Illinois Is Coming For The Guns (Of Domestic Abusers)
Karina's Law will require police to confiscate the guns of those under domestic violence-related protection orders.
One of the few non-horrifying things the Supreme Court did last year was to uphold a federal law barring those under domestic violence protective orders from possessing firearms — much to the chagrin of one Clarence Thomas, who really, really wanted domestic abusers to have guns for some reason.
Of course, because such people are not always very good at following the law and because the law isn’t always so good at following up with such people, this requires some consequences.
To that end, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed Karina’s Law on Monday, which will require those subject to such orders to immediately surrender their Firearm Owner Identification (FOID) card and any firearms within 24 hours. It will also allow petitioners to ask a judge to issue a search warrant on their abuser, to search for additional firearms and firearm parts, that must be executed within 96 hours.
The law is named for Karina Gonzalez, a 48-year-old mother of two who was fatally shot by her husband, Jose Alvarez, in July 2023, two weeks after being issued an order of protection against him. Alvarez also shot and killed their 15-year-old daughter Daniela Alvarez. Manny Alvarez, their 18-year-old son, was also shot, but was only wounded.
Despite the fact that Jose Alvarez surrendered his FOID card, police didn’t actually seize the Glock 17 9mm handgun he used to kill Karina and Daniela. This new law will require it.
Manny Alvarez, who survived, has been advocating for this law in hopes that what happened to his family does not happen again.
“Protecting victims of domestic violence is a cause that’s taking a giant leap forward today,” Pritzker said upon signing the bill. “Karina’s law will protect survivors of domestic violence and give them the comfort of knowing their abuser will not have easy access to firearms. We owe it to Karina and Daniela — to Manny — and to all the victims and their families, to continue building all the support and protection that we can.”
The law will also bar those with orders of protection against them from simply signing over their guns to someone else in the same home, and will apply to dating partners and exes, in addition to spouses.
The legislation was sponsored by Rep. Maura Hirschauer in the Illinois House of Representatives, where it passed 80-33, and by Sen. Celina Villanueva in the Illinois Senate, where it passed with a vote of 43-10.
Ideally, the next step would be a law that would cover all orders of protection, including those for stalking, so as to avoid any Rebecca Schaeffer scenarios. Those under such orders of protection are technically barred from having firearms, but requiring police to actually seize them would certainly help a lot of people sleep at night.
An order of protection, restraining order, whatever, should mean something. It should have some teeth, and it should be taken seriously even if the person does not have a history of violence. Jose Alvarez was accused of verbal, not physical, abuse, and it unfortunately escalated into murder.
Of the estimated 4,970 women murdered in 2021, about 34 percent were killed by a current or former intimate partner. In violent relationships, an abusive man with a gun is 400 times more likely to kill his partner than one who does not own a gun, and those who have guns are also twice as likely to kill people (like children) in addition to their partner. No one should have to live that way, with that kind of fear for their lives.
This just goes to show you that while things are very dark right now, we can still move forward wherever we can and we can still get some good things done — at least in our own states, cities and neighborhoods.
PREVIOUSLY ON WONKETTE!
My first husband was a drug/alcohol abuser with an extensive arrest/conviction record. He also had a tendency to become very aggressive when he was drunk or high and beat the hell out of me on a number of occasions and putting me IN the hospital twice secondary to my injuries.
I was damned grateful his record forbade him from owning a weapon. He would've killed me and probably both of my daughters if he had.
I'm still worried about those 30-50 feral hogs.