The warning signs of looming violence are too often crystal clear: threats, firearms in the house, an outcry to police. Lives can be saved and bloodshed avoided when our justice system can react swiftly to such red flags. Too often, our existing laws don’t allow for that.
Over the last year, we have seen a list of devastating and preventable homicides grow. In early July, Jose Alvarez was charged with fatally shooting his wife Karina Gonzalez and teenage daughter and wounding his teenage son in Little Village.
Less than two weeks later, Jailene Flores was shot and killed at a south suburban grocery store. A man accused of previously stalking her was charged in the murder.
Then in October, Adrianna Lopez was shot and killed near her Garfield Ridge home. An Illinois state trooper tried to take the suspect into custody in Springfield, but he allegedly shot the trooper and now faces charges in that case.
The year came to a close with another tragedy, when Maria Roque was shot and killed outside of her South Austin home. A former boyfriend is charged in the killing.
The victims in each of these cases sent out warning signs to our criminal justice system. They worked to obtain civil orders of protection against those now accused of killing them. Such orders create a clear chance for our justice system to intervene, but our existing laws are ineffective at trying to stop violent people from doing violent things.
Orders of protection, also called restraining orders, suffer from one obvious shortcoming: They do not allow police to search for and seize firearms; instead, they usually rely on the subject to voluntarily turn them in to police or give them to someone else.
That is why I strongly support Karina’s Bill, legislation drafted by domestic violence advocates that provides police with real authority to remove firearms from the subject of an order of protection.
Named after Karina Gonzalez, the legislation would require a judge, when issuing an order of protection, to also issue a search-and-seizure warrant for firearms if there is probable cause the respondent has access to firearms and poses an immediate and present danger of causing injury to the petitioner or a child.
Today, the law only allows police to ask the individual to voluntarily report how many firearms he or she has and turn them over to the police or someone else. So, even when a survivor can prove to a judge they are in danger and the perpetrator has firearms, right now the law leaves it up to that perpetrator to decide to turn in the guns. This is ludicrous!
With the passing of Karina’s Bill, though, survivors’ efforts to protect themselves and their children can actually result in the removal of firearms from the hands of abusers. This is common sense.
There is no doubt this law will save lives, and police officers will be glad to be allowed to do something more meaningful to protect survivors in these situations, instead of continually being handcuffed by laws that tiptoe around dangerous people with murderous intent.
Domestic violence survivors should not be asked to rely on a system to protect them that consistently falls short. We must take concrete steps to save lives: Allow law enforcement to remove firearms from clearly dangerous people. The Illinois General Assembly should heed the red flags survivors are raising.
Thomas J. Dart serves as Cook County sheriff.
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