As Wonkish.com noted, the General Assembly will vote on two important pieces of gun control legislation today. House Bill 4393, the "One Gun per Month" law, does basically what its title says: restricts Illinoisans to one firearm purchase per month. The second measure, House Bill 758, would require background checks for all gun purchases in the state. Currently, if a gun is being sold by a private owner to a private citizen there is no required background check on the purchase.

Taken separately, each law would be an effective deterrent to the proliferation of guns on our streets. Put together, the measures go even further in ending the black market sale of firearms in Illinois.

The votes come on the heels of emotional rallies in Chicago, where students drew attention to the wave of gun violence that has recently hit city high schools. To date, 23 students have been killed by gun violence in Chicago this school year.

But as Wonkish's JohnR noted, the "gun lobby has strong teeth in the Illinois House," so expect a serious battle before these bills pass.

UPDATE: As Capitol Fax just noted, HB 4393 was rejected in the House, garnering only 53 of the 60 votes needed to pass. The AP reports that the bill's sponsor -- Rep. Luis Arroyo (D-Chicago) -- "could bring it back for another vote later."

Image used under a Creative Commons license by Flickr user Swanksalot.