{"id":199238,"date":"2024-02-22T09:00:29","date_gmt":"2024-02-22T15:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gunsamerica.com\/digest\/?p=199238"},"modified":"2024-02-22T09:00:33","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T15:00:33","slug":"defiant-stand-illinois-assault-weapon-registration-sees-low-turnout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/defiant-stand-illinois-assault-weapon-registration-sees-low-turnout\/","title":{"rendered":"Defiant Stand: Illinois’ ‘Assault Weapon’ Registration Sees Low Turnout"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Source: <\/strong>Illinois State Police and U.S. Census Bureau 2022 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates
Note:<\/strong> Number of registered items includes assault weapons as well as other banned accessories or ammunition.
Visualization:<\/strong> Amy Qin\/WBEZ.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/path><\/svg><\/span><\/span>Estimated reading time: <\/span>3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A story<\/a> we’ve been tracking for some time now is the abysmal rate at which Illinoisans are registering their so-called “assault weapons” with the state police (ISP).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week, a new report<\/a> from WBEZ<\/em> put this into sharp relief. The NPR<\/em> affiliate found that county registration rates ranged from .5 to 1.8 percent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compliance percentages were determined based on comparing Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) cardholder numbers to the number of people who registered a newly prohibited item under the 2023 Protect Illinois Communities Act <\/a>(PICA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From WBEZ<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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More than 29,000 licensed gun owners \u2014 about 1.2% of the more than 2.4 million statewide \u2014 had registered an assault-style weapon by the Jan. 1 deadline this year, the Chicago Sun-Times reported<\/u><\/a>. And despite the state police keeping the online registration portal open, the numbers remain low across the state. Another 6,200 registered their weapons in January.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not known how many FOID cardholders in Illinois possess guns that are now banned, but gun advocates and experts suggest that number is in the tens of thousands.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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WBEZ<\/em> goes on to cite a 2022 Washington Post-Ipsos poll<\/u><\/a> that surveyed gun owners across America and found that approximately 20 percent confessed to owning an AR-pattern rifle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Assuming that nationwide figure holds true in the land of Lincoln, it means that only a tiny fraction of gun owners are compliant. It also means that the vast majority are holding out!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GunsAmerica reached out to the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) to see why that might be the case. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe low rates of Illinois gun owners registering their Modern Sporting Rifles could be reflective of the lack of faith these gun owners have in Illinois to safeguard and not abuse this information to achieve a political agenda,” said Mark Oliva, the organization’s managing director of public affairs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It could also demonstrate a greater faith among these gun owners that NSSF will ultimately be successful in challenging the unconstitutional law, since NSSF has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to consider the case,” Oliva added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n