DCFS Handgun Ban In Home Day Cares Challenged As Unconstitutional

SPRINGFIELD, IL — A married Sherbyville couple and three gun owner advocacy organizations filed a federal lawsuit challenging state rules banning the handguns from licensed home day cares. Concealed carry licensees Jennifer and Darin Miller are suing the director of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and Attorney General Lisa Madigan, arguing that the agency's rules, which are mandated by state law, violate their Second Amendment right to self-defense.

Jennifer has operated a licensed day care out of her home since 2017, according to the suit. Because of legally mandated DCFS regulations, she and her husband are afraid of losing the day care home license if they possess a handgun, even if it's locked up in a safe, the suit alleges.

In March and April, a DCFS employee informed the couple of the statewide ban on handguns in the home of licensed home day cares, according to the suit. The Illinois Child Care Act requires the agency to include provisions in its regulations to completely prohibit handguns from the premises of licensees.

"If you run a licensed day care home in the state, it doesn't matter if kids are there, it doesn't matter if it's 11 p.m. at night, it doesn't matter if all other times during daycare hours the handguns are locked up – the state just says, 'No, we're not allowing any of it,'" said the couple's attorney, David Sigale. "I mean, that's just not right."

Under the Illinois Firearm Concealed Carry Act, there are separate regulations on guns at child care facilities and pre-schools, the suit points out. That law contains a specific exception, allowing "the operator of a child care facility in a family home" to have a gun in the house as long as "no child under child care at the home is present in the home or the firearm in the home is stored in a locked container," when children are present.

"The Millers are certainly willing to comply with that," Sigale said. "If you're going to run a day care facility out of your house, and you're going to have firearms in the home, as long as there're day care kids in the home, keep them locked up. Why isn't that just a reasonable rule? Instead they have to go a step further and say you can't have them at all."

State rules allow non-handgun firearms at home day cares as long as they are taken apart, unloaded and out of reach of children. There is an exception for police and other people required to carry guns for their jobs, and day care operators must notify parents if any guns or ammunition is stored in their house.

The Millers were joined by the Second Amendment Foundation, the Illinois State Rifle Association and Illinois Carry as co-plaintiffs in the suit filed Monday in the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois in Springfield. The complaint does not seek any monetary damages. It asks for a declaration from a federal judge that the rules are unconstitutional and an injunction barring the state from enforcing them.