Lake County Gazette

The Lake County GOP and gun advocates shared their frustration about the latest firearms legislation milling about in Congress.

Federal lawmakers recently introduced House Bill 8, which is the latest attempt to enforce universal background checks and end private gun sales. At the April 21 Lake County Republican Central Committee meeting Michael Rioux, the owner of firearms training and sales store Red Dot Arms, spoke about the effectiveness of the legislation. 

Rioux, a former software engineer, opened Red Dot Arms almost 10 years ago because guns "are his livelihood."

"[People are] buying guns from their brothers-in-law, their cousins, it happens every day, and nobody is doing anything," Rioux said. "The guns that are being used in crimes aren't being bought with background checks or any of that. They're being paid for illegally."

Rioux said that the state confiscates more guns than are legally and lawfully sold and that the lack of prosecution encourages criminals to habitually re-enter the illegal firearms market. 

"So we really don't need to put laws on us making it more difficult," Rioux said. "We just got to prosecute people that are doing something wrong." 

Republicans recently introduced a bill to prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating firearms and ammunition. 

House Rep. Mary Miller (R-Illinois) criticized HB 8 in March, saying ending private sales would make the public safer is laughable. 

“The problem with gun violence is not that we don’t have enough gun laws,” Miller said. “We have enough gun laws. What we need is to make sure the laws we have are enforced. Look at what happened in 2019 in Aurora when five people were shot and killed. The shooter had moved to Illinois from another state, and because his background information was not updated – he was allowed to get a FOID card in Illinois and purchase firearms. Then when he applied for a concealed carry permit, his criminal background was discovered, and his FOID card was revoked, but his guns were never surrendered as required by law. If the gun laws had been enforced – a terrible tragedy could have been avoided. We need better enforcement – not more laws."