U.S. Newswire
6/30/03

Gov. Blagovich Urged to Sign Privacy Bill Into Law

To: State Desk

Contact: Richard Pearson of the Illinois State Rifle Association, 815-635-3198, http://www.isra.org

CHICAGO, June 30 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The following was released today by the Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA):

The ISRA is urging Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich to sign HB0515 into law. The bill, which passed both chambers of the General Assembly by wide margins, would protect the privacy of thousands of law-abiding Illinois hunters and sportsmen.

If signed into law, HB0515 would require law enforcement agencies to transmit a disclosure notice to persons whose firearms had been traced, and would further require that any and all records of the trace action be destroyed.

HB0515 would only apply to cases that have been closed and would not at all affect any open criminal investigations. A similar law currently exists that requires law enforcement agencies to inform citizens if their phones have been tapped in cases where no criminal charges have been filed.

"We're asking that Governor Blagojevich take a positive step to protect the privacy of law-abiding citizens," commented ISRA president Richard Pearson. "As it stands, there are literally thousands of law-abiding hunters and sportsmen in the state who have, without their knowledge, been subject to investigation by police departments - yet no charges were ever filed. It is not unreasonable to suggest that they have a right to know that they were the subject of a police investigation. They also have the right to rest assured that their sensitive personal information does not fall into the wrong hands."

"I'm confident that the governor will see the same wisdom in HB0515 that the General Assembly did when they passed the bill so overwhelmingly," continued Pearson. "The hunters and sportsmen of the state are asking for nothing more than a little common courtesy and respect."

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For more than a century, the Illinois State Rifle Association has represented the interests of over 1.5 million law-abiding Illinois firearm owners.

Anybody know if the bitch signed it, vetoed, or put it on the back burner?