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Thank you. Good morning, everybody. I'd like to call our committee of the whole meeting to order on Friday, March 10 at 8 30 AM. Vice chair, coming him, could you lead us in the pledge of allegiance this morning, please?

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Thank you.

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Thank you very much.

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May I have a roll call please.

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Member Altemberg.

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She might be online.

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I don't see.

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Member Altemberg yet.

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I know she's coming.

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Member Comples.

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He's absent with prior notice.

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Member Castan.

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Yeah.

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Member Clark.

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Here.

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Vice chair Cuddyham.

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Member Danforth.

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President.

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member Frank your share heart here member shewitt member hunter and I apologize

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member shewitt is absent with prior notice thank you member hunter

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absent with prior notice member can this get here member Kyle

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President.

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Member May, absolute prior notice, Member Park, Member Peterson,

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Member Roberts here, Member

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Slick, Member Velitzick here, Member Watson, we

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have nine members present here.

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Okay, we have nine members present and so we do not have a quorum present so we will not

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able to approve the minutes when I say present for the public what I mean is people who are physically

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here in Milwaukee and there are a couple of people who had hoped to attend this morning but

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because of the weather let us know they'd be attending virtually. Do we have any public comment

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for items not on the agenda please? No, man. Thank you and no agenda to the agenda.

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My only charity marks is to say that this is the fourth committee of the whole that we are hosting

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about gun violence and I know that we're going to have more because this is such an important topic

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that impacts everybody regardless of where you live. We've heard from Mayor's Nancy Rodering

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and Mayor Rockingham of Highland Park in Norse, Chicago. We heard from Chris Patterson from the Office

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of Fire on Violence Prevention. Thank you to member Kinesnick for helping connecting us with him.

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And we also heard from states attorney Ryan Hart and Sarah Kinesnick about our gun violence prevention initiative.

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We heard from Shane Selig, he is a volunteer with the City of Highland Park Certified Emergency Response Team.

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He talked to us about the mass murder in Highland Park and how that has affected him and his community.

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We heard from Lake County Health Department Executive Director Mark Fister about gun violence

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as a public health issue, and he also gave us some important data.

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Sam Johnson, with the he's the Director of Behavioral Health of the Lake County Health

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Department, talked about their suicide prevention programs, Sergeant Jake Novak and Deputy

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Sheriff Sergeant Matt Harmon with the Lake County Sheriff's Office, Special Investigation

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group shared their groups, focus of drug trafficking, money laundering, and criminal organizations,

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and how those go hand in hand with gun violence and the importance of taking firearms off the

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street. We heard from James Edwards, he's the director of juvenile probation and detention

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services, talking about juvenile redeploy program, which seeks to decrease youth incarceration.

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We also heard from Dr. Michael Carter, our regional superintendent of schools who applied for

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received a grant of a million dollars from the Office of Justice Programs and Regional Safe

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School in Lake County in his efforts to combat gun violence and doing interventions and

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counseling at an early age. I really want to thank three members of the board today, members

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Mar-Altonberg, Paul Frank, and Sarah Canesnik for their work on this month's committee of the

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You might recall if you would listen to our last meeting, we closed it with saying,

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hey, what are those things? Now that we understand, but gun violence is prevalent across

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Lake County across the United States, that we are extraordinary because we are the one country

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in the world that suffers this level of gun violence for our residents. So we talked about what

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we can do and what we will do to try to make a difference.

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And one of those things that we talked about

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was the importance of safe storage and keeping guns

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out of the wrong hands and keeping people

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and particularly children safe in homes.

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So with that, I want to begin with a couple of special guests.

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I'm going to ask Sarah, can he's nick to introduce them.

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They were very grateful for them to come and speak.

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It's Kristen and Mike's song,

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from the Ethan Miller-Song Foundation,

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who experienced a tragedy and are working hard

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to make sure it doesn't happen to other families.

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Member Kenney's Nick.

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Thank you,

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Chair.

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Or your leadership on the issue of gun violence,

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prevention and your dedication to this issue

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and your dedication to educating the public

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about what we can do about this terrible epidemic of violence.

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It is my great honor to introduce Kristen and Mike Song.

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They lost their son Ethan, who was 15-year-old at the time on January 31, 2018,

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because of an unsecured firearm.

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It was my great honor throughout 2021 and 2022 to work together with Kristen and Mark,

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along with a lot of other survivor advocates

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and advocates for gun violence prevention

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to get support for Ethan's law

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in the U.S. House of Representatives.

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I was deeply inspired by and continue

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to be deeply inspired by their dedication

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to helping us learn to live with the hard fact

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that there are many, many more guns in America

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than there are people.

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We all want to see an end to this scourge.

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It doesn't matter what side of the issue a person's point of view is, whether they are

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concerned primarily about supporting gun rights or concerned primarily about reducing gun violence.

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We can all agree that we must find a way to live with the 400 plus million guns that we have in America.

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And that starts with meaningful safe storage laws.

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Kristen and Mike have been incredibly successful at something that's one of the biggest challenges of our time

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which is getting meaningful gun safety legislation passed at the state level and they have come very close to doing it at the federal level

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and I know for sure none of us will give up until we have these meaningful policies in place.

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So, I'm going to ask Kristen Song to begin, Kristen became a gun safety activist after

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Ethan was killed with an unsecured gun in his best friend's home.

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The father had stored three handguns and ammunition in a shoe box.

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After learning that the negligent gun owner would not be charged, but instead his 14-year-old

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son would be charged with manslaughter.

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Kristen was determined to strengthen Connecticut's child access prevention law to put

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the responsibility on gun owners instead of children.

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Kristen's unifying approach and Connecticut was instrumental in bringing together both parties

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to put aside their affiliation, leave their egos at the door, and work together to keep

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kids safe.

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Ethan's law, which requires all guns to be secured, if a child or unauthorized person

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can gain access, passed with overwhelming bipartisan support and Connecticut.

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Kristen expanded her mission to keep kids safe nationally, Ethan's law was passed in the House of Representatives in June of 2022 as part of the safer communities act.

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And to everyone listening members of the board members of the public and everyone in Illinois, I would like you to keep one thing in mind as you listen to Kristen and might testify.

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A few weeks ago Senator Laura Elman introduced Senate Bill 1521 in the Illinois General Assembly, that is Ethan's law.

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Kristen?

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Thank you so much, Sarah.

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Thank you for having me today.

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Obviously, this is a very emotional testimony for myself.

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I just want to kind of give you a glimpse into the world of a broken mother.

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I wrote this piece about four weeks after Ethan was killed.

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And it kind of gives you an idea of what it's like to live with.

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Having a child killed where they done that should have been stored.

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I saw a woman last year.

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her eyes sparkled her posture as we last. Her movements deliver it, deliver it, and full of energy.

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She smiled laughed and loved to tell anyone who would listen, seize the day. She lived

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her life that way. She begged for her third child, her husband did not understand it. She was not

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done bringing life into this world. He arrived on a beautiful winter's day. They called him Ethan.

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Her family was complete. She felt that peace. She used to tell people her heart group

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Three sizes that day, the pleasures in her life were her family and her greatest joys for children.

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She used to sit back, watch them in smile.

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Life is good. Her heart was full of gratitude because she knew she was blessed.

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She was a confident mother and took her job seriously.

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She worked hard, making sure her three children fell in love and cherished.

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Her most treasured moment when her family was all together at dinner time,

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on vacation or on long car rides.

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She loved the noise, but she also loved when the house was quiet,

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and her children were safely tucked into their beds.

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She did her job.

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Her children went to teenagers,

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and she felt more in love with them.

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Even when she received phone calls,

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Mom, I'm okay, but I told the car,

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our mom, don't freak out,

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I broke my nose in three places,

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or when a school called to inquire

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for third child was planning on handing in any homework ever.

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She understood these trials

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and writes a passage, they wish to mount ball in good learning lessons, her children were becoming

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aweshoots of her and she marbled that their personalities, dreams, kindness, and yes,

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propiness. She told them over and over, there's nothing this family can't get through together.

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I saw a woman on January 31, 2018, she and her son have such a fun and relaxing morning together.

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You see her beautiful boy just got his braces off, and he was so happy. She took a picture of him

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with his new smile and sent it to her husband.

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They headed off to breakfast to celebrate

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and her beautiful boy told her all about his hopes

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and dreams and his plans for the future.

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He wanted to go to Rice University,

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joined the army, and have seven children.

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He wanted his house to be filled with music and laughter

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like his home now.

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They returned home and her beautiful boy walked

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with best friends' house

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and our later the woman saw two police officers

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walking across her home.

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Her heart sank.

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The ambulance screamed by her street carrying her beautiful boy on the car right to the hospital. The woman in her husband promised each other that they could handle anything

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The line loss of limb

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Parapolegic having to care for their son for the rest of his life.

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They ran into the hospital and the staff parted like the Red Sea

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They knew

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The woman ran towards the Bayes where a beautiful boy lay but she was stopped and got into a tiny room

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The ER doctors would down the wall, put his head in his hands and whisper, and your son is gone.

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She crawled into a fetal position, her husband called their other son and daughter.

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She will never forget the guttole stops that escaped from their man's.

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She wasn't brave enough to make this phone calls.

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How could she say it out loud?

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How could she say Ethan is dead?

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The woman needed to see a beautiful boy to tell him he is so loved and cherished.

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The case is for you to talk a minute and won't let's talk.

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She begs to see him, which he's warned, he's unrecognizable, even turn eyes.

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You see, he was shot in the head.

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While her family walks out of the hospital, they're beautiful boys, being we open to the war.

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I see a woman, her eyes are dull, her posture slumped, her movements as if by rope.

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She's in a stupor, getting through the day, but none of her heart might embody.

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Her smile has started to tear her certain energies gone. She wonders how she will get through the day.

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The physical pain is so intense, it's hard for her to breathe.

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The things I used to bring her pleasure and great joy are chased away to the fullest parts of her mind.

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They are terrifying reminders of what you used to be.

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She no longer thinks publications, summer evenings under the stars, or Christmas mornings.

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All these pleasures have been sacrificed just to survive.

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Life is now a roller coaster of emotions, ranging from panic attacks, anxiety over what will happen to her other children, and disbelief that her life is now shattered into a million pieces.

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She doesn't sleep much, and when she does, even visits her at night, calling to her.

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She practically runs around and looks at the cage, and he'll try to get to her pitiful boy.

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But his foot's through her finger to slowly fades away.

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A noise waves term and she realizes she is sobbing and whaling.

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Why God?

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Please tell me why. My beautiful boy.

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She would have happily traded places with him in the instant.

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She's caught between two worlds, the wonderful boys and now.

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And the one who living families in. She stretches her arms, but can no longer hold her. Three children all at once.

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She gets up to any other day. She has failed as a mother. She sits with her coffee in the kitchen,

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contemplate suicide. Ah, that sounds lovely. No more pain. Her other son grabs her hand and says,

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I will not survive if I lose another member of this family. How did he know? Was it so obvious?

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She now knows she has no other choice but to live. The woman who was once vibrant, happy, optimistic,

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of warm, loving, finds a necessary to the draw and to herself to protect her emotional stability.

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It is affected more than just her and is affected by price possessions for husband and her children.

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Not only is she dealing with her heartache, she's also trying to help them deal with theirs.

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Obviously, this woman is me and the beautiful voice, my 15-year-old son, Ethan,

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he was shot in the head in his best friend's house with an unskilled gun.

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The gun on her father did store three unskilled guns with ammunition and issue box

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And Ethan's friend had been showing his friends these guns for about six months.

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The gun on her suffered serial consequences.

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In fact, one of the case you two weeks later.

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My husband and I were handed down a life sentence and Ethan was handed down a death sentence.

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My son was safe in my home, but he was not safe in his friend's home.

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They called these deaths accidental, but my son's death was not an accident.

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You see, the word accident implies there was nothing the donor could have done to save you

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them, but we are no better. The gun on our could have simply locked up his guns.

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Ethan's law will have the grace impact on reducing deaths in children's zero to 19.

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On intentional deaths, these suicides and 76% of all school shooters use an unsecured gun

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to terrorize and hunt and kill our children. Can you imagine if those guns were locked up?

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I think about it every second of the day. Thank you so much for your time.

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Well, thank you very much for being strong and courageous enough to share your story

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and to try to make a difference in other people's lives.

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And thank you for the work that you're doing to pass this important legislation.

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It is absolutely heartbreaking.

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I mean, to see if there's anybody here in the rumor online that wants to say anything.

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I so appreciate you and Mike both being here. Sarah, member Kinesnick, did you want to say a few words?

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Mike, if I'm not mistaken, I think you had some remarks you'd like to share.

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Yes, thank you very much and obviously this is a very difficult conversation to have.

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But I always start these conversations, by saying my friends who own guns just lock them up.

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They say this is a no-brainer. They say this is absolutely what the NRA recommends.

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My friends who own guns who are extremely conservative, I've got friends on both sides of the aisle.

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And those friends always tell me this is one law that it should be bipartisan and it was a kinetic.

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There's a really beautiful moment.

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So out of all this tragedy, we saw one of the only extremely bipartisan gun bills pass in the country.

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So what it really comes down to is a group of people who are very classified and hardened in their idea that it's too much.

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It's too much to ask them to lock up a gun.

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And they'll say, look, if someone comes in my house, I need to have that gun just lying there on the kitchen table or on my nightstand.

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You know, this is too much for them to do.

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Put the gun in the gun, say.

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close it, someone's at your heart,

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open it, he saves open as you can see at the speed of

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smartphone, this is what the barrier, this is why we can't save all the kids' lives, this

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is why my son had to die, that's too much, and I think that's ridiculous, the men and women

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that I know who have kids, they love their children, they know they go to other people's

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And that is a really important point to make.

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My friends who own guns support Ethan's law,

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because they know it's what a responsible gun under does.

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It's the people who don't care about the kids.

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Enough to do that.

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But I really question if that's infringement or just common sense.

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And unfortunately, although the vast majority of gun owners have read that Ethan's law is common sense,

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There are still many parents who prove that common sense is not common practice.

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And that's why we need a law instead of a rule or something like that or a platitude on a website.

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And that's what the NRA says is a bridge too far.

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Even though these are their own guidelines, basically.

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Kids around lock buns down.

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I mean, I think that is just absolutely the truth.

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Even if you were raised, even if you had a guns when you were twelve, whatever your situation is, we have now learned that kids and guns is a bad combination.

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And if you're really in that much of a threat and you're in that bad of a neighborhood, you can keep the gun on your person, you can have it in a holster.

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But if you leave your gun on your nightstand and walk away with three little kids in your house, I think that's matters.

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So thank you for considering this issue. I hope you do take action and I think you'll be making the world a safer place for everyone.

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I always like to say, save storage, save lives, and those lives left, right, black, brown, white.

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Those lives are basically everyone's lives, everyone's kids.

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So I think this is a great way to make your community safer, and I really commend you for considering this issue now.

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Thank you very much, and I really appreciate you showing the public and us how simple it is.

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I assume that's one of these biometric devices, right?

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You just push the button with your finger and there you go.

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So, I think that's really important for people to see.

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We read about it, right?

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I myself had not seen a video on that, but I think that's really important.

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And I personally could not agree more with you that just locking your guns can absolutely

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safe lives. So thank you very much.

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I'm not seeing anybody here. Sorry, I have a member, member of the let's

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say, Bob, I'm a member, Kinesnick, and then member Cat.

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They appreciate it, and I think they're important stories to share.

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Incredibly sorry for your loss. I am wondering if anyone can tell me what

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the status of bills like Ethan's law are in other states, how many states of

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similar laws and I'm assuming Illinois is it has the support in Illinois but if anyone can speak to that

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I'd appreciate that as well. And I'll turn to either Mike, Mike or Kristen.

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Chris, you want to answer that or would you like to be

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answered that? Approximately a year and a half ago or two years ago I did an analysis of all 50 states in the country and

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that about 15 of them have reasonably effective

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something in place for this, and it varies quite a bit by state.

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The gold standard is Massachusetts, which is very strong.

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Connecticut is now very strong in New York, California.

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But there are also other states like Texas.

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And I call this the T-factor.

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Texas has a safe gun storage law in place.

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It's not as effective as we'd like it to be.

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I'm sure Sarah would agree with that being an expert on this, but maybe 30, 35 have very limited

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or no safe gun storage, a lost in place. But what is incredibly encouraging is that since people

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like Sarah and yourselves are considering this around the country, there are now five states in direct

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play for this to happen. Illinois, of course being one of them as well as Michigan, Minnesota,

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Maryland, and also New Mexico where we actually traveled out to sort of, you know,

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to do press conferences out there, very heroic people.

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One of the Senate state senators out there had death threats

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because she was trying to encourage parents

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to lock up their guns.

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But it looks like it has a very strong chance of passing.

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So across the country, there's a hot hot

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of states that have done something really great.

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And there's five or six that are considering it,

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Kristen testified in Maine, and they did pass

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a law very similar to Ethan's law in Maine.

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So we're seeing this being the least partisan, least polarizing,

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most effective way to reduce school shootings, teens suicide.

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My goodness, what parent wouldn't leap in front of a bullet for their kid,

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let alone just do something as simple as lock up their guns,

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these accidental and unintentional really deaths are just tragic

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for your old shooting their brother, you know, you've seen that.

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And it's waking people up to the idea that

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of all the gun laws that you could consider,

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This is probably the one that actually helps gun owners retain possession of their guns.

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It's harder to steal anything that's locked up. It's not impossible, but it's harder.

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And so we're seeing common sense start to win over at least in some of the states throughout the country.

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Thank you.

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And I just want to add, I have a map that I'm working on on songstrong.org or slash map.

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And that is where I'm trying to put together the map of all 50 states.

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As you can imagine, it's not an easy feat to track 50 states.

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So it might not, the information might not be perfect,

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but it's a very good way to get a glance across the country

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at songstrong.org for slash map.

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Thank you for repeating that website.

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And so I assume as things stand now that activists like you both

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have determined maybe a stupid do assume

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that it's easier at this point, unfortunately, to go state by state than with some sort of federal law.

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Yeah, you know, once the Democrats lost the House, we just pivoted right away to the states,

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because we were undetirred.

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We don't care if we have to go state by state to create a national standard for storing your guns.

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But we have not given up on the federal level either right now.

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Ethan's law on the House is 190 co-sponsors and in the Senate we have about 30

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co-sponsors and so we're just going to continue to put pressure.

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Sadly, every day there is an example or actually eight examples of children

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getting their hands a month to cure guns and dying.

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So it's not going away.

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it's getting worse and you know like Mike and I both said the secret service to this study and they

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found out that 76 to 80% of all school shooters use their guns from home and these are unsac sure

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guns and so these are children who are prices who have access to very deadly weapons and to

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go in and hunt and kill our children or innocent children and so if those guns were just secure

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the temperature of this entire country would come down a lot and we would drastically be able to save so many children.

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Thank you so much and thank you for the work that you've done.

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This entire country should be incredibly grateful and I hope at some point in the near future we'll be looking back and

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and talking about how absolutely absurd we were that we didn't have these laws in the first place.

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Thank you.

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member Kenney's Nick, five member Kaspen.

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I would like to see my turn to member Kaspen.

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Okay. Go ahead, member Kaspen.

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Thank you very much, Chair.

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I just wanted thank you for being here and for sharing

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the story of your beautiful child and for sharing

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him with us.

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So that we might learn from it.

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And we might create legislation that will

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help prevent this in the future. I would suggest that I know we have some laws in our legislative agenda

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and I think a general statement, if we haven't added this specifically, I would like to propose

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that we do that. Thank you both very, very much for being here. Thank you.

357
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Okay, remember Frank, pardon me actually.

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It's member Altonberg, father, and member Frank.

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Okay, thank you so much for being here today.

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You have such courage, we had a lost my sister at 17 years old.

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And I know how your heart breaks and it's unimaginable, but I cannot thank you enough for

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all the really important, I can't stress that enough,

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important work you're doing, and in Ethan's name,

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you're making immense positive change across the country,

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and out of a tragedy, a lot of lives are going to be saved.

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And you need to remember that every minute of every day that you are

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doing such good work, such important work, and there are so many

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people across the country who are applauding you, and your courage, and your conviction.

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And, you know, we just think you're, you're amazing people, and I know it's hard to get

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out of bed every day and work on this issue, but it is, in my eyes, one of the most important

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things we could be doing today. You're saving a lot of kids. Thank you so, so much.

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00:29:19,470 --> 00:29:23,610
Thank you. Thank you. I have a member Frank, Bob, I've ice your cutting him.

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Thank you, Chair. Thank you so much for being here today and sharing your story.

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I can't find words that are really more appreciative and more accurate than what member

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to say thank you and to recognize your contributions to saving other people's lives. So I'm going to just say that I'm fully supportive of everything that Member Altonberg just said.

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But to the question of our legislative agenda, Chair, I just wanted to mention in...

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And July and August, we had a long debate about adding several gun safety provisions to our

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legislative agenda advocating for a ban of assault weapons at the state and federal level, advocating

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for safe storage laws at the state and federal level and advocating for enhanced training for

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gun owners at the state and federal level. We spent 99 percent of our time in energy talking

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about assault weapons because of what happened in our community.

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But I'm really appreciative, Chair,

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if you give us this time today to talk about safe storage,

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as the songs have said, and as most of us feel in our gut,

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this feels like something that should be already

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have been law for decades.

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And I recently had a conversation with a leader in this effort.

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Someone who I admire greatly, who's very knowledgeable and very active, and said to me that's great that you guys are talking about safe storage, but don't we already have that here in Illinois, and we don't.

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And it's just like this assumption that this would be the law here, and even nationally, it makes no sense that this is not a requirement for going oners to safely secure firearms in homes for children.

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or others are present, especially now when our national data shows that firearms are the leading cause of death for children and teens.

391
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It's so important that we're having this conversation today. I can't thank the songs enough again for being here and sharing their story and that.

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00:31:41,100 --> 00:31:51,360
Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Vice your kind of hand. Thank you, Chair. I just want to say thank you for sharing your story about your son.

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00:31:51,360 --> 00:31:59,220
I know how I feel that I lost one, two years ago, my baby, and I know you're feeling.

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When you were speaking, tears come to my eyes, because a mother hair, five of the great

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five of the love of childhood, different from any mother, a mother, cared that child, and

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that your child left here. It was a terrible tragedy. I grew up in the south of

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my guns. My parents was a harness. They had all kind of guns, but they kept them locked up

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in the cage. They didn't have them out while we could get them because it was so many of us in the

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homes. And they were like them up. What are like on them? And we couldn't get time. I was just

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00:32:45,100 --> 00:32:52,800
a monogle while a little child was playing with a gun and made a mistake and shot his brother.

401
00:32:55,000 --> 00:33:01,180
So, uh, safe it is if you're going to have guns in your home, they need to be safe to like you say,

402
00:33:02,080 --> 00:33:08,760
they need to be safe it. Like dad said, you know, hey, don't put them while they can get them.

403
00:33:09,060 --> 00:33:14,280
Because they're going to get them, uh, they think it's not an element. They be loaded.

404
00:33:15,020 --> 00:33:23,980
And if they pull the trigger that said, so you have all of my sympathy, but don't let him, don't let this forget.

405
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Don't let it lay down and forget it.

406
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Keep going what you're done, live for your child, live, live with him.

407
00:33:33,720 --> 00:33:38,020
Whatever, tell the world, let him know.

408
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You still live in because I'm still done, working for you.

409
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So, keep up what you're doing, keep it up and keep it up and keep it up.

410
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Thank you.

411
00:33:49,440 --> 00:33:50,900
And I'm sorry for your loss.

412
00:33:51,600 --> 00:33:52,120
Oh, yeah.

413
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I know how you feel.

414
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I know how you feel.

415
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So, both of you.

416
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So, thank you.

417
00:33:59,500 --> 00:34:00,380
Thank you, Vice Chair.

418
00:34:00,740 --> 00:34:05,660
I've member Kyle, followed by member Wasik and Robert.

419
00:34:06,620 --> 00:34:09,420
Member Kenny Zink, just let me know when you do want to jump in.

420
00:34:09,420 --> 00:34:10,440
and you're being very gracious.

421
00:34:10,660 --> 00:34:13,420
So thanks for letting some folks go before you go ahead.

422
00:34:13,700 --> 00:34:14,620
Thank you, Madam Chairman.

423
00:34:16,100 --> 00:34:22,160
I think that what we do not look at

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is that the fact that toy manufacturers

425
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have a huge role in children developing a fondness for guns.

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When we were little, we played with the water guns, and then when we got a little older,

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it was the cap guns that made the pop sound, and then ultimately there became the dark

428
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guns,

429
00:35:07,020 --> 00:35:16,600
and these toys cause children to develop a fondness of guns.

430
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And what we need to do is really try to somehow hold toy manufacturers to hold them

431
00:35:35,780 --> 00:35:43,540
to the fact that this is how children develop a fondness for guns,

432
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and they have everything

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from water guns, then after the cap guns, then it's the laser guns, then it's the

434
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a real gun in person. When they see a real gun, this is the ultimate for children because

435
00:36:20,980 --> 00:36:29,760
they came through so many different levels of having guns as toys. Now a real gun

436
00:36:29,760 --> 00:36:44,740
is the ultimate toy for them because their entire life was developed by a fondness of toys

437
00:36:44,740 --> 00:36:48,220
which started at the toy manufacturing level.

438
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And I believe that we should somehow try to develop even if it's legislation for toy

439
00:37:04,080 --> 00:37:15,600
manufacturers to try to reduce their manufacturing of guns at the toy level, which

440
00:37:15,600 --> 00:37:33,680
Actually, is what literally causes the likeness and the fondness and the intrigue of guns to kids and children, young adults at the real gun level.

441
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That's what we need to do.

442
00:37:36,440 --> 00:37:37,240
Thank you, member Kyle.

443
00:37:38,100 --> 00:37:38,440
Thank you.

444
00:37:38,980 --> 00:37:41,800
I believe I said, member Wasick Todd, I'm member Roberts.

445
00:37:42,360 --> 00:37:42,920
Thank you, Chair.

446
00:37:42,920 --> 00:37:45,520
And thank you so much for joining us today.

447
00:37:45,860 --> 00:37:58,200
We truly cannot fathom your grief, but we are inspired by your courage, and we will be motivated by the thought of Ethan and trying to put his name on safety legislation.

448
00:37:58,980 --> 00:38:09,900
Gun Safety was part of our legislative agenda last year, and we're going to follow through with our friends and our state capitals Springfield, and that's our commitment to you.

449
00:38:09,900 --> 00:38:21,680
And while we are grieving with you collectively, we will turn this into action and thanks once again and we will push this forward.

450
00:38:23,600 --> 00:38:24,980
Thank you, Member Lastic. Member Roberts.

451
00:38:25,520 --> 00:38:25,900
Thank you.

452
00:38:27,020 --> 00:38:27,900
Is that here quietly?

453
00:38:28,060 --> 00:38:31,060
Because I didn't think I could even talk through your story.

454
00:38:32,640 --> 00:38:34,600
Thank you for sharing that with us.

455
00:38:34,600 --> 00:38:41,720
I have an empties in my stomach from your story and I can't even imagine how you get up every day

456
00:38:42,440 --> 00:38:50,020
But thank you for sharing this and it seems like a no-brainer doesn't it just get a box

457
00:38:50,020 --> 00:38:58,210
Walk up your gun and we will support you in every way we can and I just want to say thank you again

458
00:38:59,170 --> 00:39:01,130
And thank you Sarah for bringing

459
00:39:05,620 --> 00:39:13,580
Yes, Kristen and Mike, my friends, I want to just thank you along with everyone else and I'd

460
00:39:13,580 --> 00:39:21,080
like to ask everyone that's been listening for the last 40 minutes or so to think back

461
00:39:21,080 --> 00:39:27,120
to how you felt when Kristen was telling her story and I'd like to ask that you keep in

462
00:39:27,120 --> 00:39:35,620
Kristen has told this story tens of thousands of times in the offices of elected officials

463
00:39:35,620 --> 00:39:43,020
all across this country and in DC. I know because for hundreds of those times, I was sitting

464
00:39:43,020 --> 00:39:48,220
with her and every time she tells the story I cry.

465
00:39:50,970 --> 00:39:54,890
It doesn't matter who you are, just a regular citizen

466
00:39:54,890 --> 00:40:00,390
an elected official, a community leader, a pointed or elected law enforcement officer,

467
00:40:01,190 --> 00:40:08,770
and a gun owner, a responsible gun owner. It doesn't matter who you are. You have a role to

468
00:40:08,770 --> 00:40:15,890
play. There's something you can do to help build in America where Kristen doesn't have to tell

469
00:40:15,890 --> 00:40:17,050
her story anymore.

470
00:40:19,450 --> 00:40:25,210
I'm incredibly proud to be a part of this elected body. Thank you for

471
00:40:25,210 --> 00:40:29,470
trying attention to Kristen and Mike's story and the issue of unsecured firearms.

472
00:40:30,210 --> 00:40:33,390
Kristen, Mike, I love you and thank you.

473
00:40:33,390 --> 00:40:35,790
Thank you so much and thank you all for your time.

474
00:40:36,430 --> 00:40:43,970
Thank you so much for being here and I think as Member Frank had said, it's very difficult to

475
00:40:43,970 --> 00:40:49,210
to put in towards everything that we were feeling but, you know, I think, and Member

476
00:40:49,210 --> 00:40:53,850
Altonberg, Member Wass, Member Roberts, Member Ballistic, all of us, and Member Kyle and

477
00:40:53,850 --> 00:41:01,650
face your kind of ham. Just, um, all of us feel very, very strongly about this. Um, we know

478
00:41:01,650 --> 00:41:09,970
the data shows that unsecured firearms lead to the death, but particularly of children. So I

479
00:41:09,970 --> 00:41:16,210
agree with you. It should be a no-brainer. And because of our broadly written legislative agenda,

480
00:41:16,270 --> 00:41:23,130
we can slip and support of Ethan's law here in, uh, in the state of Illinois. So thank you so much

481
00:41:23,130 --> 00:41:24,230
for everything you're doing.

482
00:41:24,910 --> 00:41:26,730
Next, we're going to hear from member Kamees.

483
00:41:26,990 --> 00:41:30,590
Next, she has some slides from the Beesmart organization,

484
00:41:31,650 --> 00:41:35,770
and it really speaks to the importance of safe storage.

485
00:41:36,370 --> 00:41:38,490
Thank you, and Sarah's going to come up to the podium.

486
00:42:01,570 --> 00:42:02,210
Thank you, Melinda.

487
00:42:04,090 --> 00:42:06,410
Thank you for this opportunity to share some information

488
00:42:06,410 --> 00:42:10,430
about safe storage and best practices for storing your firearms.

489
00:42:10,430 --> 00:42:19,550
Before I begin, I want to credit an outstanding community educator, a volunteer community educator from Lake County.

490
00:42:19,610 --> 00:42:26,690
Her name is April, a boyk of it, and this is her work. It is my great honor to be able to share it with you.

491
00:42:28,210 --> 00:42:37,530
Be smart as a program developed by every town for gun safety, support fund to bring together parents and all adults concerned about kids, guns and safety.

492
00:42:42,080 --> 00:42:45,080
Figure it out where to advance the slide. Got it. Okay.

493
00:43:20,130 --> 00:43:23,550
Sorry. We just need a minute for some technical difficulties here

494
00:44:05,150 --> 00:44:11,090
Would you like us to move forward and have Marko first and then we'll come back with Sarah

495
00:44:11,690 --> 00:44:13,770
We're bringing in reinforcements

496
00:44:17,420 --> 00:44:18,380
I'm sorry

497
00:44:19,340 --> 00:44:27,000
That's what I'm saying but it appears that his are coming up that coming up, but we're not able to see the peace of our ones. Yeah, but it's not coming up

498
00:45:09,780 --> 00:45:10,260
Thank

499
00:45:19,480 --> 00:45:22,000
you. Thank you. Thank you.

500
00:45:25,970 --> 00:45:41,970
You know what I did notice that? Thank you so much. I jotted that down for the end. You're totally right. Thank you, member Frank. We do have a quorum. So we could do the consent agenda item 8.1 to approve the committee the whole minutes from February 4th 2023.

501
00:45:41,970 --> 00:45:50,070
motion by member Frank, second by member Wasick, all those in favor, any opposed motion

502
00:45:50,070 --> 00:45:55,490
passes. Thank you. Thanks, members. Okay. Thank you, member Kinesi.

503
00:45:57,390 --> 00:46:02,030
So thank you for your patience and thank you to our administrative team for jumping in

504
00:46:02,030 --> 00:46:05,690
and saving the day again. They do that a lot.

505
00:46:05,690 --> 00:46:08,930
So I'm going to continue with the presentation.

506
00:46:09,710 --> 00:46:11,690
We just, we felt it was really important.

507
00:46:12,370 --> 00:46:17,410
Those, remember, Altonburg, member Frank and I to share some really practical information.

508
00:46:17,710 --> 00:46:22,890
We know that there are gun owners listening, which is wonderful, and we know that the vast majority

509
00:46:22,890 --> 00:46:29,310
of gun owners are concerned about safe storage and want to see everyone store their gun

510
00:46:29,310 --> 00:46:29,710
safely.

511
00:46:29,970 --> 00:46:34,650
So I appreciate the opportunity to be able to share some practical information about safe storage.

512
00:46:34,650 --> 00:46:45,350
We all, again, just since we got interrupted, this is the work of April, a boycavich, a really outstanding community educator from Libertyville.

513
00:46:46,070 --> 00:46:48,370
We all want kids to be happy and healthy.

514
00:46:49,010 --> 00:46:57,690
We each have the right to make responsible decisions about how to protect our homes, families and communities, including whether or not to have a gun in our home.

515
00:46:58,490 --> 00:47:04,450
However, if we can prevent even one child gun death or injury, it's our responsibility to do so.

516
00:47:05,490 --> 00:47:11,970
Firearms are now the number one leading cause of death for children in the United States.

517
00:47:12,370 --> 00:47:20,070
1800 children die every year from gunshot wounds, an average of five children every day.

518
00:47:22,830 --> 00:47:29,550
Secure storage helps prevent school shootings as Christians so movingly shared with us earlier in the hour.

519
00:47:30,030 --> 00:47:34,570
76% of school shooters used guns taken from their home.

520
00:47:34,570 --> 00:47:43,030
Imagine how many school shootings could have been prevented if we had gun safety laws in place all across the country.

521
00:47:44,290 --> 00:47:50,690
These are just some of the local incidents that took place involving kids, brain schools,

522
00:47:50,690 --> 00:48:01,470
bringing guns to school or camp in 2022, please join me in remembering the victims and people impacted

523
00:48:01,470 --> 00:48:08,350
by these events and really take a moment and think about how this is a problem right here in our

524
00:48:08,350 --> 00:48:15,730
community, everywhere in Lake County. The consequences of uninsecured firearms are unintentional

525
00:48:15,730 --> 00:48:22,770
gun deaths, a two-year-old boy last summer in Juliette got hold of a loaded, unlocked gun,

526
00:48:22,910 --> 00:48:29,290
and a bedroom of his home, and unintentionally shot himself in the face. He was hospitalized for

527
00:48:29,290 --> 00:48:34,210
weeks in critical condition. His mother says she left the room for one minute to get something,

528
00:48:34,430 --> 00:48:40,620
and that's how fast these tragedies can happen. In Bensonville last summer, a 14-year-old boy

529
00:48:41,360 --> 00:48:45,920
unintentionally shot and killed his 13-year-old friend with a handgun while at another

530
00:48:45,920 --> 00:48:50,740
friend's house. I don't know if that sounds familiar, but I think we heard a very similar

531
00:48:50,740 --> 00:48:56,980
story just about 30 minutes ago. The boy who lived in the home decided to show his friends his

532
00:48:56,980 --> 00:49:04,120
father's guns that were kept unsecured and loaded in a bag under a bed. If you think about it

533
00:49:04,120 --> 00:49:10,300
for a moment, really, there are almost no differences between the story of this 14-year-old boy

534
00:49:10,300 --> 00:49:13,340
events inville and the story of Ethan Song.

535
00:49:14,940 --> 00:49:17,820
The 14 year old was found guilty in juvenile court

536
00:49:17,820 --> 00:49:20,680
of involuntary manslaughter, reckless conduct

537
00:49:20,680 --> 00:49:23,000
and reckless discharge of a firearm.

538
00:49:23,560 --> 00:49:25,780
It is time that we put responsibility

539
00:49:25,780 --> 00:49:28,740
where it belongs on the firearm owner

540
00:49:28,740 --> 00:49:32,720
and not on the child to access the unsecured firearm.

541
00:49:33,520 --> 00:49:36,000
Other consequences of unsecured guns,

542
00:49:36,040 --> 00:49:39,560
our school shootings as we're all painfully aware

543
00:49:39,560 --> 00:49:41,160
and suicide deaths.

544
00:49:41,400 --> 00:49:43,720
In January 2019 and 11 year old,

545
00:49:43,800 --> 00:49:46,660
and Lyons died by firearm suicide in his home.

546
00:49:47,240 --> 00:49:49,300
Three months later, in April of 2019,

547
00:49:49,660 --> 00:49:51,400
a 13 year old seventh-grade student

548
00:49:51,400 --> 00:49:54,160
at a Lyons middle school brought a gun to school

549
00:49:54,160 --> 00:49:57,480
in his backpack, went to the bathroom during English class

550
00:49:57,480 --> 00:49:59,680
and fatally shot himself in the head.

551
00:50:00,140 --> 00:50:02,300
It's believed the child obtained the gun

552
00:50:02,300 --> 00:50:05,020
from the home of a family member.

553
00:50:06,260 --> 00:50:08,960
About 4.6 million children live in a home

554
00:50:08,960 --> 00:50:10,800
with a loaded unlocked gun.

555
00:50:11,240 --> 00:50:13,620
About 54% of gun owners report,

556
00:50:13,860 --> 00:50:16,120
they do not keep all their guns locked.

557
00:50:17,640 --> 00:50:19,480
Be smart, is the program.

558
00:50:19,540 --> 00:50:21,480
It's really a very helpful acronym

559
00:50:21,480 --> 00:50:24,960
that helps people kind of keep straight in their heads,

560
00:50:25,000 --> 00:50:27,920
make it easy to remember how to be responsible with firearms.

561
00:50:28,740 --> 00:50:31,440
One, secure all guns in your home and vehicle.

562
00:50:32,080 --> 00:50:33,600
Model, responsible behavior.

563
00:50:34,500 --> 00:50:37,720
Ask whether or not unsecured guns are in other homes

564
00:50:37,720 --> 00:50:41,340
that you visit, recognize the role of guns in suicide,

565
00:50:42,000 --> 00:50:44,800
and finally tell your peers to be smart.

566
00:50:46,700 --> 00:50:49,580
So the S, again, stands for Secure Your Guns

567
00:50:49,580 --> 00:50:52,140
and Homes and Vehicles, 13 million households

568
00:50:52,140 --> 00:50:54,340
with children contain at least one gun.

569
00:50:55,100 --> 00:50:57,160
One study found that the majority of children

570
00:50:57,160 --> 00:51:00,340
in gun-owning households knew where the gun was stored.

571
00:51:01,520 --> 00:51:04,540
Store guns locked up and inaccessible to kids,

572
00:51:05,140 --> 00:51:06,940
preferably in a biometric safe

573
00:51:06,940 --> 00:51:10,560
like the one that Mike's song demonstrated for us today.

574
00:51:11,240 --> 00:51:14,040
Heighting a gun is not securing a gun.

575
00:51:14,540 --> 00:51:15,700
Let me repeat that.

576
00:51:15,900 --> 00:51:18,660
Heighting a gun is not securing a gun.

577
00:51:19,140 --> 00:51:22,360
Trust me, it doesn't matter how old your child is.

578
00:51:22,660 --> 00:51:25,600
He or she will find your hidden gun.

579
00:51:25,620 --> 00:51:27,600
You must secure it.

580
00:51:29,310 --> 00:51:31,070
I'd like to take a moment and tell you

581
00:51:31,070 --> 00:51:34,810
about Illinois's current child access prevention law.

582
00:51:34,810 --> 00:51:53,690
It is our law in Illinois generally makes it illegal for a person to store or leave their firearm unlocked and accessible to a minor under the age of 14 if the person knows or has reason to believe that the minor is likely to gain access to the firearm and the minor causes death or great bodily harm with that firearm.

583
00:51:54,610 --> 00:52:01,950
So it sounds at first glance to be fairly similar to Ethan's law, which I don't think we've described Ethan's law yet today.

584
00:52:01,950 --> 00:52:03,930
So I will just do that very quickly.

585
00:52:04,210 --> 00:52:08,210
Ethan's law will require that anyone who owns a firearm

586
00:52:08,830 --> 00:52:12,370
in a home where there are children under the age of 18

587
00:52:12,370 --> 00:52:15,130
that firearm owner must secure the gun.

588
00:52:15,590 --> 00:52:19,630
If he or she does not do that and the child gains access to the gun

589
00:52:19,630 --> 00:52:24,030
and someone is hurt, the gun owner will face a class two felony.

590
00:52:25,110 --> 00:52:28,730
So that's very different than our current child access prevention law,

591
00:52:29,530 --> 00:52:34,490
which does not apply if the firearm is secured by a device other than the firearm safety

592
00:52:34,490 --> 00:52:39,270
designed to render the firearm temporarily inoperable. It does not apply if it's placed in a

593
00:52:39,270 --> 00:52:44,210
securely locked box or container, does not apply if it's placed in some other location that a

594
00:52:44,210 --> 00:52:50,530
reasonable person would believe to be secured from a minor under the age of 14, not 18. And it does

595
00:52:50,530 --> 00:52:58,170
not apply if the minor is a void card holder. And as we are painfully aware, because of the

596
00:52:58,170 --> 00:53:05,190
experience in Highland Park, a person does not have to be over the age of 18 to obtain a

597
00:53:05,190 --> 00:53:12,330
void card in Illinois. So although we are very happy to have a child access prevention law in Illinois,

598
00:53:12,550 --> 00:53:19,070
it really does not go far enough and there's much more that we could do. I'm just sharing here

599
00:53:19,070 --> 00:53:22,690
quickly some different options for gun safes.

600
00:53:24,710 --> 00:53:26,790
I would like to draw your attention a lot of

601
00:53:26,790 --> 00:53:30,930
people talked to me about gun sails and they say things like, well, a lot of people aren't able

602
00:53:30,930 --> 00:53:32,170
to afford a gun safe.

603
00:53:33,430 --> 00:53:38,790
I, that's certainly understandable. However, since this slide was created, we've seen, for

604
00:53:38,790 --> 00:53:43,850
many models, we've seen the price come down. I have seen them in recent weeks for sale on Amazon

605
00:53:43,850 --> 00:53:47,830
for as little as $30. These are biometric saves.

606
00:53:48,410 --> 00:53:54,130
So, there's a lot of, there's a lot of good options. I would like to also point out a lot of

607
00:53:54,130 --> 00:53:56,870
folks often think of gun locks as cable locks.

608
00:53:57,510 --> 00:54:00,030
They are of course, cable locks are of course better than nothing,

609
00:54:00,690 --> 00:54:06,470
but anybody with a cable clip can get to an unsecured fire

610
00:54:06,470 --> 00:54:09,310
to get to a secured fire with a cable lock.

611
00:54:09,670 --> 00:54:13,870
If someone's biometric saves are the far, far preferable option.

612
00:54:15,630 --> 00:54:19,290
Also, more examples of gun cases and trigger locks

613
00:54:19,290 --> 00:54:21,130
you can compare and contrast here.

614
00:54:21,130 --> 00:54:24,490
The M in B smart stands for Model Responsible Behavior.

615
00:54:24,650 --> 00:54:28,650
It is always an adults responsibility to prevent unauthorized access to guns,

616
00:54:29,550 --> 00:54:33,190
not a curious child's responsibility to avoid guns.

617
00:54:33,870 --> 00:54:37,610
Unfortunately, that's the reality as Ethan Song's story shows,

618
00:54:37,790 --> 00:54:41,110
as the story of the young person in Lions shows.

619
00:54:41,510 --> 00:54:43,190
I'm sorry, I think it was Bensonville.

620
00:54:44,390 --> 00:54:46,790
This is the standard in America today.

621
00:54:46,790 --> 00:54:51,690
It's the child. We're putting the responsibility on the child to avoid a lethal weapon.

622
00:54:52,150 --> 00:54:55,730
The responsibility needs to be put where it belongs, which is on the gun owner.

623
00:54:56,810 --> 00:55:00,950
We also, the Beesmart Program also recommends that you make it a part of normal safety

624
00:55:00,950 --> 00:55:05,630
conversations that you have with your children to talk about what to do if they encounter an

625
00:55:05,630 --> 00:55:11,750
unsecured gun. Keep the language simple. Say something like, if you see a gun, don't touch it,

626
00:55:11,750 --> 00:55:13,410
and the adult right away.

627
00:55:14,130 --> 00:55:17,790
The A stands for ask about unsecured guns and other homes.

628
00:55:18,130 --> 00:55:20,490
Make it a part of your general safety conversation

629
00:55:20,490 --> 00:55:22,610
when sending your child to any home.

630
00:55:22,830 --> 00:55:27,070
Do not be afraid to ask whether or not your neighbor,

631
00:55:27,130 --> 00:55:29,910
if you're sending your child there for a play day,

632
00:55:30,130 --> 00:55:33,010
do not be afraid to ask whether or not they have guns in the home

633
00:55:33,010 --> 00:55:37,570
and if they do, whether or not they are secured safely.

634
00:55:38,230 --> 00:55:41,030
If you're uncomfortable having that conversation in person,

635
00:55:41,030 --> 00:55:51,530
consider emailing or texting it. 4.6 million U.S. children live in a household with at least one loaded, unlocked gun. That must change.

636
00:55:53,710 --> 00:56:00,350
Here are some examples of how to ask. Don't ask. Do you have a gun that can come off as a bit of accusatory instead ask?

637
00:56:00,550 --> 00:56:07,590
If you have a gun in the home, could you please tell me how it is stored? You can also blame it on someone else.

638
00:56:07,590 --> 00:56:13,890
say your pediatrician asked you to start checking before you send your child to someone's house,

639
00:56:14,030 --> 00:56:18,590
whether or not they're guns there and whether or not they secured. I'm not going to read

640
00:56:18,590 --> 00:56:24,190
the interest of time and won't read through them all, these slides will be available, but I really

641
00:56:24,190 --> 00:56:30,630
like to encourage everyone listening to look through the slides, take them seriously, and if you are

642
00:56:30,630 --> 00:56:35,930
new or someone you know is a gun owner who could benefit from this information please share it.

643
00:56:37,590 --> 00:56:47,550
So I'm just going to finish up with a few more sobering statistics, a survey of high school students found that 20% had seriously considered attempting suicide within the last year.

644
00:56:48,030 --> 00:56:55,490
And one studies showed that 41% of adolescents in gun-honing households report having easy access to the gun in their home.

645
00:56:55,490 --> 00:57:07,210
households that locked both ammunition and firearms had a 78% lower risk of self-inflicted firearm injuries among children and teenagers.

646
00:57:09,910 --> 00:57:19,950
They're a great deal of resources available if you feel like there's someone in your life who is considering suicide or might be at risk of it.

647
00:57:19,950 --> 00:57:31,270
Please see this slide for more information and share it and finally the last thing to remember the letter T and B smart stands for tell everyone you know to be smart

648
00:57:31,270 --> 00:57:38,570
And I'd really like to point out to all the gun owners who are listening and reading this slide

649
00:57:38,570 --> 00:57:45,990
If you're a gun owner talk to your gun owning friends about how important it is to keep your gun locked up

650
00:57:45,990 --> 00:57:53,390
Your voice is the strongest because you have credibility by the sheer fact that you are also a fellow gun owner.

651
00:57:54,130 --> 00:58:05,190
Gun owners could be doing so much to help change the culture around guns and help people understand how important it is to keep them locked up in a way from people who should not have them.

652
00:58:05,470 --> 00:58:14,750
Some practical tips, you consider at least three people that you want to share this message with right now and simply share it with them.

653
00:58:14,750 --> 00:58:18,730
either share the slide presentation or simply Google be smart.

654
00:58:19,910 --> 00:58:22,350
It's the information is extremely easy to find.

655
00:58:22,870 --> 00:58:29,630
Share be smart within your community at your churches at your community events, work with community

656
00:58:29,630 --> 00:58:36,830
organizations to see if you can help spread the word and text smart to 6443 to learn more.

657
00:58:38,430 --> 00:58:44,410
I would like to share the contact information for April, a break of it, if you would like to learn more.

658
00:58:44,870 --> 00:58:48,990
And of course, we are here to help please reach out.

659
00:58:49,210 --> 00:58:52,550
Thank you so much for the opportunity to share this slide presentation.

660
00:58:53,090 --> 00:58:56,590
And if you are a gun owner, please lock up your guns.

661
00:58:56,870 --> 00:59:00,310
Whether or not you are a gun owner, please tell your friends and family to do the same.

662
00:59:00,490 --> 00:59:01,110
Thank you.

663
00:59:01,630 --> 00:59:02,790
Thank you very much.

664
00:59:02,790 --> 00:59:05,810
member can use it. Yes, member, frame five, member, parah.

665
00:59:06,270 --> 00:59:08,330
Yeah, thank you, Chair. I just want to thank, member.

666
00:59:08,550 --> 00:59:16,390
Excuse me, for the public education piece. I mean, I think that's something that we hadn't really talked much about, and this is.

667
00:59:16,470 --> 00:59:22,590
The slides are terrific. The volunteer that you shared these from she did a terrific job with those.

668
00:59:22,890 --> 00:59:31,750
One of the things that I find so gratifying and beneficial on a personal level about service on this board is the expertise.

669
00:59:32,790 --> 00:59:38,090
and different perspectives that all of our colleagues have from their experiences in life.

670
00:59:38,870 --> 00:59:43,910
And member can use Nick is a truly an expert in terms of advocacy and public education on these issues.

671
00:59:44,550 --> 00:59:48,450
We're really appreciative of your participation in your leadership today.

672
00:59:50,810 --> 00:59:51,890
Thank you, it's a great deal.

673
00:59:52,310 --> 00:59:52,630
Member Park.

674
00:59:52,990 --> 00:59:54,570
I have a little bit of a question.

675
00:59:55,550 --> 00:59:59,350
Member can you really appreciate your expertise on this and so I had a question.

676
00:59:59,350 --> 00:59:59,730
See you next time.

677
01:00:00,000 --> 01:00:27,100
And I know you attended our town hall the other day about this, but are there any thoughts about coupling some type of ethans law with tax credits, so people who purchase a storage device don't really have to pay for it, where either the state, county or someone would cover the cost. So there is no cost issue with safe storage, right? It is free, essentially to those.

678
01:00:27,100 --> 01:00:29,940
Is that counterproductive or how order does it?

679
01:00:30,060 --> 01:00:35,340
I think it's extremely productive and one of the more creative initiatives we've seen in the movement in recent years.

680
01:00:35,680 --> 01:00:40,160
And I know there is at least one state who has already made that change to their statute.

681
01:00:40,420 --> 01:00:45,980
I think it's Georgia, but member Park, I think you mentioned that you might be able to see it.

682
01:00:46,100 --> 01:00:56,700
I think Virginia has a hundred, like whatever, every member vote I think for a tax credit from the state for anyone that purchased

683
01:00:56,700 --> 01:01:03,250
a gun storage, you know, box or whatever. I don't know if it was biometric, but some type of

684
01:01:03,960 --> 01:01:10,350
reimbursement, I think that that would remove part of the argument that it costs nothing to do.

685
01:01:11,240 --> 01:01:16,860
Well, I think you're absolutely right, and any sort of economic incentives that we can put in place

686
01:01:16,860 --> 01:01:24,840
in legislatures across the country and also in Congress that would lead people to use and own guns

687
01:01:24,840 --> 01:01:30,180
responsibly is worth pursuing and we should be doing a whole lot more of it and the natural

688
01:01:30,180 --> 01:01:36,580
question for anybody listening to member parks remarks just now is why are we already doing that

689
01:01:37,480 --> 01:01:44,320
and I can tell you why and just by way of establishing my credibility I've been doing this work full

690
01:01:44,320 --> 01:01:49,780
time for the last seven years and the reason that we have not seen a lot of economic incentives in

691
01:01:49,780 --> 01:02:00,120
to cut down on, or in order to reduce gun violence is because not gun owners the vast majority.

692
01:02:00,900 --> 01:02:08,120
I would willing to be bet 99 percent of all gun owners in this country care just as much about all

693
01:02:08,120 --> 01:02:16,820
of us care just as much as we do about responsible firearms storage and usage. It is the gun lobby.

694
01:02:16,820 --> 01:02:25,120
The gun lobby and the gun industry wants gun violence to be high, because nothing sells guns

695
01:02:25,120 --> 01:02:28,600
more effectively than fear and racism.

696
01:02:29,760 --> 01:02:36,460
The lobby wants gun violence to be high everywhere, but especially in communities that are underserved,

697
01:02:37,060 --> 01:02:43,220
most often black and brown communities, because when it's high in those communities, they sell more guns.

698
01:02:43,220 --> 01:02:51,540
So when you look at it that way, the gun industry does not want economic incentives in place to get people to lock up their guns.

699
01:02:51,740 --> 01:03:02,340
The gun industry fights every opportunity it takes every opportunity it has to require gun dealers to lock up their guns when after working hours.

700
01:03:02,680 --> 01:03:06,340
There's a reason for that because they want those guns to be stolen.

701
01:03:06,340 --> 01:03:22,160
Because when guns are stolen from the inventory and gun ranges and gun dealers, they end up on the streets of Wakigen, North Chicago, Zion, Austin, Engelwood, and neighborhoods that are underserved all across this country.

702
01:03:22,960 --> 01:03:29,360
So, those of us that the vast majority of us who are not a part of the gun industry and the gun lobby,

703
01:03:30,300 --> 01:03:37,060
we should be pushing for every economic incentive like the one you describe member park that we can think of, right?

704
01:03:37,420 --> 01:03:41,220
There's so much more we can do and we must start with everyone's pocketbook.

705
01:03:41,760 --> 01:03:49,860
And I would just say, if I can just add one more comment, I mean, if we can't get this done at the state level for many potential reasons,

706
01:03:51,020 --> 01:03:58,180
I mean, could we look in the county itself as a public health emergency where we provide through the public health department or something,

707
01:03:58,800 --> 01:04:01,460
a stipend for people to do something.

708
01:04:01,680 --> 01:04:06,720
And I don't ask that we answer that right now, but something just for us to consider in the future.

709
01:04:07,340 --> 01:04:19,280
I'm so glad you raised that because one of the things that I've learned on this working on this issue for so long is that real change happens at the local level in filters up to the state and federal levels.

710
01:04:20,700 --> 01:04:26,860
This county, this particular elected body has shown itself to be an outstanding leader on this issue.

711
01:04:26,860 --> 01:04:36,880
And I think if it's possible for us to move forward on something like that, I think we would be delighted over the long term to see how that led to positive change everywhere.

712
01:04:37,920 --> 01:04:38,500
Thank you.

713
01:04:38,860 --> 01:04:56,660
And if I may want to things that we learn through Naco is King County, Washington does have a program in their county, in which they worked with area gun stores to provide a discount for gun storage.

714
01:04:56,860 --> 01:05:03,420
you know gun storage devices. So I thought that that was really helpful. But in speaking to

715
01:05:04,240 --> 01:05:06,100
what member can he's not just talked about

716
01:05:06,900 --> 01:05:11,560
Senators Durbin and Representative Schneider introduced legislation to reduce gun violence

717
01:05:12,480 --> 01:05:16,900
from stolen firearms and the legislation sounds equally simple.

718
01:05:17,980 --> 01:05:23,520
Hey gun stores, you need to lock up your guns when your store is closed.

719
01:05:24,360 --> 01:05:30,880
So, just like when we walk past a jewelry store, the jewels are removed and put in a safe.

720
01:05:31,440 --> 01:05:36,160
And so, they're asking for legislation for support on legislation that the same thing

721
01:05:36,160 --> 01:05:37,440
would happen with a gun store.

722
01:05:38,300 --> 01:05:44,660
And it's surprising that so far, I don't believe they have any support from the other side.

723
01:05:45,940 --> 01:05:49,180
So, maybe that has changed, I'm sorry, maybe that's changed since I had last heard about

724
01:05:49,180 --> 01:05:51,720
it in February, but I thought that was pretty shocking.

725
01:05:51,720 --> 01:05:52,340
member.

726
01:05:52,500 --> 01:05:52,860
Can you say that?

727
01:05:52,860 --> 01:05:53,480
May I respond?

728
01:05:54,380 --> 01:05:55,940
Thank you so much for bringing that up.

729
01:05:55,940 --> 01:06:00,020
It has been more than a year and a half since Congressman Schneider introduced that bill.

730
01:06:00,660 --> 01:06:02,800
He did introduce it in the previous Congress.

731
01:06:03,040 --> 01:06:07,320
He's now reintroduced it for which I am very grateful and Senator Durbin is the sponsor in

732
01:06:07,320 --> 01:06:07,800
the House.

733
01:06:08,480 --> 01:06:12,340
However, I'm not at all surprised that there's not any support for that bill.

734
01:06:12,900 --> 01:06:19,360
The reason is because starting a year and a half ago, immediately upon Congressman Schneider's

735
01:06:19,360 --> 01:06:24,440
introduction of that bill, all the forces within the gun lobby immediately swung into action

736
01:06:24,440 --> 01:06:32,400
to discourage any other members of Congress from signing on. That's why the voice of activists

737
01:06:32,960 --> 01:06:40,480
but also elected bodies like this one matter. What I know to be true, and this is from my personal

738
01:06:40,480 --> 01:06:49,280
experience, it's the local level where leadership happens. The state and the federal government

739
01:06:49,280 --> 01:06:53,320
they don't lead, we lead, if we choose to.

740
01:06:55,140 --> 01:06:55,780
Thank you.

741
01:06:56,080 --> 01:06:57,780
Any other questions from member.

742
01:06:57,780 --> 01:06:58,900
Thank you, member Wasek.

743
01:06:59,420 --> 01:07:01,760
Also, thank you for your heroic work on this.

744
01:07:02,380 --> 01:07:05,080
We're heartened and we want to work with you.

745
01:07:05,400 --> 01:07:08,620
If I can make some suggestions in the form of hypotheticals,

746
01:07:09,840 --> 01:07:15,660
how can we form a team to provide say discounts for people to buy these

747
01:07:16,420 --> 01:07:22,860
gun saves and gun locks through dealers in Lake County is such an effort already

748
01:07:22,860 --> 01:07:28,620
underfoot or do we need to kind of jump start it? I don't think there is such an

749
01:07:28,620 --> 01:07:32,900
effort underfoot but I'd like to tell you about a conversation that I had with

750
01:07:32,900 --> 01:07:39,260
the leader of Lake County partners yesterday. It was quite eye-opening. I was not

751
01:07:39,260 --> 01:07:48,160
aware that Abby has a facility in Norse Chicago that has recently, in recent weeks and months,

752
01:07:49,200 --> 01:07:55,760
suffered many gunshot attacks, not quite sure how to phrase it, but they've, on several

753
01:07:55,760 --> 01:08:03,240
occasions, in the last few months had employees' cars, who they've been gunshots in their

754
01:08:03,240 --> 01:08:10,100
They've had the facility in North Chicago, has been shot at many times in the last few months.

755
01:08:10,860 --> 01:08:15,960
And the leader that I spoke with from Lake County Partners said the Abbey leadership is actually extremely

756
01:08:15,960 --> 01:08:21,540
concerned about this and looking for solutions things that they can do about it.

757
01:08:21,560 --> 01:08:23,220
I want to commend Abbey.

758
01:08:23,240 --> 01:08:26,780
My understanding is that they're very supportive of the North Chicago community.

759
01:08:26,780 --> 01:08:33,180
I also learned yesterday that they recently paid for an early childhood development center

760
01:08:33,180 --> 01:08:38,640
to be built in Norse Chicago. And since we're talking about economic incentives, I think

761
01:08:38,640 --> 01:08:47,640
there's a great deal of potential for those of us in service, rather elected or appointed to work

762
01:08:47,640 --> 01:08:53,860
for the county by working together with Lake County partners, with private employers, with businesses.

763
01:08:53,860 --> 01:08:57,980
is there's all kinds of potential, right,

764
01:08:57,980 --> 01:09:00,120
in order to find creative solutions.

765
01:09:00,840 --> 01:09:04,480
But I do think, one, because of member parks point,

766
01:09:05,920 --> 01:09:10,240
having an economic incentive really creates,

767
01:09:10,440 --> 01:09:14,420
it opens the door for private entities to join us in this work.

768
01:09:16,040 --> 01:09:18,340
So there's a great deal we could be doing,

769
01:09:18,340 --> 01:09:21,600
and I would love to see this body lead on that.

770
01:09:21,600 --> 01:09:29,500
If I may have a follow-up chair, so I know you talked to everybody here in conversation with all all the major stakeholders

771
01:09:30,600 --> 01:09:39,240
Is there any way we could engage say the sheriff's department the health department states attorney the corner in doing a group program to promote this?

772
01:09:39,340 --> 01:09:43,540
I mean we are promoting like use of solar panels through the environment committee.

773
01:09:43,540 --> 01:09:50,400
I know that correct me if I'm wrong Mark Milax, someone is widely available for opioid overdoses.

774
01:09:50,740 --> 01:09:52,920
Why not gun locks? Why not gun saves?

775
01:09:54,000 --> 01:09:59,120
So it's more of a hypothetical, but I'm suggesting it and asking you at the same time.

776
01:09:59,920 --> 01:10:05,100
Well, whenever I hear a hypothetical, I interpret that as a challenge to get it done.

777
01:10:05,500 --> 01:10:11,140
So I stand here ready to work with anyone, executive director Fester, who happens to be in the room.

778
01:10:11,140 --> 01:10:18,500
And any other leader in Lake County or community activists who would like to bring that idea to fruition.

779
01:10:19,160 --> 01:10:25,340
Yeah, and I'm also looking at the text for SB 1521, which is the all-life version of Ethan's law.

780
01:10:25,980 --> 01:10:31,520
It's been referred to executive committee downstate, Manchester, Florida, this, to me.

781
01:10:32,020 --> 01:10:37,880
So I think we can slip in favor of that chair and our legislative team will probably be on board with that

782
01:10:37,880 --> 01:10:53,910
push that through if we can, but locally I agree with you, I think there's a lot we could do to work with gun dealers and gun owners and our public safety officials and also the health department to promote this.

783
01:10:55,340 --> 01:11:04,780
There's no reason. I mean if you can have a safety measures on toasters and you can have self-driving Teslas that will overt you from an accident.

784
01:11:04,780 --> 01:11:06,940
and I had a friend who was in this recently,

785
01:11:06,960 --> 01:11:08,740
we could certainly do this.

786
01:11:08,920 --> 01:11:09,320
Thank you.

787
01:11:09,320 --> 01:11:11,260
Yes, it's not like we don't know how to collaborate.

788
01:11:11,520 --> 01:11:13,540
We've proved over and over again in Lake County

789
01:11:13,540 --> 01:11:16,580
that we can collaborate to solve complex problems.

790
01:11:18,280 --> 01:11:21,900
Excellent example is the cooperation between L. Coi,

791
01:11:22,020 --> 01:11:23,520
the Lake County opioid initiative

792
01:11:23,520 --> 01:11:27,200
and other leaders in the community

793
01:11:27,200 --> 01:11:29,180
and elected and otherwise.

794
01:11:29,940 --> 01:11:32,720
So it's not like we don't know how to do this.

795
01:11:32,940 --> 01:11:33,820
We have a precedent.

796
01:11:33,820 --> 01:11:39,040
let's get it done. Thank you. Thank you. And one of the things that so in looking at the King

797
01:11:39,040 --> 01:11:45,260
County's lock it up program, they have posters, they have brochures, information on the types

798
01:11:45,260 --> 01:11:52,700
of locks and where to buy them. So this is something that we could do if this body chooses to,

799
01:11:53,040 --> 01:11:59,480
we could make this, you know, a real effort, just like you say, remember WASIC with other things

800
01:11:59,480 --> 01:12:00,960
that we care deeply about.

801
01:12:00,960 --> 01:12:02,660
We care deeply about this issue,

802
01:12:03,020 --> 01:12:04,300
and we can make a difference.

803
01:12:04,660 --> 01:12:08,980
And I did see that Governor Pritzker signed into law,

804
01:12:09,600 --> 01:12:12,500
House Bill 47, 29 last year,

805
01:12:12,680 --> 01:12:14,140
it requires a Department of Public Health

806
01:12:14,140 --> 01:12:16,820
to develop an implement a two-year public awareness campaign,

807
01:12:16,840 --> 01:12:18,800
focused on safe gun storage,

808
01:12:19,140 --> 01:12:22,560
including sharing information about safe gun,

809
01:12:22,960 --> 01:12:25,780
including share, so a public awareness campaign, excuse me.

810
01:12:26,040 --> 01:12:28,720
So the resources are there.

811
01:12:28,720 --> 01:12:35,220
I would highly recommend that this is something that we consider, and I look forward to

812
01:12:35,220 --> 01:12:41,860
I think that there's a lot of interest in just looking around this room, and really appreciate

813
01:12:41,860 --> 01:12:48,300
if we could move forward on that, and I really want to echo member Parrack and Frank and others

814
01:12:49,040 --> 01:12:57,540
who who thank member Kenny Zink for her expertise and dedication to solving this gun violence problem

815
01:12:57,540 --> 01:13:05,360
really are so grateful that you're serving on this board and educating all of us and helping us educate others about this

816
01:13:05,360 --> 01:13:10,780
problem and about what we can do. So thank you and thank you for sharing these slides. These these smart slides.

817
01:13:11,200 --> 01:13:17,480
Thank you. Those comments mean more to me than you know, but I would just like to remind everyone I am not a survivor of gun violence

818
01:13:17,480 --> 01:13:27,520
and survivor advocates are the ones that lead on this issue. They must always lead and we cannot make any progress without having them at the forefront of this work.

819
01:13:28,440 --> 01:13:40,980
So I appreciate the comments, but nothing I've achieved would have been possible without survivors of gun violence, like Kristen and Mike in millions of other people across the country.

820
01:13:41,380 --> 01:13:41,800
Thank you.

821
01:13:41,940 --> 01:13:43,020
Thank you so much.

822
01:13:43,800 --> 01:13:49,800
Next we have our Lake County Health Department Executive Director Mark Fister to, oh, I'm sorry pardon me.

823
01:13:49,800 --> 01:13:51,220
Member of Elizabeth, I'm so sorry.

824
01:13:52,040 --> 01:13:52,120
Yeah.

825
01:13:58,420 --> 01:14:04,240
And to this conversation was going through emails this morning, and we did just recently receive the report.

826
01:14:04,660 --> 01:14:17,640
The 2022 report from Coroner Bannick's office, and I thought it might be just interesting for this conversation to point out that in 2022 there were 39

827
01:14:18,480 --> 01:14:26,080
homicides, shootings, where the victim was age 0 to 19 in Lake County alone.

828
01:14:27,440 --> 01:14:34,800
And of suicides, 43% were with the firearm, and nine of those were age 11 to 25.

829
01:14:35,860 --> 01:14:45,000
So there are over 3,000 counties in the country, and so just in Lake County alone, we had 9 children die from suicide,

830
01:14:45,000 --> 01:14:52,820
and 39 age 0 to 19 died in a homicide, or shot in a homicide.

831
01:14:54,540 --> 01:14:56,340
Thank you. That is pertinent.

832
01:14:57,100 --> 01:14:59,980
Thank you. Mark Fister is going to...

833
01:15:00,000 --> 01:15:05,260
I'm going to talk a little bit about hospitalizations and suicide issues relating to gun violence.

834
01:16:03,150 --> 01:16:03,790
I'm Alex.

835
01:16:07,180 --> 01:16:13,160
Thank you, Alex. And thanks, Jolanda. I know it's stressful when you're trying to fix something like that. You got it?

836
01:16:13,600 --> 01:16:17,000
All right. Thank you, everybody. Mark Fister, executive director. It's a like on the health department.

837
01:16:17,880 --> 01:16:24,080
So I think the comments that we've talked about today are really, I think one word really comes out or two words.

838
01:16:24,080 --> 01:16:30,780
common sense. I don't think anybody disagrees that having secured firearms is important.

839
01:16:31,520 --> 01:16:36,060
And I think there's also been comments about accidental fatalities which we heard

840
01:16:36,060 --> 01:16:39,860
unfortunately from the parents that we heard from today. We also heard from

841
01:16:39,860 --> 01:16:46,800
member Kinesnick just momentarily talking about, you know, the suicides that are being conducted

842
01:16:46,800 --> 01:16:51,600
by firearms. But I'm going to bring up one more other thing today is that when we talk about

843
01:16:51,600 --> 01:16:57,160
need for secure storage as we get into the violence or into aggression. So if there's a

844
01:16:57,160 --> 01:17:02,880
weapon or a firearm available, somebody is upset, they may go get that weapon or grab that weapon

845
01:17:02,880 --> 01:17:08,560
if it's not secured and then use it. And so that gets into hospitalizations. And so today,

846
01:17:08,760 --> 01:17:16,560
I just want to start with a talking about hospitalizations and where we get that data from.

847
01:18:24,810 --> 01:18:26,690
Yeah, that's a lot, so you're sharing screen.

848
01:18:27,070 --> 01:18:28,130
I think you should leave a little.

849
01:18:32,720 --> 01:18:33,740
Great, thank you.

850
01:18:33,960 --> 01:18:35,120
Thank you for doing that.

851
01:18:35,720 --> 01:18:36,820
Let's see if I can move that up.

852
01:18:36,960 --> 01:18:37,500
There we go.

853
01:18:38,820 --> 01:18:40,300
All right, so

854
01:18:45,140 --> 01:18:46,840
I just want to talk about where

855
01:18:46,840 --> 01:18:48,740
the data comes from, so I think I'll never

856
01:18:48,740 --> 01:18:50,480
can easily make sure some data with regard

857
01:18:51,200 --> 01:18:52,680
to accidental injuries.

858
01:18:53,240 --> 01:18:54,860
When we talk about hospitalizations,

859
01:18:55,020 --> 01:18:56,900
we're talking about potentially what

860
01:18:56,900 --> 01:19:00,020
the intent was how that firearm was utilized.

861
01:19:00,840 --> 01:19:02,740
And so I'm not going to go through this entire slide,

862
01:19:02,740 --> 01:19:06,800
but I want you to know that most of the data is coming from emergency departments, and

863
01:19:06,800 --> 01:19:12,060
that information is being fed into some database or into some system, and there's

864
01:19:12,060 --> 01:19:15,320
differing levels of how accurate that information is.

865
01:19:15,440 --> 01:19:20,640
If somebody goes into the emergency department, and it's going through billing, really what

866
01:19:20,640 --> 01:19:24,000
they're billing is for the chief complaint of why that person came in.

867
01:19:24,100 --> 01:19:27,420
So sometimes, the information isn't there.

868
01:19:27,420 --> 01:19:32,980
So, actually, what happens is that a hospitalization is actually labeled as accidental,

869
01:19:33,320 --> 01:19:37,420
whereas it may have been an assault. And so, I just want to demonstrate in this slide.

870
01:19:37,660 --> 01:19:41,420
So, if you look at, so we just saw the neads on the previous slide,

871
01:19:41,720 --> 01:19:46,680
is that when we look at ED treated firearm injuries by intent and data source,

872
01:19:46,940 --> 01:19:52,120
is that you can see that about 50% of those are listed as accidental,

873
01:19:52,900 --> 01:19:55,760
whereas 41% are listed as an assault.

874
01:19:55,760 --> 01:20:04,100
But when we start looking at other information that goes along with that E.D. visits, is that

875
01:20:04,100 --> 01:20:09,660
and they dive deeper into that information, what we do find is that a lot of hospitalizations

876
01:20:09,660 --> 01:20:12,840
are a result of assault rather than accidental.

877
01:20:13,600 --> 01:20:19,940
And so what is unknown and the undetermined, if there's undetermined intent when that person

878
01:20:19,940 --> 01:20:25,400
comes in is that it will be labeled as unintentional or accidental.

879
01:20:25,900 --> 01:20:29,380
And so that's something I just want to point out when you go through the Lake County

880
01:20:29,380 --> 01:20:35,480
data here is just as reminder back in November or September of 2022 we talked about

881
01:20:35,480 --> 01:20:36,100
fatalities.

882
01:20:36,580 --> 01:20:43,040
And what we learned from our Lake County data back then is that the majority of the firearm

883
01:20:43,040 --> 01:20:45,700
fatalities are due to suicide.

884
01:20:45,700 --> 01:20:57,800
And as you remember, who is committing suicide in Lake County tend to be white middle-aged men at that have access to firearms and again maybe unsecured firearms that they were accessing.

885
01:20:58,460 --> 01:21:15,600
But when we came to violence in the streets or where we were having individuals out using firearms is that the mortality was due to gun violence in the streets was due to

886
01:21:15,600 --> 01:21:23,440
individuals that were young men that were dying from, unfortunately, firearms violence out in the streets.

887
01:21:24,140 --> 01:21:30,220
And so when we look at firearm hospitalizations, is that I'm going to go through 2018, 2019 and 2020.

888
01:21:30,760 --> 01:21:35,080
We had 131 hospitalizations that were linked to a firearm use.

889
01:21:35,400 --> 01:21:43,120
You can see on the left side that the majority of those hospitalizations here were men if we look at sex.

890
01:21:43,120 --> 01:22:01,280
Also, if we look over here, so a little different than suicide is that hospitalizations that you see that the race is black or African-American is the highest number of individuals that are being hospitalized for firearms, and then the majority are non-Hispanic.

891
01:22:01,280 --> 01:22:08,440
So in 2018, we had 131 hospitalizations, again, thinking about the data point that I just made,

892
01:22:08,960 --> 01:22:14,240
is that some of these may not be listed as the Chief Complaint. In 2019, we actually saw a

893
01:22:14,240 --> 01:22:21,340
reduction to 68, but what is the same is that we had males. Also, again, the majority were

894
01:22:21,340 --> 01:22:27,960
Black or African American hospitalizations, and, again, non-Hispanic were the individuals that

895
01:22:27,960 --> 01:22:37,640
not being hospitalized. Then 89 in 2020. And so again, same pattern that we're seeing when

896
01:22:37,640 --> 01:22:42,880
this is true for fatalities too, male, males tend to be the ones that are dying from

897
01:22:42,880 --> 01:22:47,760
firearms, or being hospitalized from firearms. And again, the lack of African American,

898
01:22:48,220 --> 01:22:55,940
higher number than white. And same thing goes for Hispanic, fewer Hispanics.

899
01:22:56,900 --> 01:23:04,040
So we look at a map across Lake County, and this is just a point out, two different things.

900
01:23:04,220 --> 01:23:07,320
This is by these are rates per 100,000.

901
01:23:07,940 --> 01:23:12,320
So when you look at it by zip code, so this is 60,000, zero, two.

902
01:23:12,760 --> 01:23:21,940
You know, down here, Highland Park, that, and this is incidence of non-fatal firearm hospitalizations per 100,000 per zip code in 2020.

903
01:23:21,940 --> 01:23:31,000
20 and white and you can see that this is where the area that white individuals are being

904
01:23:31,000 --> 01:23:32,160
hospitalized for firearms.

905
01:23:32,880 --> 01:23:37,460
I did put this graph over here just for all of you to know is that where do most of these

906
01:23:37,460 --> 01:23:43,660
firearm emissions go and this is by per 10,000 just because the numbers are smaller is that

907
01:23:43,660 --> 01:23:50,720
the majority of individuals in Lake County are going to advocate conduct medical center as

908
01:23:50,720 --> 01:23:55,320
as well as the minority to Northwestern system.

909
01:23:55,600 --> 01:23:56,540
Why is that?

910
01:23:56,720 --> 01:23:59,500
Is because condel is our main trauma hospital.

911
01:23:59,880 --> 01:24:01,200
So when you have firearms,

912
01:24:01,380 --> 01:24:03,260
and I think all of you have talked about this a lot,

913
01:24:03,620 --> 01:24:07,420
when there's a firearm injury or a firearm to be fatality,

914
01:24:08,340 --> 01:24:10,300
is that the injuries are very serious

915
01:24:10,300 --> 01:24:13,440
and so you need a higher level trauma hospital

916
01:24:13,440 --> 01:24:15,240
to provide that care.

917
01:24:15,920 --> 01:24:18,460
But then when we switch over, another map

918
01:24:18,460 --> 01:24:26,380
just looking at the Black or African American 2020 per 100,000, what is interesting, you see a

919
01:24:26,380 --> 01:24:32,420
different geographical pattern than what we see for homicides. So as we talked about last September,

920
01:24:32,700 --> 01:24:39,540
2022, that your main corridor for homicides were happening around the North Chicago up to Zion area.

921
01:24:39,860 --> 01:24:45,780
But when it comes to hospitalizations for non-fatal firearms, you can see for African Americans Black,

922
01:24:45,780 --> 01:24:54,040
is that it's a much wider geographic area and so this is interesting compared to like we talked about

923
01:24:54,040 --> 01:25:03,380
white suicides. We're also had a greater geographical region and then also when we look at non-fatal

924
01:25:03,380 --> 01:25:11,260
firearms admissions, per 10,000 is again, advocate condel is the main site that people will go get

925
01:25:11,260 --> 01:25:13,960
hospitalized at or at Northwestern.

926
01:25:14,320 --> 01:25:20,760
And so from a data point of view, that could be a value for us in the county board is that

927
01:25:20,760 --> 01:25:27,840
how do we better capture data at the two main hospitals where our residents are going for

928
01:25:27,840 --> 01:25:28,660
hospitalization?

929
01:25:29,180 --> 01:25:30,880
How do we get more information?

930
01:25:31,420 --> 01:25:35,440
Because I think that's something that all of you ask me is, you know, and we all do because,

931
01:25:35,520 --> 01:25:40,980
you know, these are patterns that we see, but then what's the granularity on that data

932
01:25:40,980 --> 01:25:45,500
So, again, what age, what age were these individuals that were coming to the hospital?

933
01:25:45,820 --> 01:25:49,760
So, as member Kinesi and I just talked about, is that, or I should say,

934
01:25:49,760 --> 01:25:53,780
remember, Felicit just said that some of these individuals that were involved with firearms

935
01:25:53,780 --> 01:25:56,660
were between that zero to 19 areas.

936
01:25:56,900 --> 01:25:57,740
So, what are interventions?

937
01:25:58,440 --> 01:26:01,800
So, the reason why we're using this data is what interventions will work?

938
01:26:02,300 --> 01:26:07,360
And I think as Chair Hardice said, and we've talked about with King County, is that the beauty

939
01:26:07,360 --> 01:26:11,040
of you as a county board is that you have power that I don't have.

940
01:26:11,320 --> 01:26:14,460
You have the power to appropriate dollars and I don't.

941
01:26:14,960 --> 01:26:20,180
So if this is something this board wants to do and you appropriate dollars for this purpose,

942
01:26:20,860 --> 01:26:25,080
we'll be happy to help at the health department and so I'm going to turn it over to a better

943
01:26:25,080 --> 01:26:28,320
looking guy next to talk about some of the other interventions.

944
01:26:28,320 --> 01:26:36,820
But I think this is where, you know, when it comes to safe, secure, you know, safe, safe,

945
01:26:36,820 --> 01:26:43,200
secureing of firearms is that we need to think about this as a public health system.

946
01:26:44,200 --> 01:26:49,820
And so in the King County situation is that there's not only, you know, health department involved

947
01:26:49,820 --> 01:26:54,600
with that, not only is there gun dealers involved with that, but there's law enforcement

948
01:26:54,600 --> 01:26:59,520
involved with that. I mean, so should hospitals be involved with that. So when people are coming in

949
01:26:59,520 --> 01:27:04,420
there, if there was an accidental shooting, should they have the gunlock, should they have other

950
01:27:04,420 --> 01:27:09,880
things, should there be a voucher system so that that family, you know, can get something to secure

951
01:27:09,880 --> 01:27:17,020
their, their firearm. So Godspeed will be happy to be part of that coalition to move forward and

952
01:27:17,020 --> 01:27:24,380
do something very well as a public health system. And so I will turn this over to my big colleague

953
01:27:26,340 --> 01:27:28,180
Mr. Covelli, thank you.

954
01:27:28,280 --> 01:27:35,900
Thank you and before we turn it over to Chris Covelli, I just wanted to ask you, so you are familiar with what they do in King County.

955
01:27:36,500 --> 01:27:44,120
I'm just, can you just make sure that you keep us up to date when the Illinois Department of Public Health is starting to roll out these educational programs?

956
01:27:44,120 --> 01:27:51,500
And I think I'll ask member Kinesnick, you know, you're so familiar with the Gun Violence Prevention Initiative.

957
01:27:52,280 --> 01:27:57,300
Is that something that that group could help with?

958
01:28:01,660 --> 01:28:10,500
I have the final say on that, but that is what we are building out, our short term priority, of course, is getting the violence and eruptors on the street.

959
01:28:10,620 --> 01:28:13,260
I'm very happy to report since the issue has been raised.

960
01:28:13,260 --> 01:28:20,560
The program manager for Lake County peacemakers went on the job last week, which is an outstanding

961
01:28:21,480 --> 01:28:30,080
development, but the long-term goal is to build out a network of support that will facilitate this very type of collaboration.

962
01:28:31,940 --> 01:28:34,900
And, and share heart. So I do have an update on that. Actually,

963
01:28:36,060 --> 01:28:42,600
Dr. Martell from Winne Bay, what county health department and myself have actually been involved with the development of the

964
01:28:42,600 --> 01:28:48,540
different pieces, unfortunately, that we worked very hard on them, about six months ago.

965
01:28:49,160 --> 01:28:53,980
And then we were going through that and looking at, and informing them as to what those

966
01:28:53,980 --> 01:28:59,060
graphics meant to us as public health people, but they also were doing some focus groups

967
01:28:59,060 --> 01:29:06,200
on those images. Unfortunately, it got stalled. And so I don't know when I can report to you.

968
01:29:06,260 --> 01:29:10,880
Apparently they're working on it, but there are things coming forward that I have reviewed,

969
01:29:10,880 --> 01:29:38,580
Which ones are going to come out? I don't know, but there are, you know, these were images of different messages, you know, for example, you know, an individual with their hand behind their back, you know, with a background of a playground. You know, these are types of images, we're trying to invoke, but the intent really was to assure that people were thinking about firearms and making sure that they were secure, or, you know, what, what thoughts do we have about firearm prevention.

970
01:29:38,580 --> 01:29:45,820
But unfortunately, it is not moving as fast as we would like, but I do know that it is moving because I have been involved with it.

971
01:29:46,240 --> 01:29:50,460
Thank you, and I'm so pleased that they asked you to be involved in that and that you were there.

972
01:29:51,020 --> 01:29:56,820
Maybe after this, we can chitchat and you can tell me who I might call to get that moving again.

973
01:29:57,420 --> 01:29:59,160
Yes, so definitely I do.

974
01:29:59,440 --> 01:29:59,980
Illinois Department of Publicity.

975
01:30:00,000 --> 01:30:03,860
Health is working out, but I do know that Governor's office was also involved with that.

976
01:30:04,140 --> 01:30:07,160
Great. Thank you. I think I saw a hand. Number Wasik, five-member, Baltimore.

977
01:30:07,480 --> 01:30:10,580
Very quick data analysis question Mark, I know you love these.

978
01:30:11,560 --> 01:30:15,620
So I pull some numbers from the corner's department. This is from Steve Newton.

979
01:30:16,640 --> 01:30:20,940
And this is data going through last year, just last year.

980
01:30:21,640 --> 01:30:27,000
And as you said earlier, the vast majority of gun-related suicides were male.

981
01:30:27,000 --> 01:30:34,340
There were 63 of them, and more than half of them were older men, age 51 to 70.

982
01:30:35,540 --> 01:30:37,580
So any insight is the why that is?

983
01:30:38,080 --> 01:30:40,980
Yeah, I mean, you know, you've heard the term midlife crisis.

984
01:30:41,040 --> 01:30:46,020
Unfortunately, you know, this is where individuals may be going through life.

985
01:30:46,200 --> 01:30:47,360
Maybe they're partner.

986
01:30:48,080 --> 01:30:50,760
Maybe they're having issues with their family.

987
01:30:50,760 --> 01:30:58,000
And but this all goes back to just you know mental health and then make you know people don't get the care that they need

988
01:30:58,000 --> 01:31:02,740
Maybe they went bankrupt. These are different types of things that you know may

989
01:31:02,740 --> 01:31:08,220
Cause somebody to want to take their life and you know, but I think what we do know about firearm

990
01:31:08,220 --> 01:31:15,200
For sure is that if you use a firearm to commit suicide that unfortunately you're almost always successful

991
01:31:15,200 --> 01:31:18,940
And that's another issue. Thank you. Thank you.

992
01:31:18,940 --> 01:31:21,020
member Altabird followed by member Kinesnick.

993
01:31:22,240 --> 01:31:27,800
So I just had a thought, Mark, and Chair,

994
01:31:28,980 --> 01:31:31,380
that I'm wondering if this is also something

995
01:31:31,380 --> 01:31:33,480
we could work on with Lake County partners

996
01:31:35,360 --> 01:31:39,420
and disseminate posters and other marketing type

997
01:31:39,420 --> 01:31:41,980
of information for safe storage of different companies

998
01:31:41,980 --> 01:31:44,480
around Lake County, just getting that message

999
01:31:44,480 --> 01:31:46,280
out that they support safe storage.

1000
01:31:46,620 --> 01:31:48,600
We're all trying to get that message out

1001
01:31:48,600 --> 01:31:53,800
maybe there's different ways we haven't looked at before of putting me on marketing this idea

1002
01:31:53,800 --> 01:31:58,210
around the county and we should use all our different county partners to help us.

1003
01:31:58,640 --> 01:32:01,140
Definitely. Thank you.

1004
01:32:01,500 --> 01:32:02,260
Number Kinesic.

1005
01:32:04,220 --> 01:32:10,160
So I'd like to take exact director, Fisters or Marks into in response to a member,

1006
01:32:10,180 --> 01:32:18,580
Wasks question and develop it just one step further and it's also related to the

1007
01:32:18,580 --> 01:32:24,360
So, in addition to the fact that that particular demographic group, the one that member

1008
01:32:24,360 --> 01:32:30,940
washic asked about, to believe, white men between the eight middle-aged and older, they tend

1009
01:32:30,940 --> 01:32:36,120
to suffer the kind of mental health issues that Mark Fist, excuse me, second director

1010
01:32:36,120 --> 01:32:42,580
Fistor, just to describe, I'd like to share something that I've learned in my work

1011
01:32:42,580 --> 01:32:48,500
in the last few years, which is, it's important to think about why those people in that demographic

1012
01:32:48,500 --> 01:32:54,120
group are not getting the message about how important it is to secure firearms safely and

1013
01:32:54,120 --> 01:33:00,040
what increased risk they're at for death by suicide if they if there's a firearm within

1014
01:33:00,040 --> 01:33:06,060
their reach. I'd like to share a quick story by explanation about five or six years ago I was

1015
01:33:06,060 --> 01:33:11,060
working as an advocate for the passage of a gun safety bill in Illinois and the American Foundation

1016
01:33:11,060 --> 01:33:17,680
for suicide prevention which is a very well-respected organization obviously focused on preventing

1017
01:33:17,680 --> 01:33:23,220
suicide, they invited me to participate in a conference in the Chicago area. I accepted,

1018
01:33:23,400 --> 01:33:28,780
I was going to have a table, and a few weeks after I accepted, they contacted me and told

1019
01:33:28,780 --> 01:33:34,060
me that I was uninvited, and then I couldn't come. And when I did a little digging to try to

1020
01:33:34,060 --> 01:33:39,660
found out, find out why I found out that the funder of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention

1021
01:33:39,660 --> 01:33:45,600
is the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which actually spent many, many millions more dollars

1022
01:33:45,600 --> 01:33:51,560
in the NRA over the years at defeating gun safety legislation at the local state and federal levels.

1023
01:33:52,260 --> 01:33:57,920
And it's important to stop and realize the gun industry and the gun lobby, they do not want

1024
01:33:57,920 --> 01:34:05,010
that particular demographic group to understand what great risk they face. And why is that

1025
01:34:05,400 --> 01:34:07,660
because they're their target demographic?

1026
01:34:09,900 --> 01:34:13,000
So I, you know, in following up to what member

1027
01:34:13,000 --> 01:34:19,920
Waltonberg said, the gun lobby and the gun industry are actively working to prevent the spread

1028
01:34:19,920 --> 01:34:22,760
of the message, remember, Altonberg is asking for.

1029
01:34:23,460 --> 01:34:29,480
I can't think of any higher purpose for elected officials than to try to step in to get

1030
01:34:29,480 --> 01:34:34,860
the job done when somebody else is actively trying to prevent us from doing so.

1031
01:34:35,980 --> 01:34:41,000
And I think again, too, just how do we publicize this, we've talked about this for years.

1032
01:34:41,000 --> 01:34:45,860
If this is part of the mental health stigma, I mean this is telling people that they shouldn't

1033
01:34:45,860 --> 01:34:48,960
talk about mental health, they should not get care for the mental health.

1034
01:34:49,480 --> 01:34:54,740
So I will say three numbers, nine, eight, eight, you know, that's the number one thing we

1035
01:34:54,740 --> 01:34:57,960
should be publicizing is nine, eight, eight for crisis care.

1036
01:34:58,500 --> 01:34:59,360
Thank you.

1037
01:34:59,500 --> 01:35:00,720
Thank you very much.

1038
01:35:02,160 --> 01:35:05,280
And I really appreciate all this great discussion today.

1039
01:35:05,660 --> 01:35:10,120
Next we're going to hear from Lake County Sheriff Deputy Chief Chris Covelli.

1040
01:35:10,120 --> 01:35:11,940
Thank you so much for being here.

1041
01:35:12,160 --> 01:35:13,840
Thank you very much Chair Vice Chair.

1042
01:35:13,980 --> 01:35:16,340
Members, Alex, can you load my PowerPoint room?

1043
01:35:16,700 --> 01:35:17,100
I'm kidding.

1044
01:35:17,460 --> 01:35:17,540
I didn't.

1045
01:35:19,860 --> 01:35:20,820
I didn't.

1046
01:35:20,860 --> 01:35:21,300
Good.

1047
01:35:21,660 --> 01:35:22,020
Thank you.

1048
01:35:23,300 --> 01:35:25,020
From the law enforcement perspective,

1049
01:35:25,520 --> 01:35:28,280
and I know Sheriff Idleberg embraces this completely.

1050
01:35:28,660 --> 01:35:29,920
All the points brought up today.

1051
01:35:30,100 --> 01:35:32,360
I mean, our spot on when it comes to gun safety.

1052
01:35:32,460 --> 01:35:33,580
It's common sense.

1053
01:35:34,240 --> 01:35:37,280
And a responsible gun owner for all intensive purposes.

1054
01:35:38,260 --> 01:35:48,620
It's kind of crazy to think that we need to have a significant law in place to hold them accountable to keep their guns safe, but it's needed.

1055
01:35:48,840 --> 01:35:49,360
It is needed.

1056
01:35:50,780 --> 01:35:54,740
And, remember, the work you've done is really, really amazing.

1057
01:35:54,900 --> 01:35:59,060
And we're lucky to have you as a part of this board and being such a great advocate.

1058
01:35:59,840 --> 01:36:03,320
And hearing from Chris and Mike, I mean, it's unbelievably tragic what they went through.

1059
01:36:03,320 --> 01:36:09,380
we're lucky that they're advocating how they are instead of remaining silent on the issue.

1060
01:36:10,260 --> 01:36:12,140
And just a couple of things.

1061
01:36:12,240 --> 01:36:16,260
I think many good points were highlighted today from all of the speakers that we're up here.

1062
01:36:16,320 --> 01:36:17,040
Great takeaways.

1063
01:36:19,240 --> 01:36:23,780
One of the things with the law, you mentioned during your presentation, it is a law that we

1064
01:36:23,780 --> 01:36:26,160
have on the books and it's incredibly weak.

1065
01:36:26,860 --> 01:36:33,180
One of the things that it calls for is if a individual allows somebody under the age of

1066
01:36:33,180 --> 01:36:37,980
14 to take possession of a firearm, and they cause great bodily harm or death to another person.

1067
01:36:38,200 --> 01:36:40,140
It's a classy misdemeanor for the gun owner.

1068
01:36:40,400 --> 01:36:41,200
That's it.

1069
01:36:41,260 --> 01:36:41,920
I mean, that is nothing.

1070
01:36:42,780 --> 01:36:45,520
If they do it again, it's a classy misdemeanor.

1071
01:36:45,940 --> 01:36:46,780
It stays a misdemeanor.

1072
01:36:48,920 --> 01:36:55,040
So, the law we've discussed, it has much more teeth than it's a great thing.

1073
01:36:55,420 --> 01:36:58,940
It seems that it would be a very, very good thing to just compel gun owners.

1074
01:36:58,940 --> 01:37:04,100
So keep them safe, which is an old brainer, every gun owner should do that as it is.

1075
01:37:04,940 --> 01:37:07,340
As we all know, children are curious, and we heard it today.

1076
01:37:08,480 --> 01:37:12,100
They don't have mal-intent many times when they're searching around a home or they have

1077
01:37:12,100 --> 01:37:17,500
their friends over and oftentimes kids get together and they go through rooms and places

1078
01:37:17,500 --> 01:37:18,600
in houses they shouldn't.

1079
01:37:18,880 --> 01:37:23,640
And the last thing we want them is finding a gun that's insecure in a shoe box because

1080
01:37:23,640 --> 01:37:25,060
that is when tragedy happens.

1081
01:37:25,660 --> 01:37:27,420
And we do see it right here in Lake County.

1082
01:37:27,420 --> 01:37:41,020
We see it on a monthly, if not a weekly basis throughout the county, whether it be a child that has come into possession of a firearm and accidentally discharged it, accidentally shot themselves, accidentally shot somebody else or an adult.

1083
01:37:42,360 --> 01:37:55,300
And it's interesting because we've gotten away from calling car accidents, we call them crashes, because they're not accidents. There's there's always prevention and place and there's always ways they could be avoided. Always the same thing goes with safe gun ownership.

1084
01:37:56,840 --> 01:38:00,460
Any gun owner needs to keep their gun safe, plain and simple.

1085
01:38:00,840 --> 01:38:04,720
And when we go out and we talk about this, the things we discussed are, what was brought

1086
01:38:04,720 --> 01:38:05,280
up here?

1087
01:38:05,460 --> 01:38:07,320
If they're at home, keep them in a safe.

1088
01:38:08,100 --> 01:38:13,340
We saw Mike demonstrate the biometric safe, which opened in a fraction of a second, if it's

1089
01:38:13,340 --> 01:38:18,180
needed for protection or the feeling that a firearm is needed for protection in the home.

1090
01:38:18,380 --> 01:38:19,620
Nobody's trying to take that away.

1091
01:38:19,820 --> 01:38:22,920
Use a biometric safe, it can open in a fraction of a second.

1092
01:38:24,300 --> 01:38:29,760
With our laws with CCL, we really don't like to see firearms storing cars, but sometimes

1093
01:38:29,760 --> 01:38:34,780
a CCL holder has to put their firearm in a car, puts their firearm in a car because

1094
01:38:34,780 --> 01:38:38,600
they can't bring it into the space that they're going into because it's prohibited.

1095
01:38:39,320 --> 01:38:44,860
If that's the case, what we like to see is some type of locked box, locked safe inside

1096
01:38:44,860 --> 01:38:47,040
of the vehicle that's mounted to the car.

1097
01:38:47,040 --> 01:38:53,340
So it can't just be easily taken, easily ripped away, and a gun isn't just left unattended.

1098
01:38:53,680 --> 01:38:58,540
We take dozens of burglaries to auto as every year where firearms are stolen.

1099
01:38:59,020 --> 01:39:06,140
And those firearms generally end up in the hands of violent individuals that intentionally

1100
01:39:06,140 --> 01:39:10,680
shoot other people. That's where we recover a lot of firearms and most of the time they're stolen.

1101
01:39:10,680 --> 01:39:14,500
They're stolen in a burglary from a home or they're stolen in a burglary from a car.

1102
01:39:14,500 --> 01:39:16,500
So we can't emphasize that enough.

1103
01:39:16,580 --> 01:39:18,500
In home, keep it as secure as possible.

1104
01:39:19,160 --> 01:39:21,400
So if, unfortunately, the home is burglarized,

1105
01:39:21,560 --> 01:39:23,260
which obviously we don't want to see,

1106
01:39:23,720 --> 01:39:26,500
people can't come away with the firearms and use them

1107
01:39:27,100 --> 01:39:27,960
in acts of violence.

1108
01:39:28,480 --> 01:39:33,540
And it was brought up about a firearm distributor,

1109
01:39:33,760 --> 01:39:38,560
wholesaler, seller, and those places being burglarized.

1110
01:39:38,660 --> 01:39:40,360
We had one burglarized here in Lake County,

1111
01:39:40,800 --> 01:39:41,820
probably seven, eight years ago,

1112
01:39:41,820 --> 01:39:44,520
and Sheriff's Office jurisdiction,

1113
01:39:45,160 --> 01:39:46,960
we're still getting phone calls of guns

1114
01:39:46,960 --> 01:39:50,100
that are turning up in homicides from Chicago

1115
01:39:50,100 --> 01:39:52,700
to all over, so they're still out there.

1116
01:39:52,700 --> 01:39:55,620
And they have a very long lasting impact.

1117
01:39:56,480 --> 01:39:58,800
Again, another important component to this

1118
01:39:58,800 --> 01:40:02,760
is talking to kids about how dangerous firearms are.

1119
01:40:02,860 --> 01:40:03,700
They're not toys.

1120
01:40:05,040 --> 01:40:05,920
They will kill.

1121
01:40:06,820 --> 01:40:08,780
I've had those conversations with my kids

1122
01:40:08,780 --> 01:40:11,380
that they are not to ever, ever,

1123
01:40:11,380 --> 01:40:16,300
if they go to a friend's house and a friend's family member has a firearm and there's access

1124
01:40:16,300 --> 01:40:18,620
to it, which we ask those questions.

1125
01:40:19,520 --> 01:40:21,460
Are your firearms kept safe?

1126
01:40:21,760 --> 01:40:22,520
And are they secure?

1127
01:40:22,860 --> 01:40:23,500
Are they locked?

1128
01:40:23,620 --> 01:40:29,200
We want to know that because we don't want a tragedy happening with any child and no parent

1129
01:40:29,200 --> 01:40:30,720
wants that happening with their own.

1130
01:40:31,200 --> 01:40:35,540
But having those frank conversations with them about the dangers of it, that this can take

1131
01:40:35,540 --> 01:40:39,080
somebody's life and it is not a toy and it is not to be played with.

1132
01:40:40,400 --> 01:40:48,120
And we talk about the instances they're used in suicides and threats at schools or school shootings.

1133
01:40:49,760 --> 01:40:52,300
And unfortunately threats at schools, they happen.

1134
01:40:53,680 --> 01:40:56,560
And I would say on a monthly basis here in Lake County.

1135
01:40:57,700 --> 01:41:03,140
And what I can tell you, the Sheriff's Office does in response to a threat of violence at a school.

1136
01:41:03,140 --> 01:41:11,200
We take them unbelievably seriously where we send a team out to the family's home and we try to work with that family

1137
01:41:11,200 --> 01:41:17,220
to search the home and ensure that there are no weapons that the child has come into possession on their own.

1138
01:41:17,440 --> 01:41:24,700
But also ensuring if that family has weapons can we move them out of the house or are they 100% secure where the child doesn't have access to them.

1139
01:41:25,060 --> 01:41:32,700
So this is a really real issue and it affects and impacts every single community across the country and we are not exempt from it here in Lake County

1140
01:41:32,700 --> 01:41:34,160
and we see it all too frequently.

1141
01:41:34,800 --> 01:41:38,860
And I think it's important, too, to just discuss some of the red flag laws,

1142
01:41:38,860 --> 01:41:42,720
I know it's a turning right hard as done that, several times in the past.

1143
01:41:44,100 --> 01:41:49,240
But those are a really strong catalyst for law enforcement to be able and go

1144
01:41:49,240 --> 01:41:52,200
and safekeeping, take firearms out of a home,

1145
01:41:52,280 --> 01:41:56,000
was somebody that has threatened violence or could be a potential harm for themselves.

1146
01:41:56,560 --> 01:42:02,060
And it's really important, the community, not feel worried

1147
01:42:02,060 --> 01:42:06,660
about coming to court and expressing their concern that they have with somebody.

1148
01:42:07,000 --> 01:42:12,200
Let the judge an independent person evaluate the facts and if they too determine this person,

1149
01:42:12,420 --> 01:42:18,160
yeah, you know what? For the safe good of our community and for their well-being,

1150
01:42:18,400 --> 01:42:22,820
I'm going to issue this order and then law enforcement has an order to go in and take those

1151
01:42:22,820 --> 01:42:27,760
guns as safekeeping until we can figure things out. It's not trying to go out and disarm

1152
01:42:27,760 --> 01:42:31,880
members of the public. It's to keep our communities safe. I think things get blown way out of

1153
01:42:31,880 --> 01:42:37,440
proportion when they're discussed whether being the media or through social media, you know,

1154
01:42:37,580 --> 01:42:42,240
especially on social media. Red flag laws are designed here in Illinois to keep people safe and

1155
01:42:42,240 --> 01:42:46,820
the community really needs to know they're available and that they can be used. Law enforcement,

1156
01:42:46,820 --> 01:42:52,700
of course, has clear and present danger which can be used to revoke a foid card. That does something,

1157
01:42:53,080 --> 01:42:57,340
but it doesn't alleviate the entire problem. That's where the red flag laws come into place.

1158
01:42:57,980 --> 01:43:04,780
So with that, I think that everything was covered very thoroughly this morning, but if there are any questions

1159
01:43:04,780 --> 01:43:07,880
I can answer from the law enforcement perspective, I'm more than happy to.

1160
01:43:07,880 --> 01:43:10,140
Thank you, member Frank, I've been member Wasick.

1161
01:43:11,620 --> 01:43:13,640
Deputy Chief Cavale, thank you for being here today.

1162
01:43:13,760 --> 01:43:14,560
Thanks for the comments.

1163
01:43:15,060 --> 01:43:16,360
Thanks as always for your leadership.

1164
01:43:17,920 --> 01:43:23,820
A few years ago, I had to opportunity to go with an officer for municipal force on a ride along.

1165
01:43:23,820 --> 01:43:31,740
And one of the calls that I remember was a person felt threatened by someone they were living with.

1166
01:43:33,220 --> 01:43:37,780
And the officers entered the home and removed firearm like you just talked about.

1167
01:43:38,260 --> 01:43:44,380
Can you maybe speak to the safety precautions and the concerns that the deputies have to take?

1168
01:43:44,720 --> 01:43:51,960
Because we don't have a real safe storage law in the state when they are serving a warrant,

1169
01:43:51,960 --> 01:43:59,960
entering private property for an investigation or other purposes or like you said and vehicles like how how does it make their jobs

1170
01:44:01,160 --> 01:44:03,240
More dangerous on a regular basis

1171
01:44:03,240 --> 01:44:09,300
I would say that the number one worry of a police officer in any situation is the potential to be shot and killed

1172
01:44:09,300 --> 01:44:15,160
Police officers. They want to go home to their families. This is everybody does at the end of of work or their day

1173
01:44:17,340 --> 01:44:19,820
Yeah, sir. It's a risk and it's

1174
01:44:20,460 --> 01:44:23,660
When you've got an evil actor with a firearm,

1175
01:44:25,420 --> 01:44:30,160
the potential for disaster, we saw it here in Lake County this year.

1176
01:44:30,480 --> 01:44:32,320
And it's a real thing.

1177
01:44:35,230 --> 01:44:37,010
And we've seen it across the country,

1178
01:44:37,430 --> 01:44:38,950
over and over and over and over again.

1179
01:44:39,490 --> 01:44:42,770
But I think it's really hit home in Lake County for everybody

1180
01:44:42,770 --> 01:44:47,090
after living the Highland Park tragedy several months ago.

1181
01:44:47,090 --> 01:44:53,450
So with that, when we go in on these firearms refrain orders, they're extremely high-risk,

1182
01:44:53,950 --> 01:44:59,830
because you potentially have an individual that is unstable. We don't know they're true in

1183
01:45:01,660 --> 01:45:29,160
It's obviously probably not a great intent because the firearms restraining order has been issued. And we know they have firearms. So we try to work out a plan where we can safely as possible, retrieve those firearms. We try to do it in a way where try to plan where maybe the person isn't at their house when we go and we enforce the firearms restraining order. But if we have to go when they're there, we certainly take tactical precautions to do everything we can to keep our staff safe.

1184
01:45:29,160 --> 01:45:33,920
and the person safe who were going to serve the order on and get them the assistance and the help that they need.

1185
01:45:34,260 --> 01:45:36,480
I hope that answers your question. Thank you.

1186
01:45:36,980 --> 01:45:38,520
I have a member of Wasek, Father.

1187
01:45:38,620 --> 01:45:40,000
Thank you, Chair.

1188
01:45:40,360 --> 01:45:44,440
And Deputy Chief, thank you so much for coming and talking to us and your work every day.

1189
01:45:44,700 --> 01:45:45,060
It's phenomenal.

1190
01:45:47,640 --> 01:45:51,040
And I've talked this year of vital burden about this and I know how I feel about gun safety.

1191
01:45:51,040 --> 01:45:57,900
these proponent. But if you would design a programs that would incorporate different agencies

1192
01:45:57,900 --> 01:46:04,320
and us and, you know, your department in designing a gun safety program, how would you do

1193
01:46:04,320 --> 01:46:05,900
it? What would it look like?

1194
01:46:10,500 --> 01:46:15,500
That's a, that's an interesting question. I mean, collaboration is everything and I think

1195
01:46:15,500 --> 01:46:21,400
we need stakeholders from all sectors that would be impacted to be a part of it and to have

1196
01:46:21,400 --> 01:46:27,800
their buy in from from the county board to advocacy groups that are in the community to

1197
01:46:28,700 --> 01:46:34,420
elected leaders in some of these other communities to first envision what we're trying to accomplish

1198
01:46:34,420 --> 01:46:43,620
and how we're going to accomplish that but we we love partnering to solve problems. I mean and make

1199
01:46:43,620 --> 01:46:49,900
Lake Lake County and everywhere else is safe as as possible for us to all live working in

1200
01:46:51,020 --> 01:46:58,360
flight, you know, and so I think coming together is the number one primary goal. We have to

1201
01:46:58,360 --> 01:47:03,240
collaborate. We have to have stakeholders from everywhere and design a program that would work

1202
01:47:03,240 --> 01:47:08,540
and be functional and realistic. Well, thank you for that. Let's see how we can work together. I really

1203
01:47:08,540 --> 01:47:16,220
appreciate. Thank you. Member Kinesnick, five-band member, all-to-work. I want to thank you, Deputy Chief

1204
01:47:16,220 --> 01:47:22,580
Cavalee, for talking about how important it is to discuss firearm safety with children. I

1205
01:47:22,580 --> 01:47:28,320
100% agree with you. In fact, it's a court tenant of the Beesmart program, but I'd like to share

1206
01:47:28,320 --> 01:47:32,940
something else with everyone listening that I've learned in the last seven years of my work.

1207
01:47:34,240 --> 01:47:43,520
I know this to be true because I was one of the parents who talked a great deal to my children about the importance of firearms safety and what to do if they encounter a firearm.

1208
01:47:43,900 --> 01:47:46,980
And I know that that gave me a false sense of security.

1209
01:47:47,800 --> 01:47:51,500
It's not that it's not important. It is. I don't mean to contradict you in any way.

1210
01:47:52,060 --> 01:48:02,060
But I'd like to remind everyone I spent most of 2021 and 2022 sitting in meetings with legislators in Washington with Kristen.

1211
01:48:02,060 --> 01:48:07,380
I heard her tell the story she shared here today, one thing that she often said in those

1212
01:48:07,380 --> 01:48:14,100
meetings that she did not mention today is that she talked with her son, Ethan, hundreds

1213
01:48:14,100 --> 01:48:18,900
of times throughout his life about what to do if he encountered an unsecured firearm.

1214
01:48:21,190 --> 01:48:28,950
What happened was he and his friend, when the accident happened, they had already been posting

1215
01:48:28,950 --> 01:48:37,290
on social media pictures of themselves with the firearm that killed him, they had already posted

1216
01:48:37,290 --> 01:48:42,850
many times pictures on social media and they were getting a lot of positive responses from

1217
01:48:42,850 --> 01:48:49,610
their friends. And I don't want to discourage anyone for spreading the word about how important

1218
01:48:49,610 --> 01:48:54,410
it is to talk to your children about safe storage. But I want everyone to realize that that's

1219
01:48:54,410 --> 01:49:01,950
enough. And I used to think it was enough, right, until I met Kristen and heard her story. Ethan

1220
01:49:01,950 --> 01:49:11,300
was a straight-a student, just like my son. Ethan was diligent. He was on top of things. He was

1221
01:49:12,450 --> 01:49:18,870
a model child. And I would describe my own son the same way. And I did exactly what she did.

1222
01:49:19,570 --> 01:49:24,390
And when I look at her and I hear her story, I just think there but for the grace of God,

1223
01:49:26,270 --> 01:49:34,370
So please continue spreading the word, but please also help us spread the word that we also need meaningful safe storage policies in place.

1224
01:49:34,850 --> 01:49:35,470
Thank you.

1225
01:49:35,990 --> 01:49:36,530
That's it.

1226
01:49:36,530 --> 01:49:40,870
If I can just add terrific perspective and you couldn't disagree with you at all on that.

1227
01:49:41,050 --> 01:49:42,430
And you are the subject matter expert.

1228
01:49:42,550 --> 01:49:43,730
There is no doubt about it.

1229
01:49:44,030 --> 01:49:47,290
And that's just one of many pieces of the puzzle.

1230
01:49:47,770 --> 01:49:49,410
And you're spot on.

1231
01:49:50,710 --> 01:49:51,010
Thank you.

1232
01:49:51,190 --> 01:49:51,570
Member Altimer.

1233
01:49:53,150 --> 01:50:00,330
So, we had a conversation about what, you know, what are the best ways for, to do safe storage?

1234
01:50:00,750 --> 01:50:08,390
Would you say the biometric safe is better than cable gun locks and our cable gun locks effective?

1235
01:50:08,390 --> 01:50:13,110
I know some of the police departments in the area at times pass them out.

1236
01:50:13,270 --> 01:50:14,810
So, what are your thoughts on them?

1237
01:50:14,810 --> 01:50:25,530
Yep, so this is a cable gunlock and as member Keniznik said it's probably it's better than nothing and it is it's better than nothing. It truly is this is the bare minimum

1238
01:50:27,030 --> 01:50:35,730
Responsible gun owner to keep their weapon safe should use. It's very simple to use. It's got a key that comes with it and at locks. So obviously

1239
01:50:35,730 --> 01:50:44,250
Key kept somewhere other than in the key lock when it's securing a firearm biometric is more I would say for an

1240
01:50:44,250 --> 01:50:50,630
individual that's using a firearm for safe, they feel they need it to keep themselves safe

1241
01:50:50,630 --> 01:50:54,910
for their home safe and they need quick access to it. It's generally used to store

1242
01:50:55,330 --> 01:51:04,210
a firearm for quick accessibility. There are biometric safe, which has several guns,

1243
01:51:05,970 --> 01:51:12,290
a large safe that's mounted to a specific place in a home that can store firearms is the most

1244
01:51:12,290 --> 01:51:18,010
your way. Keeping ammunition in a separate location from where the firearms are stored in a locked

1245
01:51:18,010 --> 01:51:23,450
separate location. So you've got firearms in one location locked ammunition in another location

1246
01:51:23,450 --> 01:51:25,850
they're locked. That's the best practice.

1247
01:51:28,410 --> 01:51:31,190
These are better than nothing and these are five dollars,

1248
01:51:31,670 --> 01:51:37,190
five bucks it costs. In a lot of gun dealers will give these for free when somebody purchases

1249
01:51:37,190 --> 01:51:41,910
of the firearm or it comes from the manufacturer, police department, a lot of police departments

1250
01:51:41,910 --> 01:51:46,350
have these that they will give for free. The sheriff's office does have a supply of them

1251
01:51:46,350 --> 01:51:52,250
and I know a lot of municipalities do as well. But again, this can be overcome very easy with the

1252
01:51:52,250 --> 01:51:56,790
bull cutter. There's no doubt about that. This is better than nothing though. Is there anything

1253
01:51:56,790 --> 01:52:04,150
else between the cable gun lock and the biometrics or other ways of securing? There's multiple

1254
01:52:04,150 --> 01:52:11,590
of different safe, but a safe that's bolted to an area in a residence or wherever these firearms

1255
01:52:11,590 --> 01:52:18,950
are going to be stored is best practice and really having almost like a dual authentication

1256
01:52:18,950 --> 01:52:23,230
biometric and a key. I mean, that keeps it even safer. Just just think of what we do to

1257
01:52:23,230 --> 01:52:27,570
keep ourselves safe on the internet. I mean, we certainly should be able to do the same thing

1258
01:52:27,570 --> 01:52:31,410
to keep our firearms out of the hands of our children and those that shouldn't have them.

1259
01:52:32,030 --> 01:52:33,830
Okay, thank you.

1260
01:52:33,890 --> 01:52:34,350
Thank you.

1261
01:52:34,430 --> 01:52:35,230
Member Kimisnik.

1262
01:52:37,450 --> 01:52:42,850
In the last few years, I've often been at Fire and Safety Events, Public Community Events,

1263
01:52:42,910 --> 01:52:47,830
and often there are law enforcement agencies, usually from the local municipality who are participating.

1264
01:52:48,490 --> 01:52:53,930
And they often have many cable gun locks just to give away for free.

1265
01:52:54,470 --> 01:52:57,170
Does the Lake County Sheriff's Office follow that?

1266
01:52:57,290 --> 01:52:57,690
We do.

1267
01:52:57,990 --> 01:52:59,470
Yes, we do in many municipalities.

1268
01:52:59,470 --> 01:53:03,030
Okay, then Chief Deputy,

1269
01:53:03,330 --> 01:53:05,210
Kavelle, I would like to ask you a favor.

1270
01:53:05,750 --> 01:53:09,230
Will you please go look at those cable locks

1271
01:53:09,230 --> 01:53:10,970
that the Sheriff's Office gives away?

1272
01:53:11,250 --> 01:53:14,230
And please look and see who is providing those cable locks.

1273
01:53:14,510 --> 01:53:16,610
If it is the National Shooting Sports Foundation,

1274
01:53:17,250 --> 01:53:18,610
then I would like to know,

1275
01:53:18,690 --> 01:53:22,130
because what people don't understand

1276
01:53:22,130 --> 01:53:25,170
is that that's really a bit of a trojan horse

1277
01:53:25,170 --> 01:53:27,490
on the part of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

1278
01:53:27,490 --> 01:53:33,990
They earn credibility just like they did with the American Foundation for suicide prevention through founding it through funding it

1279
01:53:33,990 --> 01:53:39,250
They earn credibility by partnering with law enforcement agencies to give away these cable locks

1280
01:53:39,250 --> 01:53:47,890
Please notice they're not giving away saves. They're giving away cable locks because they know that they the cable locks can be much more easily

1281
01:53:49,010 --> 01:53:55,490
Broken defeated and the thing to always keep in mind is the National Shooting Sports Foundation is the gun lobby

1282
01:53:55,490 --> 01:53:59,430
and they want gun violence to be high because that allows them to sell more guns.

1283
01:53:59,850 --> 01:54:03,050
So if you could please let me know whether or not the National Shooting Sports Foundation

1284
01:54:03,050 --> 01:54:06,950
is providing you with those free gun locks. I would appreciate it.

1285
01:54:06,950 --> 01:54:07,670
I will, you know, today.

1286
01:54:07,890 --> 01:54:09,030
Thank you. You're welcome.

1287
01:54:09,470 --> 01:54:10,190
Member Felizic.

1288
01:54:11,290 --> 01:54:14,010
Thank you. And I appreciate this conversation very much.

1289
01:54:14,730 --> 01:54:19,590
It's just fascinating. And I'm to your point,

1290
01:54:19,850 --> 01:54:25,350
I'm Member Kanishnik, which is a wonderful one as I'm hearing this. And I did not know a lot

1291
01:54:25,350 --> 01:54:29,670
this information, I'm thinking, well, this just sounds like a false sense of security and

1292
01:54:29,670 --> 01:54:34,970
a chosen horse, like you say. So I'd be curious to know too, and whether or not maybe,

1293
01:54:36,350 --> 01:54:42,310
because I appreciate so much of what you've said, Deputy Chief, and so I wonder if the

1294
01:54:42,310 --> 01:54:47,990
the Sheriff's Office would consider, as you think more about this part of Gun Safety,

1295
01:54:50,990 --> 01:55:06,210
Strengthening that part of your policies to the extent that there is a policy, you know, if you're giving away gun locks, perhaps it's accompanied with more information or education that this is, this is to get you started, but this is not going to be enough.

1296
01:55:06,610 --> 01:55:11,130
Here's what you need to do to really secure your gun.

1297
01:55:11,990 --> 01:55:16,490
I think that that is a great idea and certainly we have people that reach out with questions

1298
01:55:16,490 --> 01:55:18,570
throughout the years and they are directed to a detective.

1299
01:55:19,350 --> 01:55:23,710
I'm not saying every day, but from time to time members of the community that are wondering

1300
01:55:23,710 --> 01:55:26,490
about gun safety and keeping their firearm secure.

1301
01:55:27,250 --> 01:55:31,890
And we certainly provide them with as much information as we can, but would not hesitate

1302
01:55:31,890 --> 01:55:37,230
to have a one sheet or a fact sheet to go along with handing out something that is the bare

1303
01:55:37,230 --> 01:55:37,510
minimum.

1304
01:55:40,020 --> 01:55:43,200
member of the, I'm part of my member, I can use it.

1305
01:55:43,740 --> 01:55:46,440
Pretty sure this will be my last question, Steve.

1306
01:55:47,980 --> 01:55:50,880
I've made some pretty bold claims about the national shooting

1307
01:55:50,880 --> 01:55:54,680
sports foundation and I am someone who takes very seriously

1308
01:55:54,680 --> 01:55:58,060
that you should be responsible as responsible as you can

1309
01:55:58,060 --> 01:56:01,080
possibly be when making public comments and statements.

1310
01:56:01,640 --> 01:56:04,280
So I'd just like to share something to back up,

1311
01:56:04,560 --> 01:56:06,900
provide evidence for the statements I've been making about the

1312
01:56:06,900 --> 01:56:10,620
National Student Sports Foundation in particular in the gun lobby in general.

1313
01:56:12,420 --> 01:56:18,720
I, in my previous role, with Newton Action Alliance, served in that role from 2020 to 2022.

1314
01:56:18,940 --> 01:56:29,820
In addition to Ethan's law, one of the issues that I worked on, for most of that time, was getting support for President Biden's original nominee to lead the Bureau of Alcohol to back on firearms.

1315
01:56:29,820 --> 01:56:37,440
That was a man named David Chipman, a 25-year veteran of the ATF, responded to some of the highest

1316
01:56:37,440 --> 01:56:42,560
profile tragedies in the last 20 years in America, terrorist attacks, and more.

1317
01:56:43,640 --> 01:56:49,860
And he was a senior advisor at Giffords for the last seven years before he was nominated

1318
01:56:49,860 --> 01:56:51,320
to leave the ATF.

1319
01:56:53,200 --> 01:56:59,460
He was serious and he had a step-by-step plan for reducing the flow of the legally trafficked

1320
01:56:59,460 --> 01:57:02,480
firearms in the underserved communities across this country.

1321
01:57:03,240 --> 01:57:07,400
And it was, I was one of the people working hard to get all of the votes needed in the

1322
01:57:07,400 --> 01:57:08,640
Senate for his confirmation.

1323
01:57:09,400 --> 01:57:16,480
We fell short by one vote, Senator Angus King, an independent from Maine, voted against his

1324
01:57:16,480 --> 01:57:23,580
nomination, and it is a fact that the National Shooting Sports Foundation contributed $20 million

1325
01:57:23,580 --> 01:57:26,100
in order to defeat his nomination.

1326
01:57:27,140 --> 01:57:30,620
So I just wanted to share that by a way of evidence.

1327
01:57:31,840 --> 01:57:34,400
What I am saying here today is not hyperbole.

1328
01:57:35,300 --> 01:57:41,680
And that is why I take so seriously the question of whether or not my local sheriff's office

1329
01:57:41,680 --> 01:57:46,920
is partnering with the NSSF. Whether you realize it or not, law enforcement officers across

1330
01:57:46,920 --> 01:57:52,320
the country, the gun violence prevention movement is growing, getting stronger, severe,

1331
01:57:53,040 --> 01:57:58,760
more well educated by the day by the hour I would say in this country. And when law enforcement

1332
01:57:58,760 --> 01:58:07,200
or any other organization, including the federal department of veterans affairs, when they

1333
01:58:07,200 --> 01:58:09,320
partner with the NSSF, you lose credibility.

1334
01:58:10,260 --> 01:58:12,340
So thank you for getting back to me with that information.

1335
01:58:12,700 --> 01:58:14,200
Thank you all for indulging me.

1336
01:58:14,340 --> 01:58:17,300
I know I have taken up most of the air in this room today

1337
01:58:17,300 --> 01:58:19,120
and I appreciate it.

1338
01:58:19,780 --> 01:58:23,140
Just to close it out, if I may, just so crystal clear,

1339
01:58:23,240 --> 01:58:27,220
we are 100% on board and gun violence prevention

1340
01:58:27,220 --> 01:58:28,200
and gun safety.

1341
01:58:28,720 --> 01:58:29,200
100%.

1342
01:58:29,200 --> 01:58:30,760
I mean, there's no wiggle room.

1343
01:58:30,800 --> 01:58:32,880
I mean, it's been a lie, I know.

1344
01:58:33,460 --> 01:58:33,940
Yeah.

1345
01:58:34,100 --> 01:58:34,600
Thank you.

1346
01:58:34,660 --> 01:58:36,860
Thank you so much, Deputy Chief, for being here.

1347
01:58:37,600 --> 01:58:42,580
And remember, Denise, I'm glad that you are speaking about this.

1348
01:58:42,580 --> 01:58:45,180
And I am thrilled that you are on this board.

1349
01:58:45,500 --> 01:58:48,000
And when you say we're getting more educated,

1350
01:58:48,000 --> 01:58:51,280
or the advocates are getting more educated by the hour,

1351
01:58:51,740 --> 01:58:54,040
that's due to you and your work.

1352
01:58:54,260 --> 01:58:56,160
And you're helping all of us.

1353
01:58:56,480 --> 01:58:59,340
And just wanted to say, I personally am very grateful.

1354
01:58:59,380 --> 01:59:00,860
I know others are, as well.

1355
01:59:00,860 --> 01:59:01,740
And we thank you, Craig.

1356
01:59:02,660 --> 01:59:05,420
Well, and I really appreciate our board members

1357
01:59:05,420 --> 01:59:07,740
who took the time to be here.

1358
01:59:07,840 --> 01:59:14,760
We've got a reminder, Jennifer Clark and Chris Acasvin are online and in the room is our

1359
01:59:14,760 --> 01:59:20,760
Altenberg Vice Chair, Cunningham, member Kyle, member Frank, member Park, member Wassick,

1360
01:59:21,000 --> 01:59:24,780
member Volitzik, member Kenysnick, and member Robert.

1361
01:59:25,140 --> 01:59:32,880
So it's a shame that our other board members were unable or did not choose to be here today because

1362
01:59:32,880 --> 01:59:35,740
this is an important and extremely important topic

1363
01:59:35,740 --> 01:59:37,640
that touches everybody's lives.

1364
01:59:38,520 --> 01:59:39,760
I did just want to kind of close

1365
01:59:39,760 --> 01:59:42,040
and what I heard, please, let me know

1366
01:59:42,040 --> 01:59:43,600
if there's something that I missed here.

1367
01:59:44,360 --> 01:59:47,480
But I think what we heard or maybe have consensus

1368
01:59:47,480 --> 01:59:51,940
on moving forward is we are all in on public education.

1369
01:59:52,780 --> 01:59:55,160
We are Mark and I are going to talk afterwards.

1370
01:59:55,720 --> 01:59:59,440
I want to find out more about from IDPH, where we are in,

1371
02:00:00,000 --> 02:00:06,600
And the work that they are doing and how we can get some things that are specific to Illinois.

1372
02:00:07,620 --> 02:00:15,100
But I also see we can reach out to King County and adjust the brochure that they have, learn more about the work that they're doing.

1373
02:00:15,500 --> 02:00:17,360
So, and say we're all in in a public education.

1374
02:00:18,480 --> 02:00:26,880
I think we are all set. We can slip in support if we have not done so already because of our legislative agenda and how broadly it is written.

1375
02:00:26,880 --> 02:00:36,880
We have no quams in slipping and support of Senate Bill was a 1521, 1521, so we can do that today.

1376
02:00:37,820 --> 02:00:41,020
And then we need to think about two member wasics point two.

1377
02:00:41,320 --> 02:00:44,560
How can we collaborate? How can we make a difference?

1378
02:00:45,500 --> 02:00:48,780
How can we support the work of the gun violence prevention initiative?

1379
02:00:48,780 --> 02:00:55,820
How do we support the work that Dr. Carter is doing with the schools as board members, as residents,

1380
02:00:57,060 --> 02:00:58,840
as family members, right?

1381
02:00:59,280 --> 02:01:01,340
And then I would also just throw out there,

1382
02:01:01,340 --> 02:01:03,180
you know, also thinking about the language you use,

1383
02:01:03,320 --> 02:01:04,920
I was really struck by Deputy Chief saying,

1384
02:01:04,980 --> 02:01:06,580
you know, we don't call him car accidents anymore,

1385
02:01:06,820 --> 02:01:09,720
they're car crashes because things could have been done.

1386
02:01:10,140 --> 02:01:13,780
And I think about the word or the phrase, mass shooting.

1387
02:01:14,320 --> 02:01:17,400
You know, mass shooting doesn't speak to what happens, right?

1388
02:01:17,440 --> 02:01:22,380
These are mass murders with, you know, massive casualties.

1389
02:01:23,020 --> 02:01:25,160
You know, thinking about the words that we use

1390
02:01:25,160 --> 02:01:31,400
really matters. So, again, I want to say thank you to everybody for being here, especially thanks

1391
02:01:31,400 --> 02:01:36,740
to member Kenny Zink for your passion and dedication. Thanks so much to member Altonburg and

1392
02:01:36,740 --> 02:01:42,120
member Frank for doing your hard work and getting this together. Really appreciated anything else.

1393
02:01:43,440 --> 02:01:47,420
And we want to say in this topic before we close, thank you, member Roberts.

1394
02:01:48,700 --> 02:01:56,900
Thank you. There was so much I learned today. I had no idea. And I just want to thank you and

1395
02:01:56,900 --> 02:02:04,640
thank you for being on this board. And I think we were leaders in this county and Deputy Chief

1396
02:02:04,640 --> 02:02:12,280
I quoted him as partners to solve problems. That is who we are. So let's work together and

1397
02:02:12,280 --> 02:02:18,040
get this done. Thanks. Thank you. I have nothing further

1398
02:02:18,040 --> 02:02:22,720
to have a county administrators report. No man. Okay? Any members remarks on anything

1399
02:02:22,720 --> 02:02:27,140
not on the agenda today? All right. Well, thank you so much. Our next meeting is scheduled

1400
02:02:27,140 --> 02:02:32,380
for April 7th, 2023. If you're interested in participating in our continued

1401
02:02:32,380 --> 02:02:37,300
committee, the whole meetings about gun violence, please do let me know and we will discuss

1402
02:02:37,300 --> 02:02:40,560
what April will bring. Okay, thanks so much. We are adjourned.