Image by Boch via illinois.gov.

Illinois gun control jihadists passed the so-called “Protect Illinois Communities Act” in the dead of night last January. The bill banned all manner of popular self-defense, magazine-fed, semi-automatic firearms, but it provided that existing owners could keep them if they registered them. That registration window closed December 31st with barely a 1% compliance rate.

Now, a Facebook post from attorney Tom DeVore alleges that Governor J.B. Pritzker has explored the concept of using an executive order to declare a state of emergency and demand those who registered those “naughty guns” to surrender them to law enforcement.  Supposedly this would come on the heels of a high-profile mass casualty incident.

DeVore ran for attorney general in the Land of Lincoln in 2022, and lost. However, he did score the first restraining order blocking Pritzker’s precious gun and magazine ban until that was vacated this past fall. That suit is still pending, for now.

Here’s the Facebook Post.

The post has a lot of folks talking and WICS covered it:

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WICS) — A Facebook post making the rounds is raising questions about the assault weapons ban registry and how the Governor might use it.

Thomas DeVore, an attorney with the Silver Lake Group, posted on Facebook that Governor Pritzker could issue an executive order declaring an emergency should there be another mass shooting. That post has been shared almost 450 times.

DeVore’s post says “His executive order would be that all owners of the banned weapons who are on the registry would have to turn them over to the government.” “He told us he heard this information from colleagues who “have the ability to understand what’s going on within the inner circles of legislative leaders and the governor’s office.”

DeVore could not tell us which colleagues he was referring to.

“It was a phone call that I had with them a couple of days before I made that post.” “The conversation developed, as I’ve been told is that the governor’s people have already drafted some language for an executive order under the Illinois Emergency Management Agency Act,” he said.

We reached out to the Governor’s office. They told us the post was “Unequivocally false”.

While the governor’s office might have declared the post “unequivocally false,” it nevertheless aligns with another leak received by Guns Save Life last fall.  In that leak, the governor’s people had gamed out introducing legislation in the aftermath of a high-profile “mass shooting” to require those who registered naughty guns to surrender them within a short time period. Ninety days was mentioned at the time. Legislative allies of the governor would introduce the bill (likely as a gut-and-replace amendment in a shell bill), then legislative leaders would fast-track the bill and get it to the governor in the matter of days.

Those who fail to surrender their registered guns would likely face felony charges and potentially police knocks on their door as well.

The executive order plan also fits with J.B. Pritzker’s love of using emergency executive orders to seize extraordinary powers. He did so with a series of emergency orders related to COVID, and now he’s doing much the same with the illegal alien influx into the Prairie State. What’s one more emergency order in the mix? Especially when few if any have the ability to block his edicts.

Stay tuned.

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73 COMMENTS

    • What makes you think they want criminals to stop being criminals?

      None of the Communist countries of the 20th Century wanted that. For criminals to stop acting all criminal-y was, in fact, counterproductive to those governments.

    • Works for the soon to be Police officers that just a few days, weeks, or months ago were “criminals by statute”. When they Illegally crossed the border for economic asylum versus utilizing the legitimate and legal immigration system, aka work visa.

  3. I expect that any EO would be set to take place in the future, and that it would be stayed as it works its way through the courts. This won’t be a Daley “Bulldoze Meigs Field airport in the middle of the night” kind of thing.

    If they start trying to kick in doors, the police will meet heavy resistance.

    • They won’t have to kick doors. These are the 1% who registered… The 29,357 of 2.41M who registered.

      Those who registered are law-abiding to a fault. They aren’t used to being on the “wrong” side of the law. The vast majority of that 1% (aside from a few NFA items) will be quickly surrendered, IMHO.

      • If they are registered, then they are in compliance with the law and legally entitled to keep their firearms. They would not be required to surrender them. Only the noncompliant would be affected by the EO.

        • That’s cute.
          Before registration became law they were all in compliance then suddenly they weren’t
          The law changes.
          Keep jumping through hoops and you’ll soon be falling off a cliff.

        • Didn’t actually read the article. Sadly typical.
          DeVore’s post says “His executive order would be that all owners of the banned weapons who are on the registry would have to turn them over to the government.” “He told us he heard this information from colleagues who “have the ability to understand what’s going on within the inner circles of legislative leaders and the governor’s office.”

        • That’s not what the article said. The EO would be to seize those guns that had been registered – and send out the JBTs to those who had registered but not turned them in.

        • Those are the 99% that will laugh at such an illegitimate EO. Much laughter is needed in the land of Lincoln.

          I don’t see Illinois Democrats attempting this for two reasons.
          1. The fact that most people would laugh and ignore it would make the state government look impotent.
          2. It would fire up gun owners across the country to never ever register any guns.

        • But the executive order would change that with the “pen and paper” and overnight, it would all change.

        • “The EO would be to seize those guns that had been registered – and send out the JBTs to those who had registered but not turned them in.”

          Well, that would prove they lied about “Nobody’s coming to take your guns” and put a very big target on the backs of those JBT’s that show up to grab them, wouldn’t it?

          The picky little detail with that plan is, it replicates *exactly* the scenario General Gauge found himself in after marching to Lexington and Concord.

          That was, it’s a very long and unpleasant march home when behind every tree and low stone wall was a very pissed-off man with a rifle trying (and often succeeding) to kill them.

          How many cops will be eager to face that?

        • Registration is the step before confiscation. It tells the police where to go to get your guns.

      • Not a lawyer, but…

        I seem to recall that the Supreme Court after Katrina ruled that it was unconstitutional and a violation of the Second Amendment to demand citizens give up their firearms during an emergency.

        I also recall a ruling that a felon in possession of a firearm could NOT be required to report or admit that he had possession of that weapon due to Fifth Amendment protections against self incrimination.

        What am I missing here?

        • Confiscate first.
          Drag it out in the courts for as long as possible.
          Oops we misplaced or accidentally destroyed your property. Here’s a check.

      • Do these people believe that corruption in the chicago police department is just a myth???

        Or are they one of many, who just believe that “that could never happen” to them?

  4. Sounds like the Illinois gun owners were wise to the lie. The question now is whether the police are willing to enforce such an order?

    • History suggests that the following quote is correct:

      “There is no law so obscene that the police would not be willing to enforce it, up to and including the mass execution of innocent children.”

      • Random thought and totally unrelated to LEO enforcing an illegal EO, I just didn’t see a better place to post this: Did you ever notice that cranial placement almost always results in a short workday? So, in the world of rock, paper, scissors, does cranial placement beat center mass everytime? Scary too, how much valuable real estate is exposed beyond body the cover of body armour.

        • A moderately adept understanding of physics and chemistry allows for one person, so inclined, to fire a single shot and negate the body armor of many all at once.

          IRL, the shooting bit is really rather optional.

        • Yes, “things that go bang in the night”, though I’m fairly confident that they go bang during daylight hours too.

      • I watched the cops rough up a mom at a high school football game in 2020 for not wearing a mask. They’ll do what they’re ordered to do.

        • Until the risk outweighs the reward they will do as they are told.

          The odd thing about violence, which can be observed in situations as widely disparate as geopolitics and a school bus stop, is that one not need be violent to modulate the behavior of another. One merely needs to be perceived as potentially willing to become violent and the whole calculation changes for someone who’s abusive or aggressive. That potential, often, doesn’t even need to be very high. Just a few percent is often enough to get it done.

          Evaluate this statement not, at least initially, in terms of what that suggests for your behavior, but rather what it suggests their behavior means in terms of how they consider you.

          From there, ponder why that might be.

        • A family friend owns a body shop in PA. He opened his shop a few nights a week to host AA meetings. The AA group WASN’T allowed to hold meetings at the local church due to covid restrictions.
          They had no fewer then three incidents where PA State police came out attempting to break up the AA meetings. They made it through the door the 1st time, and were told to remove themselves from the private property.
          The other times they never even made it inside.

      • “There is no law so obscene that the police would not be willing to enforce it, up to and including the mass execution of innocent children.”

        That only works when they can control the message. They may control the internet, but they can’t control the phone network when someone tells two friends who each tell two friends, et cetera. It will only work if they totally shut down the cellphone network, and that’s gonna piss a lot of people off. Something really wrong is happening.

        No doubt some will. How long that will last is an entirely different issue.

        Which is why a plan like that makes *zero* sense. So what’s really going on here?

      • As long as they are getting a pay check. I’m sure there are some cops out there, who will kill children on command.

        Just as some gangsters will do the same thing when told to do so. And that has already happened in chicago.
        When a six year old boy was lured into an alley, and shot in the head by a rival street gang.

  5. “We reached out to the Governor’s office. They told us the post was “Unequivocally false”.”

    With the current level of credibility .gov has cultivated over the past few years, assuming this to claim to be what’s “unequivocally false” would be smart bet.

    Of course, it could be true that they didn’t plan to do this but would later grasp that it was within their capacity when circumstances, ahem, “pushed” them to notice this as yet unrealized power.

    Ultimately, for you, your family and your dogs the exact nature of the plan doesn’t much matter when the bullets and flashbangs start flying.

  6. The People of Illinois need to remove Gov. Pritzker using their Sovereign Power, and not wait for another phony election. Look at the election map of the State, almost all Red.

  7. I honestly hope he goes full-send. Let’s see the issue brought center stage. The results would be historic.

  9. New York City gun owners were given the same choice years ago. NYC passed “assault rifle” registration with the promise that registrants would be able to keep their guns. After all those gullible law abiding owners obeyed the law and registered their guns, a new mayor came in and sent cops door to door (using the registration list) to confiscate the guns.

  10. The question for at least 27 other States is will Biden try to do this on a national level? That could be very interesting. “May you live in interesting times”.

  11. I really feel for people in those states. I know not everyone can pack it up move to a place where the laws are less oppressive. Living in the southeast, we take pride in our weapons and carrying them. I could only suggest departure from the liberal mecca’s in mass, which would cause them to go bankrupt since they wouldn’t have the tax revenue from the law abiding citizens anymore. Just ask CA who less than a year ago was crowing about a huge surplus, and 9 months later they have a 68 billion dollar shortfall.

    • “I know not everyone can pack it up move to a place where the laws are less oppressive”

      Demonstrability not true – Every subject living in a “blue” state as Illinoistan (or NY/CA/Co/etc) is there BECAUSE their ancestors packed up and moved to that location. Less testosterone today?

    • “Just ask CA who less than a year ago was crowing about a huge surplus, and 9 months later they have a 68 billion dollar shortfall.”

      And, there are indications they want tax those who leave that state. New York city did that to some folks who bailed on them for places like Florida.

      We just may be on the cusp of the metaphorical ‘Interesting times’… 😉

  14. Is anyone actually surprised that registration leads to confiscation? If so, watch and learn… confiscation of registered weapons occurs every time a gangster regime comes to power.

  22. Citizens really need to decide what they really think is important, that they get from the government???

    If you want a Government social welfare system? Then you accept the tyranny that goes along with it.

    Because as big as this country is, a government social welfare system in all it’s forms.
    Will always come with tyranny.

    • Your post was timely. Here is today’s Bible reading. Note the irony:
      All the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. ‘Look,’ they said to him ‘you are old, and your sons do not follow your ways. So give us a king to rule over us, like the other nations.’ It displeased Samuel that they should say, ‘Let us have a king to rule us’, so he prayed to the Lord. But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for it is not you they have rejected; they have rejected me from ruling over them.’
      All that the Lord had said Samuel repeated to the people who were asking him for a king. He said, ‘These will be the rights of the king who is to reign over you. He will take your sons and assign them to his chariotry and cavalry, and they will run in front of his chariot. He will use them as leaders of a thousand and leaders of fifty; he will make them plough his ploughland and harvest his harvest and make his weapons of war and the gear for his chariots. He will also take your daughters as perfumers, cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields, of your vineyards and olive groves and give them to his officials. He will tithe your crops and vineyards to provide for his eunuchs and his officials. He will take the best of your manservants and maidservants, of your cattle and your donkeys, and make them work for him. He will tithe your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. When that day comes, you will cry out on account of the king you have chosen for yourselves, but on that day God will not answer you.’
      The people refused to listen to the words of Samuel. They said, ‘No! We want a king, so that we in our turn can be like the other nations; our king shall rule us and be our leader and fight our battles.’ Samuel listened to all that the people had to say and repeated it in the ears of the Lord. The Lord then said to Samuel, ‘Obey their voice and give them a king.’

      The people of Illinois have the choice now. Looks like they made it.

  23. Irony in the fact that Illinoisistan, the Land of Lincoln, will be the starting point of the The Second Civil War.

    I pray for intervention from more sane political forces to cease this charade.

    Confiscation order… ?!?
    The Prickster and his commie pals sorely underestimate the populace of patriots in this state. And, BTW, Rednecks ain’t just in the South.

    • “Irony in the fact that Illinoisistan, the Land of Lincoln, will be the starting point of the The SecondThird Civil War.

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