North Chicago Mayor Leon Rockingham Jr. and Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering shared the challenges their communities face with gun violence with members of the Lake County Board during its Committee of the Whole meeting Friday morning.
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Both mayors expressed support for a County Board resolution adding an assault weapons ban to its legislative advocacy agenda and for the county’s new Gun Violence Prevention Initiative.
That program will employ “violence interrupters” to attempt to de-escalate and prevent instances of gun violence in North Chicago, Waukegan and Zion in a partnership with Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office and a to-be-named community-based organization.
Rockingham called on community members to go all-in to stop gun violence during a three-hour town hall in North Chicago Thursday night, and on Friday morning, he took the same message to an audience of county politicians.
” (Gun violence) is not just in North Chicago, but it’s throughout Lake County,” Rockingham said. “And let me tell you this, it’s growing.”
The County Board was the latest stop for Rotering, who has been pressing national legislators to enact a federal assault weapons ban after a gunman killed seven people at Highland Park’s Fourth of July parade a little more than a month ago.
“My husband stepped around bodies to come and find me in the parade,” Rotering recalled. “He said he looked at people and they were dead. There was no question about the folks who died. Their wounds were so awful and so immediate, there was no hope for them.”
Rotering said she was sad to be consistently describing the graphic horror the befell parade attendees, but believes it is crucial in order to change people’s minds.
“Let’s be honest, people read about these mass shootings all the time,” Rotering said. “And they think it’s horrible for that community. But when you see the physical impact … These weapons need to be reserved for military use only.”
The Lake County Board is set to vote on the resolution to advocate for a statewide and nationwide assault weapons ban, a safe firearm storage law and changes to the FOID card approval process at Tuesday’s full board meeting.
Proposed by Paul Frank and Paras Parekh, who both live in Highland Park and were at the July Fourth parade, the resolution advanced through the Legislative Committee by a 3-2 vote on Tuesday.
The resolution appears to have the votes to pass the Democrat-controlled board, and looks set to have some bipartisan support.
Republican Linda Pedersen, who represents District 1 which covers Antioch, Old Mill Creek and parts of Fox Lake and Lake Villa, said she supports the resolution.
“We sit (at home) and say how terrible it is, how could this happen and where are they getting their hands on these guns?” Pedersen said. “And then we go on with our lives. That’s wrong.”
Ann Maine, a longtime Republican board member, nodded her head as Pedersen spoke.
Pedersen called the resolution a “small part” in actions to combat gun violence.
“I really would like to see our whole county board sign on and vote for this resolution,” she said. “It needs to be done. These assault weapons, I don’t even know why they’re allowed to be in the hands of anyone. They’re not necessary.”
Rockingham said that gun violence in Lake County is beginning to affect the desire of businesses to operate in the area.
“We are starting to get calls from our businesses that are concerned about the gun violence,” Rockingham said. “They’re talking about leaving. If Lake County wants to attract business and continue to bring business in, let me tell you, we’ve got to focus on what we are going to do to curb the guns out there. There are major companies out there saying, ‘We want to leave because we don’t feel safe in (Lake) County.'”
North Chicago uses automatic license plate readers, Rockingham said, and has invested significantly in cameras near “hot spots” of violence.
Dick Barr, a Republican who represents District 3 which includes Lindenhurst and parts of Round Lake Beach, asked Rockingham about the breakdown of handguns compared to rifles seized by police and whether most of the weapons seized were taken from someone possessing a FOID card.
Rockingham replied that “it’s mostly handguns that are being pulled off” by North Chicago police and that they are mostly not legally owned firearms.
When Barr further inquired whether Rockingham believed the state should enact a gun ban, and whether he thought it would help eliminate gun violence in North Chicago, Rockingham replied, “You’re going to put me on my soapbox.”
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“Guns are weapons to kill,” Rockingham said. “My thing is, especially assault weapons, they should have a ban on assault weapons throughout our country. … They are used in military operations and we are not in a war zone in our country.”
Rockingham then explained the security measures his office has taken ahead of Saturday’s annual North Chicago Community Days, which will run on Friday through Sunday despite concerns of violence.
Beginning at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Rockingham said people aged 18 and under are barred from being at the event without being also accompanied by an adult.
“I had to put another 25% of whatever we received in funds to sponsor (the event) for security now,” Rockingham said. “It’s gated. Anyone is free to come in, but you have to be wanded and (checked) to come into our community day. You don’t have that in Libertyville, you don’t have that in Gurnee, you don’t have that in Lake Forest. But because of what is going on in our community, I had to do that because I want to continue to have activities in my town.”
The Committee of the Whole, sometimes used for members to catch up on topics they might have missed in committee or to further discuss upcoming votes, last met in April.
Lake County Board Chair Sandy Hart said she plans to use upcoming Committee of the Whole meetings to continue the gun violence discussion and response next month on Sept. 9.
Chris Patterson, assistant secretary of firearm violence prevention for the Illinois Department of Human Services, and Gun Violence Prevention Initiative chair Sara Knizhnik, also spoke about how their respective groups are allocating resources toward stopping gun violence.
“Lake County is at the forefront of the movement to reduce gun violence and address criminal justice reform in America,” Knizhnik said. “We are only the third prosecutor’s office to house this type of initiative. We will not be the last.”