A far-reaching bill introduced in the Illinois General Assembly would force state residents applying for gun permits to allow police to inspect their social media accounts as part of the license-approval process.
The state-level measure is part of an avalanche of legislative assaults on the constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms that followed high-profile fatal mass shootings such as the Feb. 14, 2018, attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Later that year, fatal school shootings took place in Texas and Indiana. In October, a gunman killed congregants at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, and a few days later, there was a fatal mass shooting at a bar in the Los Angeles area.
