by Justin Thyme
a GSL member
The Illinois FOID card came into being in 1968. After that date, to buy or possess firearms or ammunition became a privilege rather than a right for the Illinois citizen. Since that time government determined IF an Illinois resident could own a firearm… a fundamental Constitutional right protected by our Constitution. To add insult to injury, this FOID card requirement also came with a fee! In other words, the FOID Act converted a fundamental right into a privilege that you had to pay to apply for a license to exercise it!
After the Civil War, poll taxes were introduced to keep poor people, mainly black people, from voting. To permanently put an end to this practice, the 24th Amendment was added to the Constitution. It declared the poll tax was unconstitutional in federal elections and was ratified in 1964. In 1966 the Supreme Court of the United States further ruled states could not levy a poll tax as a prerequisite for voting in state and local elections.
Its time this criteria is applied to the 2nd amendment as well.
I’ll admit I didn’t even consider the unconstitutional aspects of the FOID card back in 1968 at its inception. Now that I’m (much) older and wiser, I am now much more adept at recognizing constitutional issues thanks to Guns Save Life and other like-minded organizations.
For fifty-five years the Illinois citizen has been stripped of a fundamental constitutional right because of a government that wishes to control rather than protect its citizens.
One of the provisions of the FOID card, recently struck down in court, is that if one was arrested for a crime their FOID card would be quickly suspended, even though they had not had their day in court or been convicted of a crime.
One of the mainstays, if not the mainstay, of our legal system is innocent until proven guilty. Surely, this practice constitutes a lack of due process. Why did it take years if not decades to end this practice?
Private information in the hands of the government can be misused. In September of 2010, the Associated Press submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for the names and expiration dates of Illinois FOID card holders. While then Attorney General Lisa Madigan (D-Corruptocrat’s Daughter) was okay with that, Illinois firearm owners were much concerned. Gun owners understand correctly they could be targets for thieves.
Republican sponsored legislation passed both the House and Senate and was signed into law by Governor Quinn (D) in 2011, thereby stopping this list from being published. The constitutional way to prevent this list from being published, leaked or stolen would be that it did not exist in the first place!
As the battle to eliminate the FOID card continues in our courts, we may also wish to consider how many other issues should be under challenge as well. Poor legislation leads to poor outcomes. In the case of the FOID card, millions of residents have been deprived of their constitutional rights without first paying for a permission slip from government, subject to police powers and immediate revocation on the whim of a bureaucrat.
How about you useless dumbasses sue for bruen, and heller??, oh wait there is no money in giving the people their rights after all who is going to want to be a members of the USELESS GSL AND ISRA if we have our GUNS???
So lets start on another rabit trail that will fail in in the courts so we can wait longer to get more money from the people of Illinois GUESS WHAT WE ARE DONE WITH YOU GSL!!! I JUST GAVE 2500$ TO GOA….GOA WILL FIGHT FOR OUR RIGHTS AND WIN!! NO MORE MONEY TRAIN YOUR DONE!!!!
Let’s all abandon GSL because the TROLL says so !!!! There are lawsuits galore over all this and in case you didn’t notice this is a communist police state loaded with bribed or heavily biased judges. I agree ISRA is a waste of time and money unless you’re a Fudd. You must have missed what happened about a month ago when the GSL case to end the 55 years of FOID infringements went to court and was ruled against by another biased Scum O crat owned “judge”. If not for that you’d be flushing your FOID down the bowl, where’s the appreciation for that ? I’m not a GSL ass kisser or anything, shit I ain’t even a member ( I will fix that soon thanks to this bullshit troll letter). GSL is the ONLY decent source for 2A news and the only ones having meetings all over the state trying to wake people up ( went to my first one last month ). You should start your own gun rights group, website, meetings in 11 different locations every month, and of course winning lawsuits. You can show everyone how it’s done. This bullshit state blows dog and GSL is the most effective thing we have as far as state organizations.
Go Bill go
GSL did call out the gun control group calling themselves Illinois Carry years ago for sitting down with Rep. Willis to craft the red flag law saying it respects due process which is an oxymoron. By design, red flag laws do not respect due process. That’s the entire point of them! I do agree with this “troll” that GOA is the way to go. ISRA and the NRA are a drag on us. I’ve heard anti-gun lawmakers in Springfield quote them on anti-2A bills. With friends like the ISRA, Illinois Carry and NRA who needs anti-gun people who wear it on their sleeves? ALWAYS look at what people do, not what they say. The General Assembly roll call votes are the only thing that counts. The Republicans who pretend to be pro-2A can shout that from the rooftops all they want but when they go to Springfield and vote on a bill that rips money out of YOUR pockets to fund Pritzker’s raid and witch hunt foot soldiers to turn you into a felon crusade then you see they aren’t really taking your personal interests to the House floor. They join the Dems to fund operations AGAINST YOU. Yep, I am talking about HB2722 which further funds the ISP. The GOP has this “back the blue” cult-like mentality so far up their butts it blinds them to the fact they are exploiting gun owners for votes then stab them in the back when they get to Springfield. When presented with the choice, the Republican Party will throw YOU, the people under the bus in favor of the police. In this case, the ISP who’s “just doing their job” is to cause material harm on people. The ISP has advocated for red flag and other gun control laws. That changes their status from a law enforcement agency to a political action agency on YOUR dime! Republicans voting yes on HB2722 is the same as giving money to Mom’s Demand Action, Giffords, Everytown and the like. I wish people would accept that the GOP isn’t a fundamentally pro-2A party. They have and are betraying gun owners and I hope any self-respecting gun owner in IL would refuse to vote R the next election for the General Assembly. What does it matter? Illinois is a set in stone blue state. The GOP will not win statewide thanks to their backward morals and values stances, nor will they control any committees in the legislature. We have NOTHING to lose by withholding our support for them. They say that people get the government they deserve. If lessor of two evils is ok with you then don’t be shocked when they betray YOU!
Wow, the hateful trolls are thick as thieves, wish they could review their sixth grade grammar lessons and break up their blather/rants with paragraphs so their propaganda would be easier to comprehend, better to just dismiss their manure piles!
No dumbasses abandon ALL ILLINOIS GROUPS wake up dumbasses we are loosing more of our rights every election cycle !!! They are keeping you all on the plantation with hopeium ….give your money to GOA!!!! Or take your covid shot listen to the rinos and stay where you are while they keep taking your dues and “tax deductible donations” your hard earned money to blow on their out of state houses while I and my brothers take up the fight with GOA
I frankly get the frustration here. Gun control garbage is being rolled back all over the country thanks to Bruen, but not here in this fucking shithole state. Here, the communists are firmly in power, and SCOTUS is defied at every turn. We lose our rights, and nothing seems to help.
My ire is personally directed at SCOTUS, who has the power to intervene in this state, but refuses to act. The corpulent cocksucker that runs this state pisses all over SCOTUS with this nonsense, yet they sit on their hands. Illinois is out of control, and SCOTUS does fuck all.
And to add to this, just look at recent rulings under Bruen:
Are you a pothead? Doesn’t matter – you cannot be prevented from owning guns under Bruen.
Under an OOP for Domestic Violence? You still have the right to own guns.
Law-abiding taxpayer with zero criminal record and a lifetime of being a productive member of society? Fuck you, peasant. Your evil black gun (that has killed fewer people than Ted Kennedy’s Oldsmobile) scares us, so you can’t own it or buy more.
Tell you liberal taskmasters nobody my is taking my guns and nobody is going to know what I have ha ha ha you loose
Congratulations on your suicide