7-year-old boy shot in the arm inside home in Humboldt Park, on day new Illinois gun storage law begins
A 7-year-old boy was shot in the arm when another child got their hands on a gun Thursday night in the Humboldt Park neighborhood.
Police said, shortly after 7 p.m., a 7-year-old boy was shot in the left bicep inside a home in the 3200 block of West Division Street.
According to unconfirmed police dispatch reports, another child accidentally shot the boy after finding a gun in the home.
First responders helped apply a tourniquet to the young boy's arm and rushed him to Stroger Hospital, where he was listed in serious condition. Police said a gun was recovered from the home, but didn't say who the gun belonged to.
No one has been arrested, but police said Area 5 detectives were investigating.
The shooting happened on the same day a new gun storage law went into effect in Illinois. The legislation aims to make it harder for something like this to happen.
This issue is a passion for Lisette Guillen, executive director of Case Files: Chicago.
"These guns can be secured. They should be secured. "These kids will see their parent or family member place it up there, and then just out of pure curiosity, they can climb up there and grab it."
Guillen helped organize a gun lock handout near the Chatham home of a 2-year-old who tragically shot and killed himself with an unsecured gun in September.
She was one of the advocates who pushed for the Safe Gun Storage Act, which went into effect in Illinois on Jan 1, tightening the requirements for how firearms are kept in homes.
"There's a lot of trauma, not just to that child, but also the other child who pulled that trigger. So, it's such a domino effect on not only that family, but the community as well," she said.
Gun owners now must keep their weapons in a locked container that makes them inaccessible or unusable by anyone other than their owner. This was already a requirement, but the new law expands the age ranges and groups covered by the storage rule to include anyone under 18 and those at risk of harming themselves.
The law also shortens the timeline for reporting a lost or stolen gun. Gun owners must now report that within 48 hours of discovering it, down from the previous 72-hour requirement.
Guillen stressed that something as simple as a $5 or often free gun lock can make a difference.
"You just put it on. It's very simple, very safe, and it just takes a second," she said.
Guillen noted that, while Illinois' gun storage law is getting stronger, Indiana is still one of at least 24 states in the country with no safe storage laws on the books.
"Of course, when you have some charges that could be brought on you, or fines put on you, that absolutely makes a big difference," she said.
She's interested to see how the new Illinois law impacts the outcome of this case, in particular.
"I'm going to be really curious to see how this new law plays into the charges or the types of punitive damages that may come from this," she said.
Violators of the gun storage law could face civil penalties of up to $10,000.
As for potential criminal charges in this case, police said the shooting remained under investigation Friday afternoon, and no charging decisions had been made.