The beartrap opened up by the Illinois State Police by leaving the gun ban registry open after the December 31st deadline is snaring about twenty people a day on average. Many of those folks, if they have two or more firearms, are admitting under penalty of perjury that they are committing a felony. Possession of even a single accessory like a flash suppressor, pistol grip or a collapsible stock is a felony, yet these people register.
There’s even language there in the process where registrants acknowledge they’re registering items of their own free will!
So why do Land of Lincoln gun owners continue to register guns they’re illegally holding?
That’s a good question.
Some have speculated it might be because they are taking ISP at their word that they (ISP) are not going to charge people who register after January 1st. My response to that is, “When was the last time you heard of the State Police turning a blind eye to a criminal felony?”
Bueller? Bueller?
While it’s true they aren’t going to charge anyone, that’s not their job. Their job is to make arrests and submit reports to prosecutors who make charging decisions. In the meantime, if you’re arrested, you get to spend perfectly good money hiring an attorney.
Why else might they register? They are just so dedicated to remaining law-abiding in their personal life that their conscience won’t allow them to disobey an obviously unconstitutional measure.
Here are the numbers from ISP:
January 1, 2024 – January 31, 2024
Number of Individuals Completing an Affidavit: 6,262
Total Affidavits: 19,361
Firearms Affidavits: 11,802
Accessory Affidavits: 7,459
Ammunition Affidavits: 100
William Kirk, of Washington Gun Law, has made a big deal about the total number of FOID holders not changing for many, many months now. He contends that the new FOID holders skew the compliance rate even lower.
I’d submit an even more significant hypothesis: That people registered guns that were not regulated. A lot of people (and I still run into them five weeks into the new year) that think anything that takes a magazine over 10 rounds for rifles and 15 for handguns must be registered.
Then when I tell them their Glock 17 isn’t a banned gun, they’re suspicious of what I’m telling them.
No doubt plenty of folks registered guns that this defective law did not regulate.
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