Sen. Duckworth urges lawmakers to ban civilian sale or transfer of military style rifles

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth urged her colleagues Thursday to ban the civilian sale or transfer of powerful military style rifles.

They have been used in recent mass killings, including the Fourth of July massacre in Highland Park.

Duckworth is trying to revive a proposed assault weapons ban that's languished with no action since it was introduced 16 months ago. It has dozens of Democrats as cosponsors, and no Republicans — prompting an appeal by Duckworth.

"I plead with them to help prevent all of that by passing the assault weapons ban — legislation that would block the further sale, transfer, manufacture and importation of military style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines for civilian use," said Duckworth.

The proposed ban was introduced last year after a mass murder in Dayton, Ohio. The killer there had a military-style semi-automatic rifle with an ammo magazine attached that held 100 rounds.

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Duckworth's Republican opponent, Kathy Salvi, tweeted about high gas prices midday. FOX 32 reached out for a comment on Duckworth's gun comments, but have not received a response.

A spokesman for state Sen. Darren Bailey, who is running against Gov. Pritzker, said of proposals to ban military-style rifles at the state level, "We don't need new laws. We need to enforce the laws that Pritzker has ignored."