Illinois Mandatory Firearm Tracing Law: eTrace and NIBIN Requirements

Illinois Public Act 104-0030, enacted from House Bill 1373 and effective July 28, 2025, requires Illinois law enforcement agencies to use the federal eTrace system for covered firearm traces and to submit specified cartridge cases and suitable semiautomatic firearms for National Integrated Ballistics Information Network (NIBIN) processing. The law amends Section 24-8 of the Criminal Code of 2012 (720 ILCS 5/24-8).^[1]

What Law Enforcement Must Now Do

When an Illinois law enforcement agency seizes or takes into custody a firearm in any of the circumstances listed below, the agency must use "the best available information, including a firearms trace" to determine how and from whom the person gained possession and to determine the firearm's prior ownership. The same duty applies when the agency acquires an abandoned, lost, or discarded firearm.^[1]

• The firearm was recovered from a crime scene
• The firearm was possessed unlawfully
• The firearm was used unlawfully
• The firearm is reasonably believed to be associated with criminal activity

In addition to eTrace submission, agencies must enter all stolen, seized, or recovered firearms into the Illinois State Police's LEADS Gun File in accordance with ISP regulations.

eTrace and the National Tracing Center

The eTrace platform is a web-based system operated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) that allows law enforcement to submit firearms trace requests electronically. ATF describes a trace as tracking a firearm from its manufacture or import through the distribution chain of wholesalers and retailers to identify an unlicensed purchaser. That information can help link a suspect to a firearm, identify potential traffickers and detect in-state, interstate and international patterns in the sources of crime guns.

Under PA 104-0030, agencies must also participate in eTrace's collective data sharing program, allowing firearm trace reports to be shared among all Illinois law enforcement agencies statewide.^[2]

NIBIN Submission Requirement

In addition to the eTrace tracing requirement, agencies must submit fired cartridge cases recovered at a crime scene or linked to a crime to NIBIN or an Illinois State Police laboratory for NIBIN processing. The same requirement applies to suitable semiautomatic firearms that were unlawfully possessed, used unlawfully, recovered at a crime scene, reasonably linked to a crime or acquired as abandoned or discarded firearms. NIBIN captures images of fired cartridge casings and compares their unique markings, which can link ballistic evidence from different crime scenes and connect a crime gun to other crimes.

When practicable, all NIBIN-suitable evidence and NIBIN-suitable test fires from recovered firearms must be entered into NIBIN within 2 business days of submission to Illinois State Police laboratories that have NIBIN access or another NIBIN site. Exceptions may occur if the evidence requires analysis by other forensic disciplines. The Illinois State Police laboratory, submitting agency, and relevant court representatives must determine whether the request for additional analysis outweighs the 2 business-day requirement.^[1]

Illinois Crime Gun Intelligence Center

The law builds on Crime Gun Connect, a crime-gun tracing database developed by the Attorney General's office that includes eTrace data and, according to the office, over 100,000 crime gun trace records going back to 2009. Before PA 104-0030, participation in eTrace was voluntary for Illinois agencies. The new law makes it mandatory statewide.^[2]

Attorney General Kwame Raoul initiated the legislation. When the bill was signed on July 28, 2025, he said that law enforcement agencies' participation in the ATF's eTrace platform "is needed to identify gun traffickers and suspects and patterns behind violent crimes."^[2]

What This Means in Practice

For law enforcement, the mandatory tracing requirement changes how recovered firearms are processed. Previously, Illinois law enforcement agencies' participation in ATF's eTrace was voluntary. Under PA 104-0030, every recovered crime gun must be traced, and the results must be shared statewide.

For Illinois residents, the law has no direct impact on legal gun ownership. It does not change FOID requirements, concealed carry rules, purchase procedures, or storage obligations. The act also expands the Criminal Code's definition of a peace officer to include any person who, by statute, is granted and authorized to exercise powers similar to those conferred upon any peace officer employed by a law enforcement agency of this State.

Effective Date

Public Act 104-0030 took effect on July 28, 2025, the date it was signed by Governor Pritzker. The law applies immediately to all law enforcement agencies in Illinois. There is no phase-in period.