill moves to the House, but its fate there appeared in doubt after House members rejected an identical NRA-backed bill by a 63-50 vote with 71 votes needed for passage.
The same lack of legislative choreography stymied a stripped-down bill favored by gun-control advocates that dealt strictly with the gun-show issue. By a 63-51 vote, the House approved and sent to the Senate legislation requiring criminal background checks on buyers at gun shows, but the Senate shot down an identical measure 26-29, four votes shy of 30 needed for passage.
Separate efforts to hold gun makers liable for shooting deaths and injuries and to give towns the ability to declare gun shops public nuisances also lost in the Senate by 24-31 votes, six votes shy of the minimum needed for passage.
And finally, a bid to limit gun purchases to one a month collapsed on a 20-34 Senate roll call, with 30 votes needed for passage.
Attempts to institute an assault weapons ban, an initiative being pushed aggressively by Blagojevich, remained in legislative dry dock.
"Chicago Democrats run everything, and yet Chicago has prevailed on nothing," NRA lobbyist Todd Vandermyde said.
Blagojevich praised the House for passing the gun show loophole bill and blocking the NRA's attempts to destroy background check information and undo local gun-control laws.
Bill to reverse IHSA plan rejected
On other fronts, a House panel rejected highly charged legislation that would undo an Illinois High School Association rule change that would match up private high schools against much bigger public schools in post-season tournaments. The proposal fell seven votes short of 11 needed to pass out of a House panel, with members doubting the wisdom of injecting state law into a private organization's decision-making.
Employing a full-court press Thursday at the Capitol, the IHSA aggressively defended its rules change, saying the plan was part of a careful debate within its membership designed to level the playing field between private and public schools in high-school sports.
"I can assure you more work went into this by the IHSA staff than most bills that happen in the House," said Dan Conner, the principal at Clinton High School and a member of the IHSA board.
Unless the IHSA reverses itself before next year, any school without a defined geographic district and more than 450 students will be considered the equal of much larger traditional public district schools.
Senate OKs Internet lottery sales
The coalition of legislators fighting against the so-called "enrollment multiplier" promised more pressure on the IHSA in the days leading up to its next board meeting April 26 in Bloomington.
Meanwhile, the Senate endorsed a pilot program to sell lottery tickets over the Internet, an initiative backers said could yield the state as much as $100 million a year. The measure sponsored by Sen. John Cullerton (D-Chicago) passed 32-24 and now moves to the House.
Also in the Senate, lawmakers unanimously voted to ban the force-feeding of ducks to fatten their livers to create the delicacy of foie gras. "We're not going to do this to the birds,'' said Sen. Kathleen Wojcik (R-Schaumburg), the bill's sponsor. "We're very humane in this state, and we're going to stay that way."
April 15, 2005
BY DAVE MCKINNEY AND BEN FISCHER Sun-Times Springfield Bureau
SPRINGFIELD -- Illinois lawmakers Thursday mowed down a series of major gun-control bills favored by Gov. Blagojevich and Mayor Daley during a marathon day of legislative sausage-making.
Lawmakers also voted to let bettors purchase lottery tickets over the Internet, took aim at the dinner table delicacy of foie gras and derailed an effort to preserve private high school dominance over public schools in post-season sports tournaments.
Facing today's deadline to pass bills, the House and Senate churned well into the evening Thursday, with the biggest news of the day involving the fate of the gun initiatives.
NRA-backed bill passes Senate
By a 37-21 vote, the Senate overwhelmingly approved a National Rifle Association-backed package that would require purchasers at gun shows to undergo criminal background checks, force the State Police to destroy those background records after 90 days and scrap most local gun-control laws outside Chicago. That bill moves to the House, but its fate there appeared in doubt after House members rejected an identical NRA-backed bill by a 63-50 vote with 71 votes needed for passage.
The same lack of legislative choreography stymied a stripped-down bill favored by gun-control advocates that dealt strictly with the gun-show issue. By a 63-51 vote, the House approved and sent to the Senate legislation requiring criminal background checks on buyers at gun shows, but the Senate shot down an identical measure 26-29, four votes shy of 30 needed for passage.
Separate efforts to hold gun makers liable for shooting deaths and injuries and to give towns the ability to declare gun shops public nuisances also lost in the Senate by 24-31 votes, six votes shy of the minimum needed for passage.
And finally, a bid to limit gun purchases to one a month collapsed on a 20-34 Senate roll call, with 30 votes needed for passage.
Attempts to institute an assault weapons ban, an initiative being pushed aggressively by Blagojevich, remained in legislative dry dock.
"Chicago Democrats run everything, and yet Chicago has prevailed on nothing," NRA lobbyist Todd Vandermyde said.
Blagojevich praised the House for passing the gun show loophole bill and blocking the NRA's attempts to destroy background check information and undo local gun-control laws.
Bill to reverse IHSA plan rejected
On other fronts, a House panel rejected highly charged legislation that would undo an Illinois High School Association rule change that would match up private high schools against much bigger public schools in post-season tournaments. The proposal fell seven votes short of 11 needed to pass out of a House panel, with members doubting the wisdom of injecting state law into a private organization's decision-making.
Employing a full-court press Thursday at the Capitol, the IHSA aggressively defended its rules change, saying the plan was part of a careful debate within its membership designed to level the playing field between private and public schools in high-school sports.
"I can assure you more work went into this by the IHSA staff than most bills that happen in the House," said Dan Conner, the principal at Clinton High School and a member of the IHSA board.
Unless the IHSA reverses itself before next year, any school without a defined geographic district and more than 450 students will be considered the equal of much larger traditional public district schools.
Senate OKs Internet lottery sales
The coalition of legislators fighting against the so-called "enrollment multiplier" promised more pressure on the IHSA in the days leading up to its next board meeting April 26 in Bloomington.
Meanwhile, the Senate endorsed a pilot program to sell lottery tickets over the Internet, an initiative backers said could yield the state as much as $100 million a year. The measure sponsored by Sen. John Cullerton (D-Chicago) passed 32-24 and now moves to the House.
Also in the Senate, lawmakers unanimously voted to ban the force-feeding of ducks to fatten their livers to create the delicacy of foie gras. "We're not going to do this to the birds,'' said Sen. Kathleen Wojcik (R-Schaumburg), the bill's sponsor. "We're very humane in this state, and we're going to stay that way."