While Chicago is known for its draconian gun-control regime, the state of Illinois had yet to impose a background check requirement on private gun sales—until now.
A new gun control bill, which passed the state legislature roughly along party lines, would require all private gun transfers to go through a federally licensed dealer and require the Illinois state police to conduct “enforcement operations” on residents who are no longer permitted to own a firearm.
“In an America, where gun violence has become a scourge to so many neighborhoods, Illinois is taking a commonsense approach to reform and we’re doing so with votes from both sides of the aisle,” Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker said.
“This bill is the most comprehensive reform to our state firearms laws in over a generation,” he added.
SEE ALSO: Massive Delays for FOID Card, CCW Permits in Illinois As Crime Spikes
The legislation imposes some of the country’s strictest requirements on private gun sales. The state already required private parties who wished to sell a gun to verify the buyer’s Firearm Owner Identification (FOID) card and keep a record of the sale for 10 years.
The new bill, along with requiring that private sales go through the NICS background check system, requires new gun owners who purchase a firearm from a private party to report the sale to a federally licensed firearms dealer within 10 days of purchase. The dealer must maintain a record of the sale, and the buyer must provide the name of the dealer if asked by a law enforcement officer.
In this same vein, the bill instructs the Illinois State Police to develop an “Internet-based” database in which they will list the serial numbers of firearms that have been reported stolen. The database will be open to the public and is supposed to ensure that individuals do not sell stolen firearms.
The legislation does not say whether criminal penalties will be leveled against those who neglect to use the system before purchasing a firearm.
SEE ALSO: Illinois Appeals Court Greenlights Ban on ARs, Violators to Face $1K Fines Per Day
Those who fail to keep records of their private gun sales and report those sales to a federally licensed dealer will face a Class A misdemeanor on the first offense or a Class 4 felony for subsequent offenses.
The bill also requires the state’s Violent Crime Intelligence Task Force to run “enforcement operations” against anyone whose FOID card has been revoked or suspended and who has not surrendered their firearms.
The bill instructs the Task Force to prioritize individuals who present “a clear and present danger to themselves or to others.”
The state’s process for vetting applicants and issuing FOID cards has come under fire in recent years, especially during the last six months. The new legislation aims to expedite that process by allowing for electronic FOID cards and electronic fingerprints. The bill also removes the requirement to renew a FOID card if the cardholder also has a valid concealed carry license that has not expired.
The universal background check requirement goes into effect Jan. 1, 2024. All other provisions take effect Jan. 1, 2022.
Now use your task force to truthfully publish the law’s impact that this has on the Chicago daily shootings. If you want to legislate onerous laws on gun ownership that violate law abiding citizens freedoms, you must show the citizens impacted the benefit. If the shooting numbers don’t move, and in fact increase, as they have been doing, rescind the law and focus your efforts on the real issue. Of course, assuming you want the murders to end.
Why is it that the suburbs have many more Guns then the inner cities, yet the suburbs basically have zero shootings? I don’t know about anyone else, but my friends and I have never once said hey let’s go shoot up someone’s house, or let’s go do a drive by. My neighborhood doesn’t have 75 shootings EVERY SINGLE WEEKEND. Wait that’s right my neighborhood has never had a SINGLE shooting. But calling out the obvious doesn’t happen because instantly your called a racist , so the same problems being committed by the same culture of people won’t ever get addressed or resolved. Our inner cities are literally Ruined. It’s never got on to get better. As if things aren’t shitty enough in the cities, the democrats are shoveling record numbers of uneducated, unidentifiable Illegals into those crime ridden streets. Yeah that’s gonna help the already crime infested bullet flying neighborhoods. Maybe pelosi, shumer, Harris, Biden, behar, whooped, Lebron, should all go live in those neighborhoods instead of fleeing to the all white suburbs. I mean with all those white supremacy groups running around why would those mentioned above risk living in Beverly Hills, or the Hampton’s, all those white people they constantly tell us are all apart of the rampant racial disparities going on. I doubt this but, maybe one day some Democrats might actually try and do the honorable thing , fix the broken education system, stop allowing four wheelers from taking over public streets, enforcing gun laws , discontinue misinformation media groups from telling us all the time how we should only see things in black and white. Oh and maybe stop protecting the world’s biggest threat China from buying our politicians, buying our farm land through shell companies, taking our technology, and so many many other Obvious attacks against us all. Not sure where it’s all going , but the track were on , and with China pumping our communities with the most addictive, deadly drugs ever produced, and a failed educational system, the future of our kids and our country is less then optimistic.
There is no such thing as a Democrat with ‘common sense’. ‘Comm-unist ‘ tendencies yes, but not common sense.
Lawful gunowners are not the problem.
Here are this years stats just for CHICAGO:
Shot & Killed: 453
Shot & Wounded: 2190
Total Shot: 2643
Total Homicides: 478
Maybe defunding the cops was a bad idea?
Maybe hamstringing law enforcement is a bad idea?
Maybe blaming everything on Trump and racists is BS?
Maybe dems have no clue as to fixing ANYTHING?
don’t forget blaming Indiana for having 2nd Amendment supportive laws, where these city thugs supposedly get their firearms.
How about a “Task Force” to take out the gang-bangers doing all the shooting or is harassing non-violent citizens an easier “solution” for gutless, brainless politicians?
So glad I escaped this lunatic liberal hell hole of a state eleven years ago.
On February 16th 2019 Gary Martin walked (back) into the Henry Pratt company in Aurora Illinois and shot and killed people AFTER he had his FOID card revoked by the state. He turned in the card but not his guns. The state never went after them. What good are all the laws in the world if the very state that imposes them doesn’t enforce them. I don’t understand why the politicians who enact but then don’t enforce these laws are not in jail. Holder, etc. included.
All of this is predicated on the notion that criminals will abide by the law.
Criminals are part of the Democrat Militia along with Antifa and BLM. Gun control laws have ZERO to do with public safety. If they did there would not be an emphasis on banning modern sporting rifles which are used in crimes less than common tools like hammers.