‘Bounty’ Put on Illegal Gun Users
Ill. Program Offers $1,000 to Informants

Aug. 8, 2000

By James Gordon Meek

LISLE, Ill. (APBnews.com) — In a first of its
kind, a state crime-fighting group has put a
price on the head of any convicted felon or
drug dealer with an illegal gun.

A new billboard offering $1,000 to anyone who
reports a felon with a firearm is a twist on the
Project Exile federal gun crime initiative, in
that it gives people a financial incentive to
turn in friends, co-workers and even family
members.

“We’re putting a bounty on them,” said Jerry Elsner, executive director of
the Illinois Crime Commission. “We’re going after these lowlifes.”

Elsner said the billboard advertisement on Route 83 in DuPage County
would be seen by thousands of motorists commuting to busy shopping
centers nearby, who will hopefully report illegal guns.

To collect the reward, a tip must lead to arrest and conviction.

Convicts sent in ‘exile’

Many states and individual cities have adopted policies similar to the
federal anti-gun crime program started in Richmond, Va., three years ago,
which targets illegal guns.

Under Project Exile, convicted felons or people involved in drug trafficking or
drug use who are busted with a firearm — in violation of either of two U.S.
statutes — are brought before a federal court. Suspects who plead or are
found guilty typically receive five years in a federal penitentiary out of state.

Proponents of the program argue it is a deterrent in part because of bus
and billboard ads in communities that promote the consequences of getting
caught with an illegal gun.

But Elsner’s idea is the first to hope that criminals will be reported by those
most familiar to them.

“Money talks in this country,” said Elsner, a former professional boxer,
who expects felons to be “ratted out” by people they know. “And they’ll do
it.”

Defense lawyer wary

Keith Davis, a former prosecutor in Bloomington, Ill., who now defends
criminal cases in federal court, said he’s skeptical of Elsner’s offer.

“I don’t think it will have any effect at all,” Davis said of the bounty. “I don’t
think any prosecutor or cop is going to take the word of an anonymous
tipster; there’s got to be some corroboration.”

Officials of the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois declined to
comment on the plan.

Will switch sides

The billboard on Route 83 will face southbound traffic for two months and
will then be turned around to face northbound traffic for another two months.

The cost of the ad is $9,000, which Elsner said was raised privately. The
National Rifle Association has contributed heavily to Project Exile
community advertising in some areas, but Elsner said the gun rights
advocacy group has provided no funding to the commission.