Robert Bevis is sounding the alarm over Senate Bill 8, calling it a dangerous overreach by state lawmakers that targets responsible gun owners without meaningfully addressing crime.
The bill, which passed by both chambers of the Illinois General Assembly on May 28 and now awaits Gov. JB Pritzker’s signature, mandates secure firearm storage and imposes fines ranging from $500 to $10,000 depending on the violation.
Bevis, owner of Law Weapons & Supply in Naperville, is critical of SB 8 for requiring that gun owners store firearms under strict conditions in their own homes, a move he says could prevent lawful defense and create legal traps for innocent citizens.
“If someone breaks into your house and steals your gun, it gives you liability,” Bevis told the DuPage Policy Journal. “Or if you have some friends over for a party and they find a gun and go crazy or something, then you're the one who's responsible.”
Bevis argued that holding gun owners liable for stolen firearms, while not doing so in other cases, is illogical.
“What if they took your car and smashed it into a mall and ran over people? Would you be responsible for that too? No,” he said. “And if they took a knife, you wouldn't be responsible because they took it—it's a kitchen knife, right?”
Bevis believes it’s all part of a broader anti-gun agenda driven by what he calls “woke” ideology spreading from Chicago into the suburbs.
“The city of Naperville has become very woke,” he said. “Woke people from Chicago, where they ruined their city, are moving west, bringing their ideology here. It's starting to affect everybody, like a cancer spreading further and further.”
Bevis's concerns echo those of State Rep. John Cabello (R-Machesney Park), who also denounced SB 8 as a “misguided” measure that criminalizes legal gun owners while ignoring violent criminals with illegal weapons.
Both Bevis and Cabello argue that Illinois lawmakers are prioritizing political ideology over public safety. Cabello warned that the bill punishes citizens even if their firearm is stolen during a break-in, calling the potential fines “ridiculous and anti-American.”
“It's all about making the legal gun owners criminals, and let's not go after the criminals that actually have the illegal guns or the felons that have weapons and enhance those penalties because that's where all the crime's coming from,” Cabello previously told the Rockford Sun. “We're going to make everybody else a criminal and not worry about those actual violent criminals.”
“With Pritzker in charge, there's no limit to what they're going to do,” he said. “They're going to defy the courts and the law, and they'll make up their own. I hope the Supreme Court hammers down on them and puts them back in their place. It should make concealed carry and gun ownership 100% legal across every state as a federal law, just as much as you have the right to vote.”
Bevis went on to argue that federal intervention is necessary to rein in what he sees as extreme anti-gun policies in Democrat-led states.
“If they make that and whack these crazy Dem-tard states, it would be great for everybody,” Bevis said. “How many people are dying because they don't have access to a firearm for defense?”
Bevis and Law Weapons & Supply are at the forefront of legal challenges to aggressive anti-gun policies.
In 2023 Bevis challenged a Naperville ordinance banning the sale of high-powered rifles.
Bevis warned the 2022 ban could force him to close his business and lay off employees, prompting the National Association for Gun Rights (NAGR) to file a lawsuit on his behalf.
While the Supreme Court recently previously declined to hear the case, the NAGR has vowed to continue the fight, aiming to take the case to the Supreme Court to challenge what they argue are unconstitutional firearms bans.
Bevis held a fundraiser in 2023 to help fund the ongoing legal battle.
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