Quinn Endorsed By Gun Control Groups

Jim Anderson -- Illinois Radio Network

Gov. Pat Quinn gained the endorsement Wednesday of a couple of gun control group.

The Gun Violence Prevention Political Action Committee and the National Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence endorsed Quinn, mainly because Quinn wants to ban assault weapons. Sandy Phillips, whose daughter was killed in the Colorado theater massacre in 2012, says those guns have no worthwhile purpose.

“Gov. Quinn’s opponent referred to them being used in target shooting. Well our daughter, 11 others (killed), hundreds of others (wounded) in that theater were definitely targets that day,” she said.

A federal assault weapons ban expired in 2004. Those weapons are now legal if they comply with other gun-ownership laws.

The organizations announced the endorsement at a Chicago subway station where a man with a criminal history fired five shots from an assault weapon at a train that was arriving at the station. Nobody was injured in that incident. The suspect, who has several misdemeanors in his past and whose grandfather describes him as mentally ill, is charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon.

Challenger Bruce Rauner says he wants restrictions to keep guns away from criminals and the mentally ill. Rauner was endorsed today by the National Troopers Coalition.