Chicago – Attorney General Kwame Raoul applauded the Illinois General Assembly’s passage of legislation that would require all local law enforcement agencies in Illinois to participate in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF) eTrace platform, which allows law enforcement to submit firearm tracing information for crime guns to the ATF National Tracing Center.
House Bill (HB)1373 passed the Illinois House of Representatives April 8 and then passed the Illinois Senate today with bipartisan support. Illinois Rep. Curtis Tarver and Sen. Bill Cunningham sponsored the legislation, which now goes to the governor’s desk for final approval.
“I appreciate the General Assembly passing this legislation to ensure all Illinois counties’ law enforcement agencies participate in the ATF’s data-sharing platform, which is critical to identifying violent gun patterns and keeping our communities safe,” Raoul said. “Advocating for commonsense gun safety measures continues to be one of my office’s top priorities, and we cannot truly prevent gun violence in our state unless we make sure all Illinois law enforcement agencies are using the best resources to trace crime guns.”
The ATF’s eTrace platform supports law enforcement in solving criminal cases by helping them identify gun traffickers, potential suspects and patterns of violent gun crimes. Currently, Illinois law enforcement agencies’ participation in eTrace is voluntary. HB 1373 would require 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 reasonably believed to have been used or associated with the commission of a crime. Agencies would also be required to utilize the platform after acquiring an abandoned, lost or discarded firearm.
“This is about giving our police the tools they need to track down illegal guns and the people that traffic them into our communities,” Cunningham said. “When we can trace more guns and share more data across jurisdictions, we can solve more crimes and keep more dangerous individuals off our streets."
“I’m proud of this legislation, because I know it will make our communities safer by broadening the use of high-tech gun tracing technology to target the straw purchasers and out-of-state arms dealers who flood our city’s streets with dangerous guns,” Tarver said.
Since taking office, Raoul has made it a priority to address gun violence and its contributing factors. The Attorney General’s office developed Crime Gun Connect, state-of-the-art crime-gun tracing database for Illinois law enforcement that incorporates information the Attorney General’s office receives from the ATF National Tracing Center. Crime Gun Connect provides eTrace data that allow law enforcement agencies to access accurate crime gun data at both the state and federal levels.
Raoul’s 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 supporting law enforcement efforts 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.
