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Dillard: Voters, not legislators, should decide gay marriage
Updated: January 14, 2013 11:29AM
HINSDALE — State Sen. Kirk Dillard is ready to push the button for scaling back state retirement benefits, but is less ready to accept gay marriage and assault weapon bans.
Dillard, R-24th of Hinsdale, said he believes marriage is between a man and a woman. He did not support the bill that in 2011 that allowed civil unions in Illinois, regardless of whether the couple is of the same or different sex.
Dillard said extending the legal definition of marriage to include same-sex couples would be such “a monumental and historic societal change,” the question should be put to the voters in a statewide referendum.
As for banning assault weapons, Dillard said the bill the Senate considered last week was too broad. In the past, he has supported gun control measures, but “a full-blown assault weapon ban always depends on the definition of assault weapons.”
The most recent proposal “would affect up to 50 percent of guns in circulation, including handguns. It was way too broad,” Dillard said.
He favors national legislation governing gun ownership.
“To be effective, it needs to be done at a national level,” Dillard said. “You can make all the changes you want in Illinois,” criminals always can find ways to get guns, he said.
Illinois has to rewrite gun control legislation already on the books, because in December, a federal appeals court ruled the state’s ban on carrying a weapon in public is unconstitutional.
Dillard wants the General Assembly to take a comprehensive approach to gun control and review both its conceal-carry law and limits on assault weapons in tandem.
