As we near the end of the week, there’s not a lot of time for state legislatures to consider various forms of anti-gun stupidity this month. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that there are so many more months ahead for them to do something idiotic.

In fact, in Illinois, they’ve apparently figured they haven’t done enough to trample on people’s right to keep and bear arms, so they’re likely to consider new ways to do so next month.

One proposal to curb gun violence would extend the requirement for safe gun storage to all Illinois households with children under 18. The current law only requires the storage for families with children 13 or younger.

“We must act to prevent access to deadly weapons by minors and people who should not have access to guns,” Rep. Maura Hirschauer (D-West Chicago), the House sponsor of the bill, said. “We will build on our record of nation-leading gun violence prevention legislation and ensuring safe storage of firearms is a commonsense measure long overdue.”

The other main proposal would have speedier requirements for reporting stolen firearms. Gun owners would have one less day to report their guns as lost or stolen in order to be compliant with the law, from 72 hours to 48.

“Approximately 380,000 firearms are stolen in the United States each year, many of which are trafficked or used in violent crimes,” Sen. Ram Villivalam (D-Chicago) said. “Working with stakeholders to raise public awareness and streamline reporting of lost and stolen firearms is a commonsense gun violence prevention measure that will save lives.”

Now, let’s consider these measures.

First, the mandatory storage law. Currently, the cut-off is 13, which makes at least some sense. Most kids under 13 really aren’t going to be mature enough to defend themselves with a firearm in the first place. I’m not defending the law, only saying that if you’re going to have one, that’s not the worst threshold possible.

Requiring them to be locked up for anyone under the age of 18 is, though.

See, a lot of older teens have grown up around guns in more rural parts of the state and also know that law enforcement will be half an hour away if they’re fortunate. So let’s say I have a 16-year-old daughter and through some cruel twist of fate am forced to live in Illinois. Let’s say she has some obsessed stalker she’s unaware of but who knows my wife and I have gone out for the evening.

Now, my daughter has learned a healthy respect for guns. She’s only 12 now, but in four years, I wouldn’t blink about her having access to a firearm. Illinois, however, wants to prevent that from happening.

So my wife and I are out on the town, oblivious, when all of a sudden, the phone rings.

It could be one of two things. 

One is to tell us someone is trying to break in and hurt her, she’s called the police but she’s terrified.

The other could be to tell us that someone tried to break in and hurt her, so we needed to pick up cleaning supplies beefy enough to remove blood on the carpet on our way home.

Illinois, however, would limit the options to just the first one, and we all know that would likely be the last words our daughter would ever say to us.

Hard. Freaking. Pass.

Now, let’s talk about reporting requirements.

The way these work is that you have just so many days to report a gun missing when you find that it’s gone. Not everyone takes an inventory of their guns every day, so it’s entirely possible that their gun could be gone for weeks before they realize it.

It’s also possible they’re just sitting on their butts forgetting to report the gun stolen.

The trick is in knowing that someone knew it was gone.

Moreover, reporting stolen guns doesn’t do much to prevent gun trafficking. It might allow you to prosecute straw buyers more effectively, but only to a degree. Since they account for only a tiny percentage of illegally trafficked guns, all this really does is try to make things harder for lawful gun owners who have guns stolen from them.

So yeah, this is Illinois.

I’m so glad I don’t live there.