Governor Pat Quinn signed a law yesterday, which requires a conviction of one year in prison for any adult caught illegally carrying a loaded gun. Quinn signed the law at Nat King Cole Park, which is near the site where Thomas Wortham, a Chicago police officer, was killed by gunfire in May.
This new law intends to eliminate the possibility that offenders are able to get probation for carrying a loaded gun illegally, and seeks to ensure the imprisonment of someone committing this offense.
In addition to being signed in close proximity to where a police officer was killed earlier this year, the law also comes after yet another Chicago police officer death. Michael Bailey was gunned down just this past Sunday outside his Park Manor home.
“We’ve had a heartbreaking summer,” said Governor Quinn. “We cannot let violence, the epidemic of violence…overcome us. I think yesterday’s events woke us all up that we must double our efforts to make sure that we, law abiding citizens, prevail.”
Mayor Richard Daley supported the law and was present at its signing yesterday. Thomas Wortham’s father was also present at the signing. Wortham emphasized the importance of the law and of gun control.
“We cannot continue to raise a generation of kids who grow up and think they can kill people at will. What we need is…to keep them from going this route…To keep from creating more monsters than we have on the street already.”
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