The NRA’s state affiliate in the Land of Lincoln helped negotiate a new bill to modernize the state’s much-hated Firearm Owner Identification Card Act. The Illinois State Rifle Association then went neutral on the new gun control language after its formal introduction, tacitly supporting HB562‘s passage while every other gun rights organization went on record opposing the measure.
ISRA’s surprising neutrality on the final language was actually discussed during the brief Senate floor debate before the bill passed in the Senate. It now heads back to the House for a pro-forma concurrence vote.
So, what did ISRA’s lobbying team achieve in their negotiations? HB562 now requires every private gun sale to be reported within 10 days (for a fee of up to $25 per gun) to a federally licensed dealer by the gun’s buyer. That creates a whole new record-keeping requirement on top of the existing ten-year record-keeping requirement for the seller. What’s more, it also smells a lot like the precursor to formal gun registration in Honest Abe’s home state.
Also, if the buyer fails to record and retain the name of the dealer to which the purchase was reported, you can lose your gun rights entirely. Welcome to Illinois.
If paying $25 for the privilege of registering your acquisition of a gun through a lawful private sale sounds a lot like a state-mandated tax of sorts to buy a firearm, well, you’re right.
Will gang members in Chicago — as of this writing at 267 homicides (more than 31 entire states reported for the entire year of 2019) — spend $25 to register each and every one of their “acquisitions” at their local gun store? We have no doubt.
What happens if Joe Sixpack says, “Screw it! It’s none of the government’s business and I’m not registering the 12 guns I inherited from Uncle Alexander…especially at $25 a pop”? Failure to report the first firearm received is a Class A misdemeanor. The second or subsequent non-reported guns raise it to a felony – as in you lose your gun rights forever.
This is the deal the team of lobbyists at the Illinois State Rifle Association hammered out with Democrats running this bill. And this was the day after a bill mandating electronic fingerprints and an elimination of private gun sales stalled in the same Illinois Senate.
When we contacted ISRA for an explanation of why they took a neutral position on what many of us saw as a bad bill for gun owners, the group’s Executive Director Richard Pearson replied, “Dealers don’t have to do it, they aren’t liable for the accuracy of the records and we get people their FOID cards and ICCLs [Illinois concealed carry licenses]. There will be another day tomorrow.” In a subsequent text message, he wrote, “There are some rotten bastards involved. Explain later. Much later.”
What else does this new bill mandate? All emergency court orders will now require the suspension of firearm rights for the accused, even those orders that are issued ex parte, without the accused being present. That’s a total lack of due process
Previously, only protective orders that specified a firearms prohibition would trigger a (temporary) revocation of gun rights. In other words, under this bill, all emergency court orders will become red flag gun confiscation orders.
Now, under terms of HB562, those will automatically suspend a person’s gun rights, but later, if a judge later throws out the emergency ex parte order or it expires, the ISP will remove the suspension. When they get around to it.
Currently, FOIDs are revoked and those with vacated protective orders involving firearms ownership have to reapply from scratch and wait (and wait) months for the state to get around to issuing a new FOID card.
Asked if the state’s biggest and most influential gun rights organization, the National Rifle Association – Institute for Legislative Action had any role in these negotiations between ISRA and the bill’s sponsors, the NRA-ILA’s rep for Illinois, John Weber, said “no.”
Mr. Weber noted that gun owners recently won a case in which the FOID Act was ruled unconstitutional.
Was there really a need to compromise on legislation reforming the FOID Act with that ruling in our favor and a slew of other pending lawsuits challenging the whole FOID scheme?
Other problematic areas in HB562 include the appointment of a partisan FOID review board by the governor to evaluate revocation appeals and petitions to restore firearm rights to reformed felons. Given how Pritzker once ran for Congress on the platform of banning the private ownership of handguns, you have to be remarkably naïve to believe any of his appointments will have an NRA membership card in their wallets.
In fact, as HB562 offers no standard of review for those FOID appeals, any previous due process standard could be thrown under the bus in favor of simply blocking all appeals and rights restoration claims.
On the upside, HB562 would allow for electronic versions of FOID cards and carry licenses. For a voluntarily submitted set of electronic fingerprints (at about $75-$100 per set), the bill will also allow for lifetime renewals of FOID cards with an additional roughly $30 in fees on top of the current $10 renewal fee for a 10-year card. Not exactly a bargain for those nearing retirement age.
Once again, this bill offers little in the way of a victory for law-abiding gun owners and prospective gun owners in the Land of Lincoln and plenty of reasons for gun rights orgs to oppose it. But not enough reasons for ISRA to oppose it.
With friends like these who needs enemas.
Umm… apparently the ISRA, since they are as full of shit as Wayne LaPeepee.
Enemies in the wire, again……This is why we voted for Trump, he fought these guys every second………we need to vote out and replace republicans, we need to vote out the leadership of these gun groups……..the gun grabbers tell them “give us this now, or we will take everything from you.” Then, they come back and say “Now, give us this, or we will take everything from you.” Repeat over and over till there is nothing left…while the idiots who keep giving in say “well, we will fight the next fight….really, we will fight that next fight.”
Trump fought these guys? Really? What exactly did he do? I saw him roll over when gun rights were attacked. What have the Republicans done? Nothing also. The first two years of Trumps term was a Republican house and senate. Nothing was accomplished.
“Trump fought these guys? Really? What exactly did he do?”
Are you SERIOUSLY that fvcking stupid?
What do you call Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Coney-Barret on the Supreme Court instead of Hillary?
Hillary would have given us Kagen 2, Sotomayor 2, and Breyer 2, you stupid ass… 🙁
Isn’t Trump the guy who said “Take the guns first, go through due process second”, AND had the ATF ban bumpstocks, AND did nothing else to further our gun rights?
Let’s just call a spade a spade and admit that trump was no freind to people of the gun.
Lol. Calm down boomer.
Aren’t you a cute little snowflake. Didn’t get your participation ribbon for today?
Well, evidently, we will see just how much those Trump SCOTUS appointments will help us by around this time next year (unless NYC suddenly goes “shall issue” to moot the case).
I don’t see it as quite that bad, I read the response from ISRA to be saying the law is unenforceable, just ignore it, which seems pretty likely. Don’t get me wrong, it is still bad, since they will no doubt wish to strengthen it nearly immediately, but still, unenforceable is better than at least one alternative.
George Bush also told us that the he didn’t veto that one bill because he said the courts would take care of it……..and then they didn’t? Remember that?
“Remember that?”
Remember Scalia dying and getting a Leftist Scum replacement?
Remember that?
In Maryland, 2A supporters didn’t turn out to fight the registration laws. Friends said to my face “Don’t worry, it will get overturned in court.”
Of course, Maryland’s courts did no such thing and the Fourth Circuit, dominated by Maryland judges, didn’t either.
SCOTUS ruled decades ago that convicted felons were not required to comply with such laws, as requiring them to notify anyone that they had purchased firearms was forcing them to incriminate themselves (violating the 5th Amendment), since such a purchase would be a federal felony. So, no, your Chicago gang bangers are not required to comply, just you and your neighbors. I imagine it won’t be long before someone discovers a simple way for people to instantly recognize who has to comply with laws and who does not.
Just got off the phone with ISRA, and first, the woman I spoke with said the bill is 562 not 652…..and she told me they have 5 full time lobyists who read the bill and thought that getting lifetime FOID cards was a fair trade for having to report private gun sales to gun dealers for the government……..please, feel free to call them and ask for more of an explanation…….I didn’t want to go back and forth with her as she told me they are going to remain neutral on the bill….
Explain to me Boch about fingerprints required…just got my new FOID(in 2 weeks!)but the wife’s expires in December. Will she Be required to do anything more than $10 for 10 years?!? I get what ISRA did. Like 10 years records which I do. Can’t wait to move east!!!
The woman I spoke with also stated that “not all democrats are bad on the 2nd Amendment and not all Republicans are good….” To which I stated that the first priority is to vote out every single democrat and then primary all the bad republicans……how do we always get squishes in places of importance in our movements? When she said that their lobbyists felt Lifetime FOID cards was worth the trade on reporting private gun sales to the government through gun stores….I kinda wanted to call her an idiot…..but refrained from doing so……….let them know….
Most of Illinois is MAGA country. Counties that voted non-communist should opt out of the corrupt Chicago dominated gun control laws.
Most of them have.
Every time TTAG posts one of these examples of how bad Yankee Land is, I give thanks that I live in the Deep South where it’s warm, and Freedom rules.
Illinois and Mn, Michigan, much of Wi are DEMTARD socialist land. Not Yankee.
John, you’re aware that the house didn’t vote on the Senate amendment and is now adjourned, right? IOW, it’s dead for this session, no thanks to the ISRA. Other gun rights groups worked hard to kill it, and there’s even a story floating around that some of the real gun control enthusiasts in the General Assembly wouldn’t vote for it because it didn’t go far enough. lolz.
There is no possible explanation for the ISRA going neutral, and the whole idea was stupid. What FFL is going to store the records of somebody else’s transactions for 20 years? For $25? No thanks. What if a gun shows up at a crime scene, is traced to sumdood who says lBilly Bob’s Gun shop has the records,” but nobody at Billy Bob’s has them? Prove the negative that you never received them? Buyer and seller keep some receipt for 20 years? Same as keeping the records themselves, no? Prove the receipt is fake? Billy Bob retires or dies. Where are the records? And on and on.
THIS^^^
“It now heads back to the House for a pro-forma concurrence vote.”
The Illinois legislators are DONE until the fall session so this bill sits.
When this bill passes the private sale clause doesn’t kick in until 1/1/24.
The fingerprint clause wouldn’t kick in until 1/1/23.
If this bill passes and becomes law there are some problems with it.
It also states that Illinois has 30 days to approve a FOID application.
Since there is a backlog of at 6 months right now, not going to happen.
I read the whole thing and it’s a mess, if passes in its present form, it’s a uber mess.
For Gods sake Boch, take the time and read the inane bills that Illinois comes up with.
You act as if you are getting your info from Illinois Carry which isn’t exactly a good source.
ISRA is neutral on this bill for what I would imagine are a few reasons.
First: There is a very good possibility that the FOID will be gone by 1/1/24.
Second: The bill as written is sloppily written, so much so that it is unenforceable.
Third: The second that Illinois passes something unconstitutional ISRA and GOA will sue.
My advice is to get out of Illinois because this is just the beginning of JBs anti2A BS.
Illinois will not flip either house so the only hope is JB gets voted out of office.
That is doable if people downstate turn out and vote.
I don’t really care, I left Illinois last year.
I am glad I was never a member of ISRA. Not good on their part representing their members in Illinois and those that are not members. Join a real pro-2nd Amendment organization instead of sell outs like the NRA and state associations like the ISRA. The ISRA and NRA says bend over it will not hurt you in Illinois too much.
Read the story. Clearly states that the NRA-ILA were not part of this BS.
I’m a retired Illinois police officer. I lived the majority of my life in southern Illinois, had 60 acres of beautiful woods that I loved living on. I solved all my FOID / Democrat issues by moving to the Reddest district Florida. I recommend anyone that has the means to leave the Democratic Peoples Republic of Illinois to do so, just as fast as they can.
Perhaps Iowa could help you out and take on the Western 1 or 2 rows of Il counties (from Hancock to the North). But IDs are required to vote in Iowa but no FOID are allowed. Constitutional Carry goes into effect July 1. Going to have to audit voter registration lists. We don’t need any demtard counties. Might be an issue in Rock Island Co.
And NO damn mask mandates by local gov’t are allowed (by law). Unions are not much favored either, so take that socialist crap to Chicaq.
If you can live with that get your proposal together.
https://www.crestonnews.com/news/state/2021/05/20/iowa-lawmakers-end-session-noted-for-conservative-new-laws/
BTW, Lincoln was born in Kentucky, not Illinois.
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