Illinois: Law Requiring Guns to be Locked up at Home Takes Effect January 1, 2026

A new law requiring guns to be locked up in Illinois’ homes and mandating lost or stolen firearms be reported within 48 hours takes effect January 1, 2026.

The controls are contained in Senate Bill 8, known as the Safe Storage Act.

The Act says:

Provides that a firearm owner shall not store or keep any firearm in any premises where the firearm owner knows or reasonably should know a minor without the lawful permission of the minor’s parent, guardian, or person having charge of the minor, an at-risk person, or a prohibited person is likely to gain access to the firearm unless the firearm is secured in a locked container, properly engaged so as to render the firearm inaccessible or unusable to any person other than the owner or other lawfully authorized user.

Just the News reported that Gabby Giffords’ gun control group, Giffords, praised the passage of the gun controls, giving Illinois an “A” for putting the new restrictions in place.

Mike Bloomberg-affiliated Everytown for Gun Safety ranks Illinois as number three in the country for gun control stringency. Despite the myriad gun controls, Breitbart News noted at least 28 people were shot over the recent Christmas weekend.

At least eight people were shot in Chicago on Christmas night alone.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and holds a PhD in Military History with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.