Illinois is trying to get a step ahead of people who commit crimes with guns

Posted on June 30, 2022
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul. (Dave Dahl/WJBC)

By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – Illinois is using technology to better trace guns used in crimes.

Attorney General Kwame Raoul and State Police director Brendan Kelly led a news conference Wednesday to announce Crime Gun Connect.

“Each one of those flags on the screen represents a discrete recovery,” said Adam Braun, executive deputy attorney general. He said investigators “can click on any one of those flags to get the complete records associated with that crime gun recovery. We have an individual identified as “straw buyer.” That person has purchased nine firearms outside of indianapolis that quickly were recovered outide the city of Chicago.”

That’s a problem regularly identified when people talk about guns in Illinois.

“Why this is so important is making sure we address where the guns are coming from: Who made the gun? Who sold the gun? Who owned the gun?” said Dan Kotowski, president and CEO of Kids Above All. “Oftentimes, when we talk about teenagers getting access to guns, we don’t talk about who makes the gun, who sells the gun, who owns the gun.”

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]

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