Press release . . .
The Second Amendment Foundation and Illinois State Rifle Association have filed suit in U.S. District Court against the Illinois State Police, ISP Director Brendan Kelly and Jessica Trame in her official capacity as Bureau Chief of the Illinois State Police Firearms Services Bureau, alleging they have allowed Firearm Owner Identification Card and Concealed Carry applications to languish for interminable periods, thus violating the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Illinois citizens.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Illinois residents Ryan A. Thomas and Goran Lazic. Plaintiffs are represented by attorneys David G. Sigale of Wheaton and Gregory Bedell of Chicago. The lawsuit is known as Thomas, et.al. v. Illinois State Police, et.al.
The lawsuit, filed in the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division federal court, says ISP âhas swept or transferred funds totaling more than $29,500,000.00 from the State Police Firearms Services Fund, the State Police Operations Assistance Fund, and the State Police Services Fund away from these funds and into other accounts.â According to the complaint, âThe money was to be used for three purposes: administration of the Firearm Owners Identification Card (âFOID Card Actâ), background checks for firearm-related services, and concealed carry licensing pursuant to the Firearms Concealed Carry Act (âFCCAâ). Instead, the more than $29,500,000.00 has been subject to interfund transfers which are ostensibly to be repaid but which have not been, or swept into other accounts without an obligation to reimburse the funds at all.â
âThe sweeping of funds has denied qualified Illinois citizens their rights and the ability to defend themselves and their families,â said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. âBecause of this practice, ISP processing of FOID and concealed carry applications has slowed to a crawl, allowing paperwork to languish. Thatâs not just poor performance, itâs pathetic.â
âThe citizens of Illinois have been delayed getting their FOID cards for months,â added ISRA Executive Director Richard Pearson. âIt is evident that these fund sweeps have caused these delays.â
Thomas has been fighting the system for nearly three years. He had previously held a FOID card and carry license, but lost them simply because he moved out of state for a while. Since his return, to be closer to his children. Lazic had a FOID and CCL appeal pending since 2017 when a charge against him was dismissed and later expunged.
âIt is inexcusable that the ISP has simply allowed these cases to gather dust,â Gottlieb said. âDenial of rights under color of law is an abomination to the Second and 14th Amendments of the Constitution and Illinois state law. ISP has had plenty of time to do the right thing, and didnât. Now weâre asking the court to make them do it.â
The Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) is the nationâs oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 650,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control.
Good. I am so glad this is happening. It took me 87 days to get my FFL after paying 153 for the card and 80ish bucks for the stupid finger printing.
I hate Illinois and I hate that I have to live here for various family, job, and religious reasons…….
$80 for fingerprinting??? My local police did it for free. I should buy them dinner.
I bet…and did they also include a couple of nice front and side photos in that deal?
LOLZ…JK Vic….You just left that door soooo wide open.
Actually I did not get the free fingerprint package with my free portrait deal from the city when I was falsely arrested. The city did offer the free Taser option, but I opted out. They did not give a choice of zip tie color. Considering they just named the newest city park âPride Park,â I should have complained about the color of the zip ties clashing with my underwear. I had to wait for the state for the prints, but it was well worth the wait [sarc] since the state did digital prints. Later, when I applied for my CCW permit, local LE did them for free (not bad considering it was in a very blue part of a deep purple state); however, these were the old fashioned printerâs ink variety.
Thems the best kind.
Downunder firearm owners are not fingerprinted, yet. The police say that only those formally charged are fingerprinted, as stated in the state’s crimes act. The Greens are not happy with this and want firearms owners fingerprinted to solve crimes. Despite the fact that criminals cannot legally own firearms, so legal firearm owners are not committing crimes.
You have two live in IL for “religious reasons”? Can you explain that?
A part of religion freedom is that you have zero requirements to explain yourself to *anyone*… đ
Hey, Geoff, blow it out your porthole, you pathetic SOB. Spare us your crap. It’s a legit question. He doesn’t have to answer it, if he does not, but we do not need you around here playing forum nanny, you insufferable prig.
Insufferable prig?
Oh, my! Someone sure is ‘triggered’. đ
The quality of the trolls in TTAG sure has taken a nose-dive recently, if that’s the best you can do.
So sorry, no can do, ‘boog’, you’re just gonna have to keep right on suffering…
Geoff. This new batch of trolls, is mostly this dude(ze?) changing names every post.
You, Geoff, and your little F-buddy Griz are a couple of total losers. You need to go pound sand and then please ask your parents why they bothered to give birth to the two of you idiots.
And, the more you comment…the more we just put your heads back and laugh.
Suck on it ‘boog’, suck long and hard on it.
You and your little buddies are gonna be crying the blues when the hammer gets dropped on you come June… đ
The Moonies are putting the band back together – in Illinois;-)
No.
We are quite happy with the Moonies running Kahr Arms here in PA. So we are keeping them, thank you very much.
They show up to our annual lobby day and rally. They hold their own pro gun events. They contact and lobby their legislators. They would take lots of gun literature when I was handing it out as a volunteer. All in all the Moonies are better for gun rights here than the vast majority of hunters.
Screwing with allocated fund transfers is one of the few ways to actually see jail time let alone get bounced out of civil service here in NY……. I am at once impressed and horrified that much was missallocated and wish the plaintiffs a crushing victory.
With that kind of a cash flow, they could afford to process applications in short days. And how typically ‘Chicago’ of them to raid that account for uses elsewhere…
When the voters were told that 100% of lottery money was going to go education. It passed. It goes into the general fund, (guess what that means).
The Red Light Cameras were supposed to save childrens’ lives. Guess where the money went.
Guns aren’t allowed in public parks, or near schools. Guess what happens there.
There’s more.
Guess who always getting re-elected. You only go to jail when you “disrespect” the party bosses. That’s why Blago is in a Colorado jail. His crime? Doing what everyone else has done here in the past.
For the lottery all of the money DID go to the schools, it,’s just that they then took the same amount of money from the money for the schools leaving the schools exactly where they were prior to the lottery. At least that is how it was explained to me. As always I could be wrong.
Long ago I was a Ops. Director for a College District in Southern California, Lottery money was infact a restricted account that had to fund ‘technology benefiting students in the classroom’. Which ment every year the teachers all got Brand new Macbook Pro’s and such. Whatever was left found some reason to end up in technology’s budget. I would say at best 10% of it benefited students.
âBecause of this practice, ISP processing of FOID and concealed carry applications has slowed to a crawl, allowing paperwork to languish. Thatâs not just poor performance, itâs pathetic.â
While I appreciate that the lawsuit does not make defamatory and unprovable claims about motivation, this is entirely deliberate. Anyone with half a brain can see that.
Unfortunately I somehow doubt the court will do anything. A right delayed is a right denied for everything (even things that aren’t actually rights) unless it involves guns or the Second Amendment. Perhaps we should start adding reasonable, state regulations for abortion and freedom of the press. For abortion we can have mandatory waiting periods, no more than a certain number of abortions within a specified time frame, a special tax to pay for state inspections and management of abortion clinics, and a minimum number of hours of mandatory counseling before and after. For the press we can add an extensive vetting process to become a journalist (subject to appropriate fees and licensing) and a rating system where your overall accuracy and bias are monitored, and dropping below a certain level will trigger fees for the individual and the parent company, and loss of license allowing your work to be distributed by news networks.
(Note, this is not to spark a debate in the comments, it is to point out the absolute horsepuckey that is “reasonable regulations”)
“Unfortunately I somehow doubt the court will do anything. A right delayed is a right denied for everything (even things that arenât actually rights) unless it involves guns or the Second Amendment.”
Let’s see what happens in a few months, OK? It’s *possible* an ‘attitude adjustment’ may be coming…
pretty sure governor assfat can do whatever he wants with those funds. it’s outrageous either way.
Thinking that if the cards and CCW permits are all issued (at some point, regardless of delay), the plaintiffs will have a difficult identifying the “damage”. It would seem that only persons who were attacked while their permits were awaiting issue, persons who were injured or killed, actually suffered “damages”.
Might be different in other states.
Imagine! Dragging their feet on gun permits, I’m shocked, shocked, I tell ya!!
Florida, by my understanding of their issue regulations, has 90 days to either issue the license or deny, unless that has changed. More states should have a similar “time to issue” law! A no license required is a better idea………
I got mine in Georgey, in six days including two days to clear up an insufficient funds check return. $87.00
The state of Illinois was dragged, kicking and screaming in protest, into court and forced to implement concealed carry under Federal scrutiny. The Democrat powers that be in Chicago and downstate in Springfield have fought the process every step of the way. Even today, under threat of sanctions by the Federal gov’t, Chicago has been trying to throw roadblocks in the path of anyone trying to exercise their rights.
The liberals who run this state, arrogantly pilfer state police funds earmarked for following the law. They are doing everything they can to slow walk due process in the issuance and renewal of FOID cards and concealed carry licenses. Only three states in the entire country are mentioned when it comes to losing people to other states because of repressive laws, high costs, and various forms of harassment. Illinois is one of them. We are long past the point where people should be filing law suits, and demanding the recall of the corrupt politicians who have put us in this cess pool of corruption.
void the FOID!!!
NO COMPLY W/FOID!!!
VOID THE FOID
ALLOW THE PEOPLE THEIR FREEDOM!!!
CIVIL RIGHTS = GUN RIGHTS!! YES EVEN IN COMMIE IL
Vote with your feet. Illinois has nothing to offer that cannot be found in every other state in the nation.
Erik, that’s becoming a short term fix at best. In almost every state the divide between rural and urban is becoming a real problem. Look at Texas (Austin, Houston), Georgia (Atlanta), Tennessee (Memphis, Nashville), Virginia (Richmond, DC suburb sprawl), and Florida (Miami, Orlando). There are other states that are less obvious, Nevada and Pennsylvania are going to shit. There aren’t many states where one or two large urban areas aren’t screwing up the entire state. States like Arizona, Arkansas, and Missouri are getting few are far between.
Yep…I wanna leave ILL-inoyed but Indiana is getting the blue disease. And taxes are going up because of all the lFibturds migrating to Hoosierland. Who would have predicted old Virginia would go to he!! So quickly. HINT: Never knock other states. Your “gun paradise” may be nextđ©
Yeah, sure. Move out! And that is what they all did. They moved to the former Gunshine state and brought all of their liberal anti 2A sentiments with them. I will puke the next time I hear a former New Yorker, Californian, etc., ask me incredulously, âWhen you purchase a new firearm in Florida you do have to register it, donât you? Whaaat?,! You donât have to register it? What kind of craziness is that?!â Me, âIt is illegal to register a firearm in Florida.â Them, âWhat kind of crazy law is that?â Me, âThe Florida Constitution.â
Naw, keep your citizens in your states and stop spreading the contagion đ· to our state. We have enough trouble with the local RINOs and donât need a transfusion of blue blood
and if you are on the way to florida don’t stop in Georgia and vote. We got enough dumbasses moved into Hotlanta as it is.
you got a great lake in arizona? oh.
No but there are lots of beech.
As long as ill-noise politicians can raise the dead on election day, nothing going to change for the betterment of it’s citizens.
“A Right Delayed is a Right Denied”.
– Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.!!
This is intentionally being done to deprive people of their rights through discussion by using time as the tool to do so.
People are always “bitching” about delays, etc. When applying for your FOID,CCL or whatever, give the organization what ever information is necessary. People are always trying to take short cuts, mis-information out and out lies. I’ve had my FOID & CCLfor Il, and non-resident CCL’s for UTAH and Florida, less than 42 days not counting week ends.
Provide the required information without screwing up. Also provide any additional information not required i.e., drivers license number, previous FOID and/or, CCL dates issued together with expiration dates.
If you have any current fingerprint information, additional training, etc., make it known and provide that information, it can only help speed up the process. What’s the problem if you don’t have anything to hide. Any additional information that is not required but truthful will make for a quick and easier process for your FOID and/or CCl’s applications. What’s the big deal.
If you don’t, well then just sit back and wait.
j@r
Illinois took 3 month 14 days to process my very complete renewal application. The ISP only allows applying 3 months before expiration. No shooting range, no buying ammunition or firearms during those 14 days. That’s a right denied for two weeks even doing everything right. Many folks in Illinois are experiencing a gap purely due to incompetent bureaucracy.
And you should have to do all that, WHY? Do even remotely dream that will stop someone from acquiring gun? Your type continues to always amaze me. You think your laws will protect you. Wake up. Somebody about to kill someone isn’t going to worry about some pidly assed gun law. But you already know that. You just want the control you think that will give you. With all your licenses, gut feeling is they for show more than go.
That’s directed at jram01
Ronald Reagan once said that the problem with liberals was that so much of what they know just isnât true. From personal experience I can attest to the fact that slow walking permits is a fact.
Jram, did you also greased between your buttocks and got on all four? If you don’t have anything to hide, why don’t you let cops to search you and your home anytime they feel like it?
ISP has 30 days to issue the FOID. So, even after you bent backwards, they still screwed you.
The whole idea that it’s illegal to even touch a gun or ammo without permission slip from the state is sick. If exercise of a right requires permit from the government, it’s not really a right anymore.
You seem to not understand the difference between a right and a privilege. Would you be ok with needing to apply for the right to vote requiring a fee, fingerprints, and whatever else the king demands?
So hereâs the question: this has been going on for years and part of the money was to be used for finding people with voided foid cards- Much like the person who shot up the dock in aurora. If the state police had had the funds and had done its job ( the state police made a video that they didnât have the resources to pursue the voided foid cards). Wouldnât this be a reasonable example of damages?
“If the state police had had the funds and had done its job ( the state police made a video that they didnât have the resources to pursue the voided foid cards). Wouldnât this be a reasonable example of damages?”
Damages of what nature, and to whom?
In general, what damage do card/permit holders suffer? The overwhelming and vast majority of gun owners are not involved in DGUs. Those who could not carry a firearm, and were injured, would have a challenge to prove the injuries, the attack itself, was directly attributable to denied/delayed permits. Even at that, the redress should be individual, not group.
Lack of range time. Access to skill development. Denial of recreational opportunities.
“Lack of range time. Access to skill development. Denial of recreational opportunities.”
The difficulty is determining the actual dollar loss for any of those activities. Or proper recompense. In the end, only an individual could qualify, not an organization.
GOOD!!
I had a valid CCW permit that would of expired in June 2020 but FOID expired so they revoked the CCW and told me to appeal when renewed FOID card goes through March 2019 got FOID back still waiting so next month will be a year ! Called got the voicemail did not leave any WTF message. Last time I talked to a person telling me it might take a month annd appeal was the wrong thing to do even though that was their advice ! I’m a former CDL Truck driver with HAZ-Mat endorsement fingerprints and multiple FBI background checks for US Customs no criminal record of any kind. Don’t let that FOID expire !
In her majesty’s colony of New South Wales, if you have reapplied for your firearms license before your current one has expired, the old license is legally in effect even after the expiry date until the reapplication is approved or denied.
But most people don’t participate after their current license has expired and their new application has not yet been approved. It is not worth encountering a progressive cop who is eager to prove themselves and firearms owners are considered easy marks.
Move to Kansas !! We Don’t have any of these Unconstitutional Registration’ s !!!
Eh it’s government so what did anyone expect,
My Conceal Carry has been “under review” for almost a year now!!!!
Jesus, joseph, and mary, it would be quicker to become a cop or at least get certified as one.
How absolutely pathetic. Look how far the overton window has moved and you don’t even notice it. You are fighting over getting a PERMISSION SLIP from the government for a GOD GIVEN RIGHT.
You should be fighting to eliminate the illegal permission slip completely…or eliminating those who willfully violate your rights by enforcing this crap.
My Wifes Wallet was stolen , her Foid and Conceal Carry Cards were in it ,We went through the process ,Paid Over $80 to get replacements , They said they dont know when they will arive .
This was the end of DEC 2019 , She cant touch a weapon LEGALLY , So She cant Defend herself LEGALLY if someone should break in our Home , She Cannot Conceal Carry LEGALLY , All because ISP Relocated the money paid for these services , And I Thought it was only the Politicians That Were Crooks !
I’m having an FOID/CCW problem for over a year now. I’m about ready for a lawyer but can’ find one
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