Illinois’ Safe Gun Storage Act is now in effect. Warren County Sheriff Martin Edwards explains the law is focused on preventing unauthorized access to firearms:
“As of July 1st, if you have a firearm in your home and if an individual under the age of 18 and/or someone is in the home with diminished mental capacities, the firearm must be locked up. That is a state law now. If there were to be some type of an accident, there is some potential that could be a chargeable offense. It is just a good idea to keep your firearms locked up and secured anyway, particularly when you are gone,” states Sheriff Edwards.
“Along those lines, get all your serial numbers wrote down and put somewhere safely so if you do experience a burglary and somebody steals them, we can get those inputted into the system in case they turn up,” Sheriff Edwards adds.
According to the Safe Gun Storage Act, the Illinois General Assembly stated violating this law could result in civil fines up to $10,000.
