Kane County sheriff and state legislators clash in letters over state assault weapons ban
Five Democratic Kane County lawmakers responded to Kane County Sheriff Ron Hain’s recent criticism over the state’s new assault weapons ban after he spoke out during a Kane County Board committee meeting and said he was embarrassed to be a Democrat.
On Wednesday, Hain told the Kane County Board Legislative Committee that state legislators in the county haven’t listened to law enforcement nor given them a seat at the table to discuss the new law that bans certain firearms.
Hain also spoke about the SAFE-T Act, designed to end cash bail in Illinois, which is now stalled awaiting a ruling on the measure from the Illinois Supreme Court.
“Our legislators here in Kane County, especially with the same party in their name, do not listen to law enforcement,” Hain said. “They create legislation based on what they read on social media and knee-jerk reactions in the news. I’m tired of having to clean up the pieces and trying to figure this out afterward.”
State Sens. Cristina Castro and Karina Villa and state Reps. Anna Moeller, Martha Hirschauer and Barbara Hernandez, all Democrats, penned a letter Friday to “the people of Kane County,” stating they too are embarrassed Hain is a Democrat and defended the assault weapons ban.
“If the sheriff had cared to pay attention or check his facts he would have seen that several representatives from law enforcement spoke on the record in support of the bill at a hearing on Dec. 20, 2022,” the letter reads. “But, much to the detriment of the people of Kane County, Sheriff Hain doesn’t care about facts, he prefers to spread misinformation and stoke the flames of controversy.”
Friday evening, Hain responded to lawmakers with his own letter, again saying that legislators did not take the advice of many law enforcement leaders before passing the assault weapons ban.
He said of the five who wrote the letter from legislators, “I heard from one regarding the assault ban legislation, to which I replied with qualified and experienced feedback from several law enforcement officers with over 100 years of police and law experience, none of which was taken into consideration.”
Hain said legislation for both the assault weapons ban and SAFE-T act missed the mark.
“Mental health is the core issue of mass shootings. Every single one,” Hain said to the Kane County Board committee a few days ago. “You can ban every single piece of equipment out there with a trigger on it. Mental health is going to be the issue that creates mass killings. Let’s start doing the right thing because it’s not being done right now.”
The state legislators said the assault weapons ban was publicly discussed at three hearings in December. They wrote in their letter that gun violence is a public health epidemic and needs a multifaceted approach to addressing it, including mental health support as well as job creation and addressing inequalities in public schools.
“But for us to continue to pretend that the mass proliferation of guns isn’t the number one factor contributing to gun violence is to deny both basic common sense and empirical research in a way that is either embarrassingly naive or maliciously disingenuous,” lawmakers wrote.
The letter ended with a call to Hain to “step back from public disputes,” stating “our doors are always open for collaboration” and “he knows where to find us.”
Hain wrote in his letter that “communication is exactly my goal and I would welcome collaboration from any of them as I have desperately pressed for that need during my two terms. Unfortunately, it has come to the point where I need to raise public awareness of these issues.”
