Nobody wants to aid and abet violent street gangs. Except the people who want to aid and abet street gangs. These are the people who are, at least in theory, in the cross-hairs of Illinois bill HB6123. The legislation would make it a Class 1 felony (five years minimum jail term, fifteen years maximum) to “knowingly sell or give a firearm to a person who is a street gang member.” Like many (any?) attempts to restrict gun sales, the proposed law has attracted the ire of pragmatic gun rights’ campaigners. The Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA), for example, believes that HB6123 would discourage law-abiding African-American citizens from exercising their Second Amendment rights by “scaring off” gun dealers and private sellers. Central to the argument: what exactly is a street gang member? The bill uses the definition in Section 10 of the Illinois Streetgang Terrorism Omnibus Prevention Act. Here’s that text:
