Illinois gets expanded background checks
Andy sends us a link to Reuters which explain Illinois’ expanded background checks laws which go into effect January 1, 2014;
Previously in Illinois, where Democrats control the state legislature but remain sharply divided over firearms safety, only adults buying guns from a licensed firearms dealer or at a gun show in the state have been subject to background checks.
Those buyers must have a firearm owners identification (FOID) card, which is issued by Illinois state police to applicants who pass a screening of state criminal and mental health records. The seller must then call a state-run hotline to check that a buyer’s FOID card is valid before making the sale.
Under the new law, gun sales or transfers between private parties, including those that take place online, will have to follow the same system.
I’m sure Lil Killah and D-bag will be taking time out of their busy crime sprees to get FOID cards and comparing them when they transfer their gats back and forth. But the governor thinks that these new laws will actually do something because “Guns are a plague on too many of our communities”. Personally, I think that breeding criminals is a plague on our communities, but I’ve never been in elected office, so what do I know about reality.
Category: Guns
When this fails to curb the violence that plagues Chicago for instance, what will they blame then? They say this is the cure all, the panacea for the violence…..
@1: There are several factors that will be at fault:
1. The program is underfunded and we need to increase the amount of money received.
2. The NRA is working against this.
3. The people running it were poorly trained, the program is just fine.
@1. It doesn’t matter if the new law works or fails. What matters to the anti-gun crowd is they now have a new restriction on legal gun ownership.
What I’ve always found ironic about IL is that it has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the US, yet several major gun makers (Springfield Armory and Armalite chief among them) operate in the state. I wonder how IL would react if these businesses decided to do what Magpul and Beretta are doing?
I doubt it would change much, LebbenB. As I understand IL politics, Chicago/Cook County and surrounding area pretty much trumps the rest of the state – and common sense.
It may be a law, but that doesn’t mean anyone will pay attention to it, especially people in southern Illinois. They just go into Missourie and Kentucky, buy what they want and go back home.
Yeah, that’s all about Chicago and Cook County, not much else. Quinn seems to be loading more and more rocks into his head, but election time is coming up again, and he’s become a politician, instead of someone with some common sense. It’s just a shame that Chicago controls the legislature. Downstaters and people to the northwest don’t have much say about things. It’s still a farm state. I keep hoping that some day, Chicag will implode and Lake Michigan will just cover the remains.
@1, It will somehow be the Republicans fault.
My comments are tongue in cheek sarcasm… No doubt they will blame anyon and evrything else other than their own idiocy. guns, Republicns, the NRA, etc… no blame will be laid on the corrupt and inept Chicago Political machine that only cares for maintaining power like in the good ole days of New York City and Tammany Hall.
There’s another item in the law that is a bit disquieting. From the article Jonn cites:
The new law also requires all gun owners to report any lost or stolen firearms to local police within 72 hours.
It would appear that the law could be construed as a backdoor first step in establishing a gun registry. YMMV.
The SCOTUS forced Ill to create a CCW law, but that clearly didn’t stop the Gov from cramming a poison pill into it. Didn’t the state senate have to override his (threatened?) veto of the law too?
You know, I can’t wait for the day that the idea of making Shitcago into it’s own state or special administrative zone completely separate from Illinois gains enough traction to succeed.
This has nothing to do with controlling crime, and everything to do with herding sheep.
Hondo, I would deffinetly report a lost or stolen gun. I would want a paper trail showing that I was no longer in possesion of the gun in case it is later used in a crime.
@1 The gun control freaks will then decide that firearms and ammo aren’t being taxed enough. Yeah, that’s it!
I’m sure the bad guys will make sure their FOID cards are good before trying to buy a gun. Yeah right. Just like putting up a ‘no guns on school property’. I’m sure the bad guy will see the sign and then go back and put his gun back in his vehicle before entering.
sent off for my FOID card last week.
i’ll be surprised if i get it before 2014 even though the law 30 days.
@2
You forgot:
4. Bush.
Twist: anyone with good sense probably would as well. However, for weapons for which no permit is currently required (I don’t think IL requires a permit for “long guns”), this is a second feed for a potential comprehensive database of weapons. The first is those weapons that by IL law must be registered.
Reporting a lost or stolen weapon is good common sense. The mandatory nature of the requirement and the 72-hour window are what trouble me. Both requirements seem to me subject to abuse by those with an agenda.
Understand what you are saying, Hondo, and have some of the same concerns. However, before we go too far down that road we really need to check to see what the law currently is about reporting crimes in general. Used to be that most jurisdictions had that same requirement for any crime. Perhaps those laws no longer exist?
How will they enforce this law? “No officer, I bought this weapon from some guy at a range before the law went into effect”.
I suppose that it might look bad if the weapon was sold by a dealer after the law went into effect but who is injured? Will prosecutors have more important things to do than push this? Will prosecutors down-state care what the Chicago judges do?
“According to our records, this weapon was sold to John Smith who reported it stolen 6 months ago …” So John is off the hook, the weapon is still in circulation — or not — maybe it wasn’t stolen and John just wanted to detach himself from the weapon. The State will hire some more people to answer the phone. They could get clever and enter the sales data into the same application where the dealer sales go — assuming that the primary database key is not dealer number because private people don’t have dealer numbers. Or they could create a whole new application and database for the non-dealer data. Think of the consulting fees!
It is a law that won’t do anything to enhance public safety. It may not do anything at all except annoy the people who follow it and waste law enforcement time.
The only way any of this would make any sense at all, is if the paperwork on the weapons was being kept on file. That would be the only way to know if someone actually complied with the law or not.
Sounds like registration to me…
This is how effective this idiot law is: On the news tonight, at 9:05PM, 5 people were shot at Wilson and Sheridan, not too far from my old neighborhood. There is blood on the pavement, bullet casings are everywhere, and the guess by police is that an assault weapon of some type was used because of the rapid fire.
The police ‘blue light camera’, which is supposed to deter crime, doesn’t deter anything. This gun control law is laughable, even more laughable than da maire’s vision of using old El tracks as greenways for walking paths.
And on a side note, the Sinaloa drug cartel has its meathooks in almost every neighborhood in Chicago now, according to the FBI’s account in June.
Glad I moved out when I did.
Awright, more civilians collars to get and dog-shooting SWAT team raids to mount with people who don’t attend to gun law minutiae now!