Death penalty gets a political do-over as part of gun control bill

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner's moves to bring back the death penalty for mass shooters and cop killers as well as to expand gun control comes at an interesting time, and that would be election time.

Regardless of how rational Rauner's proposals may be, suddenly sticking the death penalty debate in a bill that only sought to increase the wait period to buy an assault weapon is tainted by timing and politics. He's been in office since 2015. Putting this idea into a bill so close to the Nov. 6 gubernatorial election guarantees it will be mired in politics and not receive the reasoned debate it deserves.

But then, our confidence is low for reasoned debate on any topic at any time in Springfield.

Rauner's changes go for the liberals by adding a bump stock and trigger crank ban to the initial bill, which only sought a 72-hour wait to buy an assault weapon. Handguns already have that wait, but long guns had a 24-hour wait.

Then he goes for the conservatives by adding a limited return of the death penalty.

“He hijacked my bill and put politics ahead of policy,” said state Rep. Jonathan Carroll, D-Northbrook.

Sure looks like that, even if Rauner's intentions were pure.

At least we're seeing a pattern emerge. Rauner already signaled that he doesn't believe all lives are equal when he signed the taxpayer-funded abortion bill.

Now we see he doesn't see all deaths as equal, either. Executing mass murderers and police officer killers might equal more votes.

This story was originally published May 15, 2018 at 12:25 PM with the headline "Death penalty gets a political do-over as part of gun control bill."