Karina's Law and 2025 Gun Safety Bills

In early 2025, Governor JB Pritzker signed a package of gun safety bills into law. The most prominent was Karina's Law, which strengthens the enforcement of firearm surrender requirements in domestic violence cases. Two additional bills -- HB 1373 (the eTrace requirement) and HB 4500 (a terminology reclassification) -- were signed alongside it.^[1]

Karina's Law

Karina's Law, signed in February 2025 and effective May 11, 2025, addresses a gap in existing law regarding the enforcement of firearms surrender orders in domestic violence cases. Under the previous framework, law enforcement agencies were not required to act within a specific time frame to confiscate firearms from individuals subject to domestic violence protective orders. In practice, this meant that some subjects of protective orders retained access to firearms for extended periods despite court orders requiring surrender.^[1]

The law now requires law enforcement to petition a judge for a search warrant and then confiscate firearms within 96 hours of receiving the warrant from individuals subject to domestic violence protective orders who have not voluntarily surrendered their firearms. The 96-hour clock runs from when law enforcement receives the search warrant, not from when the protective order is served. This mandatory time frame ensures that the surrender requirement is enforced promptly rather than left to the discretion of individual agencies, while requiring judicial oversight through the warrant process.

The law also strengthens reporting requirements, ensuring that confiscations are documented and that the ISP is notified when firearms are seized under a protective order. This creates a paper trail that helps track compliance across the state.

HB 1373: eTrace Requirement

HB 1373 requires every law enforcement agency in Illinois to participate in the federal firearms tracing platform eTrace, operated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). When a law enforcement agency recovers a firearm in connection with a crime, eTrace allows the agency to submit the firearm's serial number and receive tracing data showing the firearm's chain of commerce from manufacturer to first retail sale.^[1]

Before this requirement, participation in eTrace was voluntary for Illinois law enforcement agencies. Mandating participation is intended to improve data collection on crime guns, identify patterns in illegal firearms trafficking, and support prosecution of straw purchasers and illegal dealers.

HB 4500: Terminology Change

HB 4500 reclassified "unlawful use of a weapon" as "unlawful possession of a weapon" in certain sections of the Illinois Criminal Code. This change affects how certain firearm charges are categorized and may influence charging decisions by prosecutors. The reclassification does not change the underlying prohibited conduct or the penalty structure but updates the statutory language to more accurately describe the offenses.^[1]

Context and Significance

The 2025 gun safety package follows a series of significant firearms legislation in Illinois, including the Protect Illinois Communities Act (2023) and the Safe Gun Storage Act (also signed in 2025, effective January 1, 2026). Together, these measures reflect a continued expansion of Illinois's firearms regulatory framework under the Pritzker administration.

Karina's Law, in particular, addresses a problem documented by domestic violence researchers and victim advocacy groups: that the gap between the issuance of a protective order and the actual removal of firearms from the subject's possession represents a period of heightened danger. By imposing a mandatory time frame for confiscation, the law converts what was previously a discretionary process into an enforceable obligation with clear accountability for law enforcement agencies.^[1]