And they are resisting en masse.
The window imposed by the state opened on the first day of October, which means over two-thirds of the registration period is behind us. How is that Illinois effort going?
With scant weeks remaining, the Illinois State Police (ISP) reported that as of Wednesday, only 4,089 gun owners have registered their rifles and shotguns with state authorities. That’s out of 2,415,481 citizens of the state who have Firearm Owners Identification cards.
Illinois is a complicated state. Despite massive swaths of rural farmland that dominate the central and southern regions, its politics are thoroughly dominated by the Chicago area. This creates a situation where state leadership is largely out of touch with those who do not reside in the Windy City
And the state already has some of the nation’s most intrusive gun laws.
Illinois residents must acquire a state license before they are allowed to purchase a firearm. This identification card requires both a national and local background check to be performed. Now, that background check mandate is extended to ammunition.
If a purchaser is from out of state, they are not permitted to buy a weapon in Illinois without securing the license and having the background check performed.
The Firearm Owners Identification card may take months or years to obtain.
For the record, there is zero chance that state gun owners are unaware of the mandated registration and that their guns are covered by the edict. State officials widely publicized the change, and word in such circles travels fast.
ISP officials quickly spread notification of the radical change, instituted by the so-called Protecting Illinois Communities Act. The agency announced the utilization of the Violent Crime Intelligence Task Force to collaborate with local law enforcement and force compliance.
“The task force is a collaborative effort to reduce and prevent illegal possession and use of firearms, firearm related homicides and other violent crimes. All law enforcement officers will have access to the resources the ISP has made available to the public to ensure they are able to identify items regulated by the Protecting Illinois Communities Act.”
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s (D) office sent an alert warning of the dangers of not abiding by the new state law. “With the Jan. 1 deadline a month away, the Governor is confident that gun owners will find the time to register their firearms, as they are required by law to do. Those who don’t, will at some point be breaking the law and will face the legal consequences for doing so.”
No, ignorance is not the reason for massive noncompliance.
Instead, there is a grassroots civil disobedience campaign afoot. It extends from the smallest rural farms to sheriff’s offices across the state. Many in law enforcement have pledged to ignore the Illinois edict and not make good citizens into felons because of the stroke of a pen.
Monroe County Sheriff Neal Rohlfing told local media that the rule only affects those who comply with the law in the first place. “I don’t see anyone in the criminal element going to be standing in line at the state police headquarters or the sheriff’s office here registering any firearms.”
A conviction on such a violation carries a potential of several years in prison and a fine of up to $25,000. Still, the resistance is undeterred.
Steven King is the owner of Metro Shooting Supplies in Belleville and another location in Missouri. “There’s a lot of people that the Illinois State Police would have to go look for and give felonies to. It’s not surprising. They are targeting law-abiding citizens who bought these firearms — legally passed a background check.”
And as for compliance with the controversial new law, the clock is rapidly ticking down to zero.
