Additional restrictions on law abiding citizens. Up next each block will have a block Captain with an MRAP to protect the citizens.
Cook County voters will get to say in November whether they believe the state should enact tougher gun laws, including an outright ban on the sale and transfer of assault weapons.
The non-binding referendum is one of two measures the Cook County Board voted Wednesday to place on the upcoming ballot.
Democratic board members unanimously supported the measure, which asks if the state should “require universal background checks for firearm transfers and prohibit the sale and transfer of assault weapons, assault weapon attachments and high capacity ammunition magazines?”
Gov. Pat Quinn also has called for a ban on future assault weapons sales and transfers, though the measure has failed to move forward in Springfield. The board’s placement of the question on the ballot comes as Quinn’s campaign has tried to hit Republican rival Bruce Rauner on the issue.
In a new online video by the Quinn campaign, TV news reports of Chicago violence are juxtaposed with video footage of Rauner saying he believes gun owners should be free to use assault weapons for “target practice … on their property as they choose fit.”
Board Republicans, including state GOP chairman Com. Tim Schneider, did not oppose the measure. Instead, they requested to be marked as “present” during the vote.
The other advisory referendum, sent to the ballot on a unanimous vote, was a measure calling for increased state mental health funding. The state has cut $187 million in funding – a move that has disproportionately affected the poor, commissioners said.
In Chicago alone, six state-run mental health centers have been shuttered, a county memo states.
For months, Sheriff Tom Dart has publicized the number of mentally ill inmates, who he says wind up in Cook County jail instead of mental health facilities.