Image via Illinois State Police (via Twitter).

Each year, the Illinois State Police solicit grant requests from law enforcement agencies around the state to perform “firearm enforcement” activities. Translation: the ISP pays for local LEOs to conduct “compliance checks”…confiscating guns from those who fall out of compliance with the Illinois FOID Act.

While this story isn’t the time or place to debate the constitutionality of the FOID scheme (and Guns Save Life has a lawsuit challenging it awaiting a court ruling), here are some raw numbers.

According to a February 24th press release from the ISP, 30 agencies accepted the grants in 2022 to conduct these confiscations. The agencies conducted 1,115 firearm enforcement checks (call it about three dozen per agency over the entire year). They found guns with 472 of those individuals and “brought them into compliance.”

From the ISP press release . . .

The enforcement details focus on individuals who have become the subject of a Firearm Restraining Order or Clear and Present Danger, or received a criminal conviction, among other reasons.

“Among other reasons…” such as an expired FOID card.

The Land of Lincoln has 994 police agencies across the state. That works out to 3.01% of the agencies took the grants. Clearly the vast majority of the agencies in the state aren’t beating down the ISP’s door looking for “free money” to conduct gun confiscation raids over expired FOID cards.

Recently, at several Guns Save Life meetings across the state, we’ve had local sheriffs and police chiefs laugh when asked if they’re doing “FOID enforcement” gun confiscations. While they all said they aren’t doing any gun confiscation runs, one said it extra succinctly.  “Hell no, we’re not,” he said. “If they want them that bad they can pick ’em up themselves.”

Is it worthwhile for the Illinois State Police to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars per year in grants to bring 472 “individuals into compliance” with the FOID Act? Especially when these individuals are formerly registered, card-carrying good guys and gals?

Would that money perhaps be better spent on details dedicated to nabbing recidivist felon gang members in larger cities who are toting fully-automatic GLOCKs?

Image by Boch. Base Image via Twitter (Chicago Police 5th District Calumet). Note the full-auto GLOCKS all confiscated in a single Chicago police district (one of 25) from a single day’s work.

Perhaps there’s a simple reason why they prefer going after FOID holders and not hard core ‘bangers.

At one of our GSL meetings, the leader of an ISP group that conducted some of those “firearm enforcement” details in the past candidly admitted that the ISP officers under him were people just like the rest of us. “We get paid the same to visit the house of a old veteran with an expired FOID card as we did to pay a visit to some genuine bad guy with warrants for his arrest. I don’t have to tell which ones got priority for us from an officer safety standpoint.”

If you’re a little slow on the uptake, that means they treated the old vet with kid gloves.  They helped him get his guns to a friend or family member until he got his FOID renewed.  Sometimes they may have even helped that old person navigate the online process for applying for a new FOID card. And wouldn’t you know it, that chewed up a big part of their day. Then, with a little smirk, he added, “Sorry boss. Didn’t have time for the others….”

He noted that people with outstanding warrants usually avoid answering the door when 5-0 comes a-knockin’ so they still considered it a good day’s work. Everyone went home safe and they helped someone. Isn’t that what policing is all about?

We’re expecting a decision on the FOID challenge soon. However, until the FOID Act has been struck down and appeals by the State of Illinois have been exhausted, Illinois residents should avoid visits from ISP or any other law enforcement agency by making sure their FOID cards don’t expire.

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36 COMMENTS

  1. By foid standards you best not let your driver license, registration, insurance expire or your vehicle will be towed away, cut in half and sold for scrap. What The Land of Lincoln needs to see is a foid card bonfire.

    • “What The Land of Lincoln needs to see is a foid card bonfire.”

      What The Land of Lincoln needs to see is some of their politicians being thrown into that bonfire.

  2. I have met several ISP troopers over the years…. I don’t have anything nice to say about any of them.

    • And yet Boch DOES say good things about our overlords Pastor. I got a bogus ticket on 1-57 from a bull in brown saying I was going 77mph in a van that NEVER hit that speed. He had a STACK of 77mph tickets as his light blinked. Anywho thanks for the tiny heads up. My wife’s FOID expired & even though she’s never bought a gat they’re pretty stupid n evil ILLANNOY so there ya go🙄

      • law enforcement officers are some of the finest law enforcement officers in the United States. If you’ve gotten a ticket or violated a law you’ve no one to blame but yourself.

  3. A gun control universe said to the GySgt:
    “Sir, I exist!”
    “However,” replied the GySgt,
    “The fact has not created in me
    A sense of obligation.

  4. Really,, the popo didn’t just sieze the WWII vet’s Garand over an “expired” mother may I card? THAT is the easy/low hanging fruit. “helped” them renew their BS card? Dubious.

    “nabbing recidivist felon gang members in larger cities” – doz b the protected/preferred class that aren’t getting nab/sent up river/executed.

    Illistan is a despicable blight on the Midwest map. Fortunately, I-80 from Davenport to Indiana is one tank of gas. May stop at a rest area to defecate on the state, but no need to spend any money there.

    • Race does exist and can be defined but the modern “Whoopie Goldberg” black and white idea is clearly wrong. The article mentions Bantu, without realizing that Bantu is a race. Read some old books. The French and English refer to both themselves and each other as races.

      Nations formed from genetically related groups so nation used to be analogous to race. That has changed with the migration of new people from other places into existing nations in the modern world.

      23andme and ancestry DNA both told me the races my ancestors came from.

      • its official and science, racism doesn’t exist…

        you’re a non-existant racist 😅

  6. “I don’t have to tell which ones got priority for us from an officer safety standpoint.”

    Actually, I take that to mean that they went and hassled the vet because they didn’t want to bother with the actual bad guy, lest he starts shooting.

      • what? Have you ot read the recent memo? The gangbangers and baddies are not required to have their Mother May I Cards. How do I know this?Simple..because they NEVER have them. And if they gt caught that charge goes walking quickly away in the “plea bargain” game.
        Yet they fully expect the “ordinary citizens” to have them, even taking their gins away if they don’t.

        Two tiered “justice” system anyone?

        Guess which group are NOT killing twelve year old girls sitting in their front stoop playing with friends with their random “drive by” shootng sprees? Guess wich ones are NOT using those non-FOID Mother Said Yes guns to carjack nice rides from little old gents at the bank cash critter? Guess which ones will NEVER walk into a tavern, nightclub, dance hall, and start randomly shooting at the folks inside? all of which PROVES beyind any reasonable doubt that the entire FOID “Mommy can I PULLLEEEEEEZE carry a gun?” is a feelgood bow to your donors game of charades.
        Some people die because they have to wait so long to get one, some peope die because they didn’t get one, some people die who should be able to get one but cant, and ALL of these who thus die died because SOMEONE ELSE who shuold not be allowed to have a gun because they have proven their inability to use them responsibly.. got that gun despite no MMIC and used it for the very reason they canot GET the Mother May I Card.
        Thus the card is a sham, charade, , scam, violation of human rights, illegal, a racket, etc…. hope the court DO strike it down.

    • Whaddya speck from the former corporate railroad lawyer who launched an illegal invasion of a sovereign foreign nation?

  8. Disarm the police. Issue them night sticks and the training to use them. There’s no rational or moral reason for the police to have guns. They are simply following orders. Just like the good Germans did many years ago.

    And also repeal all the laws that prevent the law abiding from being able to kill criminals dead on site.

    • Issue them night sticks.
      Why the hell would you rather have someone beat to death then shot. Proper training, come on man, they got stun gunms they cant tell apart from a Cop Glock. Theyd beat that poor nergroes head to mush before they determined he was compliant.
      We dont need Law Enforcement.
      We the People need Peace Officers.

      • I stand by my statement. And simply based on the numbers, it’s “Jethro” that gets shot dead by the cops first and the most. While “Leroy” gets shot the least.

        • I should add some people need a good old-fashioned a$$ kicking. To motivate them to straighten up and fly right. A lead bullet doesn’t always need to be the first option. Although sometimes the lead bullet does need to be the first option.

          Enforcing the law is an ugly business. There is nothing pretty about it. But it does need to be done.

        • Here is an account of just that happening and it well-warmed the cockles of my heart when he told it me.
          I lived on the east side of Vancouver BC during the late 1970’s, near the PNE for any who know thecity. A very old well settled area of older homes, families, it was fairly multicultural but the majoritywere of Italian descent. Oh the smells coming from the lanes as the old families ordered up their grapes and had themdelivered by the tonne, then carted out the winepresses and vats, making theor own wine for table and seasoning use. (BC produced not a drop of drinkable “wine” so called, and taxed into oblivion anything being brought in. Many of these families wtill had the venerable patriarch “from da oldt country” living with them. Small neighbourhood greengrocers were run out of the front room of the house, one every block or two. Also a neighburhood gathering and social hub. My friend Hughielived across the street and down one, the store being abut six doors the other way. He had gone down for a deck of smokes and to “get some air” one fine spring day. One little hellion of a lad, maybe twelve or so, had a reputation for being disrespectful and even violent with those he perceived as “weaker”. He put many of the Moms into tears with his abuse. Hughie had been hearing if this, thougth he knew wich one was doint this. That day he knew for certain. He came upon one of the elderly ladies, Italian exraction, shopping for a few items whilst her husband was at work. She was facing toward Hughie’s house up the street, the ugly cretin giving her the business. Hughie came upon this, walked past the punk putting him on his left, did a quick about face to his left, his fully extended right arm in a fast roundhouse swing, which connected with a resoinding WHUMP!!! on the brat’s left cheek, sending him sprawling onto the grass parking strip on his left. As the lout scraped himself up from the grass, shaking his head and bawling loudly, a bit of blood leaking from his nose, Hughie waited till he stood fully to his feet. The kid, totally changed demeanour, looked at him in shock. Hughie calmly and steadily infrmed the kid “DON”T EVER DO THAT AGAIN. DO YOU UNDERSTAND? You RESPECT others, you hear? Y Y y yess sir… Good then. Be on your way. that kids family did NOT file a lawsuit, call the coppers, or move away. Nor did they make the kid hide at home. but by every account that kid quickly grew into a nice young man.

          The REASON we hve so much “young” violence going on is because kids grow up NOT learning two things: First, as Hughie commanded his punk, to RESPECT other people. Second, how to DEAL with and resolve conflict. This kid obviously had a poor home life (I seem to remember something about his Dad having died or something of that sort) and was bitter, turned inward, singing the WOE IS MEEEEE tune every day. That smack upside his noggin knocked some sense into the guy. He apparently decided it was time to change, and did.
          Hughie was a wise and seasoned old=school Scot, I believe in his 80s when we met.

  9. At this point in American history. People need to understand that the police, in major democrat run cities, no longer believe in supporting the law abiding. They view the law abiding as easy victims to hassle.

    The police are actually afraid of criminals. They want to avoid criminals as much as possible. Because criminals not only shoot back. Criminals shoot first.
    The ACLU freaks actually sued the police when they performed their gun sweeps in public housing projects. Many years ago.

    Now cops are going through private residential neighborhoods where people own their own homes. And taking their guns. And where is the ACLU now???????

    • Answer, it was never about protecting the 2nd amendment civil rights of public housing residents. The ACLU supported Governor Reagan’s decision to sign the Mulford Act. When the law-abiding members of the black panthers were legally demonstrating, peacefully in California with their firearms. Their guns were confiscated by the police.

      The ACLU’s defense of public housing residents was simply a publicity stunt. For them, it was about building a resume. That would show “they cared” about the civil rights, of public housing project residents.

      Which nothing could be farther from the truth.

  11. Seems like the Maryland shall-issue permitting scheme for pistols, like our FOID, just to get permission to own a pistol is not going well in the 4th Circuit Federal Appeals court. This will help us in Illinois get rid of the FOID I hope.

    Maryland Has Another Bad Day in Court, Freedom’s Steel
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rzf1bW6WylM

    Federal appeals court skeptical of Maryland handgun rules, Reuters
    https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/federal-appeals-court-skeptical-maryland-handgun-rules-2023-03-10

  12. From the photograph of the Chicago 5th district Calumet.
    “Image by Boch. Base Image via Twitter (Chicago Police 5th District Calumet). Note the full-auto GLOCKS all confiscated in a single Chicago police district (one of 25) from a single day’s work.”

    How many of the felons are doing federal time for full auto glocks?
    Hmmm…

    • I’ve read somewhere and I can’t remember where exactly that Chicago LEO’s said there were approximately 250 repeat offenders and if they were incarcerated according to their crimes the crime rate in Chicago would drop significantly.

  13. I must be missing something, because, in my view, if they are not going after the felons, then they are going after the wrong people.

  14. “The enforcement details focus on individuals who have become the subject of a Firearm Restraining Order or Clear and Present Danger…”

    Dunno about anyone else but I read Clear and Present Danger as a cautionary tale of letting idiots run major government agencies with zero concern about the lives of anyone that might be affected by their actions and very little concern for what is or is not legal.

    • A great book I loved reading it. The movie was good. But as usual the book was better than the movie. A fictional Tale of many an historical event, when the individual Soldier is abandoned on the battlefield, by his leadership and his government.

      • Both were quite enjoyable. Though, to be entirely honest, there were points in the movie where I was waiting for Harrison Ford to do some crazy tricks with a whip. LOL!

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