SPRINGFIELD (WGEM) – The Illinois House of Representatives passed a bill Tuesday cracking down on threats against libraries.

The bill would treat threats against libraries like schools.

The bill is an initiative of Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, a Democrat. It would make violent threats against libraries a class 4 felony. It comes after a wave of threats against libraries, which includes 22 bomb threats between July and Sept. 2023 according to the Secretary of State’s office.

“We think that libraries should be safe-havens and that if somebody is going to be making these kind of threats, they should be getting the same type of treatment as someone making a threat to a school,” said state Rep. Anne Stava-Murray, D-Naperville, the bill’s House sponsor.

The bill passed with broad bipartisan support on an 89-20 vote. All 20 votes against the bill came from Republican representatives. The bill now heads to the state Senate.

Before heading to the floor Tuesday afternoon, the bill passed out of the House Judiciary-Criminal Tuesday morning.

The committee previously passed the bill on April 4 but it was amended Tuesday. The previous version included threats against library employees in addition to the entire library. There were concerns by some civil liberties groups that disagreements could be misinterpreted as threats. The amendment also creates a library security grant program.

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