Fed up with the rising violence in Chicago, state Rep. Mary Flowers, D-31st Dist., announced Saturday that she will introduce a bill that calls for a GPS tracking device in all guns.
“This would work the same way as our cell phones that way we will know where the guns are coming from and who has it,” said Flowers at the WE CAN, Inc. community organization meeting. “We will then know the good versus the bad.”
Flowers made her remarks a week after the funeral of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton and a day after President Barack Obama spoke in Chicago and insisted that the nation’s gun violence victims “deserve a vote” on national gun control legislation.
The city and state took several blows to gun legislation. A U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2010 overturned the city’s ban on handguns, and in Dec. 2012 an Appeals Court ordered the state to adopt a law allowing citizens to carry concealed weapons. Illinois had been the lone state to disallow carrying concealed firearms.
But in recent weeks, Cook County outlawed straw purchasing of guns – where a gun is legally bought and then sold to an individual who legally shouldn’t own a firearm.
“We know all of the good people who are law abiding citizens, but we don’t know the bad guys,” said Flowers. “Where are these guns coming from? … Until we cut off the gun supply, this violence will continue.
Speaking at the Hardtimes Josephine’s Restaurant, 436 E. 79th St., Flowers said she is in the process of having the bill drafted.
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