Office of the
Illinois Attorney General
Kwame Raoul

Chicago – Attorney General Kwame Raoul joined Governor JB Pritzker today as the governor signed two gun safety bills into law, including Raoul’s legislation to require all local law enforcement agencies in Illinois to participate in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF) eTrace platform. The eTrace platform allows law enforcement to submit crime-gun tracing information to the ATF National Tracing Center. 

House Bill (HB)1373 was initiated by Attorney General Raoul and sponsored by Rep. Curtis Tarver and Sen. Bill Cunningham. The legislation was passed by the Illinois General Assembly with bipartisan support and goes into effect immediately upon being signed. 

“Advocating for commonsense gun safety measures has been one of my top priorities throughout my career. I initiated House Bill 1373 as part of that work because law enforcement agencies’ participation in the ATF’s eTrace platform is needed to identify gun traffickers and suspects and patterns behind violent crimes,” Raoul said. “This law will help strengthen my office’s partnership with the ATF, as we regularly work together to address gun trafficking and other gun crime cases. We cannot truly prevent gun violence unless we make sure all Illinois law enforcement use every resource available to trace crime guns.” 

“Illinois has been one of the most aggressive states in the nation in combatting the epidemic of gun violence that has plagued our communities for far too long,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “We’ve spent the past six years working with law enforcement, engaging with frontline communities, and studying the most effective policy solutions for reducing gun deaths. Today’s legislation contains common sense measures to support law enforcement and promote gun safety in our homes and across our state.” 

“This will give the police the tools they need to track down illegal guns and the criminals that traffic them into our communities,” said Cunningham, a democrat who represents portions of Chicago and the southwest suburbs. “Tracing guns used in crimes and sharing data across jurisdictions will help solve crimes and keep dangerous individuals off our streets.” 

Prior to the law taking effect, Illinois law enforcement agencies’ participation in ATF’s eTrace was voluntary. HB 1373 requires Illinois law enforcement agencies to utilize the platform when recovering a firearm from the scene of a crime, one that was possessed unlawfully or used for an unlawful purpose, or is reasonably believed to have been used or associated with the commission of a crime. Agencies will also be required to utilize the platform after acquiring an abandoned, lost or discarded firearm.  

Raoul explained the law will also enhance his office’s Crime Gun Connect platform by sharing data with the platform that contains over 100,000 crime gun trace records going back to 2009. It will also strengthen investigations conducted from within the ATF’s National Tracing Center to trace crime guns across Illinois and the nation. 

The Attorney General’s office developed Crime Gun Connect, a state-of-the-art crime-gun tracing database, to be a resource for Illinois law enforcement that incorporates information the Attorney General’s office receives from the ATF National Tracing Center. Crime Gun Connect includes eTrace data that allows law enforcement agencies to access accurate state and federal crime-gun data. 

The new law is part of the ongoing work Raoul’s office does to address gun violence in Illinois. The office also collaborates with local law enforcement to combat gun trafficking, and Raoul has persistently advocated at the federal and state levels to strengthen regulation of 3D-printed guns and ghost guns. Additionally, the Attorney General’s office works with law enforcement agencies and prosecutors to increase awareness of Illinois’ red flag law and to address gaps in Illinois’ firearms licensing system. The office also prosecutes individuals who lie on FOID card applications.

In addition to collaborating with law enforcement agencies to keep communities safe from gun violence, the Attorney General’s office supports victims’ service providers around Illinois that offer trauma-informed services for crime victims and their families. Raoul’s Violence Prevention and Crime Victim Services Division administers a host of programs and services to assist survivors of violent crime. More information is available on the Attorney General’s website.