EMERGENCY CALL TO ACTION: Witness Slips Needed to Oppose HB562 “Foid Modernization” Bill. Hearing, vote scheduled for Wednesday

HB562 “FOID Modernization” has been posted to the House Judiciary – Criminal Committee hearing tomorrow at 11 AM.  We’re joining other gun rights organizations in calling for our members and supporters to file witness slips in opposition to the bill (CLICK HERE to do so for the FIRST AMENDMENT)  (AND CLICK HERE to do so for the SECOND AMENDMENT).

This bill, as amended in the Senate:
** Adds a new record keeping requirement for private transfers for the recipient of the firearm.  No matter if the gun was inherited, gifted or purchased, it must be registered with an FFL within ten days of the transfer.  A second offense is a felony.  Remember, under Illinois law (the FOID Act), a BB gun shooting over 700fps is a firearm.  
** BONUS:  The recipient gets to pay up to $25 for each firearm registered, assuming he or she can find an FFL willing to accept registrations and retain those records (and face liability if the records are lost).
** DOUBLE BONUS ROUND:  If you as the recipient of the firearm lose your records with details about the firearm and the name of the dealer with which you registered it, you face a FELONY for the second instance.  Fire?  Flood?  Computer failure?  Tough cookies.

POP QUIZ:  What always follows registration?

And for the final round of Jeopardy…  All emergency court orders would revoke the respondents firearm rights without due process.  Not just orders that specifically mention firearms or violence.  And the respondent then gets to pay thousands of dollars to hire an attorney and fight to get his or her gun rights restored.   AFTER POLICE SHOW UP UNANNOUNCED AND SEIZE YOUR GUNS.   Resist if you must, but it won’t go well for you.

Those filing malicious, vexatious or meritless emergency court order applications face little or no risk of sanction.  Proving perjury is difficult on a good day.

There are plenty of other deficiencies in the bill, but these are the highlights.

EVERY gun rights organization and even normally non-active in politics shooting clubs are opposed to this bill because they see the problems it contains.  But not the Illinois State Rifle Association.  They went neutral.

They have publicly registered themselves neutral – in writing – at the committee hearings.  In this latest bill, they are once again listed as neutral (First  Second) per their paid professional lobbyist Eddie Sullivan.

Not only is the ISRA publicly neutral on the bill (it’s been reported at Capitol Fax and in the mainstream media), but privately their lobbyists including Executive Director Richard Pearson are twisting normally pro-gun arms to cast a yes vote.  It’s true.  The ISRA is lobbying for passage of the same bill that GPAC and Moms Demand Action want to see passed into law.

For the record, Guns Save Life is a HARD NO on this bill.

Here is the background info the ISRA is passing out to legislators.

FOID Modernization Act _HB562, SA1 & 2_ Final

ISRA’s Richard Pearson, in his defense, is in a precarious position.  He wants to remain part of the negotiations to make a bad bill less bad. 

Personally, I was trained by some really good NRA lobbyists and they always taught me to never – NEVER – help the other side make a bad bill better.  Let the other side over-reach and if it passes, you fight it in court and have a better shot at winning if it’s over-the-top terrible.

But Richard Pearson’s playing from a different playbook.  He believes we are going to get something whether we want it or not, and a bill that has some redeeming qualities is better than a bill with nothing but bad provisions.  That and he wants to be part of the ruling class.

The question many are asking is whether or not ISRA is undercutting their own court cases challenging the FOID Act on its face with support of this new bill (or at least “neutrality” which translates in language of the General Assembly into “we’re okay with the bill but don’t want to say so publicly.”)

Another question:  Is the ISRA unwittingly serving the role of useful idiots for the radical Democrats pushing this bill?

Meanwhile, the backlash against the ISRA is growing.  National blogs are picking this up and it’s not pretty.

Mom At Arms has some research showing the ISRA supported the FOID Act when it was passed.  Don’t click that link unless you’ve doubled down on your blood pressure meds and given them time to get absorbed into the bloodstream.

What’s more, Illinois’ largest shooting range with 2700 members – The Aurora Sportsman’s Club – has come out swinging in opposition to HB-562 and the ISRA’s handling of it.  Their board of directors voted unanimously last week for a “NO CONFIDENCE” vote in the ISRA’s leadership AND at a member’s meeting this past Saturday, support from the general membership was overwhelming bordering on nearly unanimous.

They put this out to their members – and released it publicly.

On June 10, 2021, the Aurora Sportsmen’s Club Board of Directors unanimously approved a motion of no-confidence in the Illinois State Rifle Association’s (ISRA) leadership in defending Illinois gun owners’ Second Amendment rights. This vote was triggered by the ISRA’s recent “Neutral” position on HB562, the “FOID Modernization” bill.  HB562 is not just an anti-gun bill, it is an anti-gun owner bill.   The exact content of the bill was changing rapidly right up through the end of the session. The Senate and the House passed slightly different versions of the bill, therefore the legislation will require a concurrence vote in the house before making its way to the governor’s desk.  While this bill has not yet passed into law, it is clear to the board of ASC that the ISRA is willing to: Negotiate away your rights Increase the burden on law-abiding gun owners to report private firearms sales through federal firearms license (FFL) dealers Allows for a new $25 Fee/Tax for person-to-person firearms transfers Force retention a record of which gun dealer facilitated any person-to-person transfer for 20 years Make it easier for the state to track private firearms transfers Not require mandatory destruction of information that the state police collect on person-to-person transfers after a prescribed time Allow the State of Illinois to collect your fingerprints for simply owning a gun These are the most recent items from the G-Pac gun-control wishlist that have been peddled to Illinois legislators with the promise that they will reduce “gun violence.”  They are the restrictions that YOU are being asked to swallow in exchange for the privilege of not having to renew your FOID card every 10 years for $10 and unifying your FOID and CCL permits into one card. Short of a complete ban, a gun registry is the dream of the gun control lobby.  This bill, if passed, gets them one step closer to knowing what guns you own, yet the ISRA is “neutral.”  While the official position of the ISRA on this bill was “neutral” we have learned that they were lobbying legislators to support this act. Members of the ASC Board of Directors spoke with ISRA President Doug Mayhall and one of the ISRA lobbyists attempting to convince them that this was yet another slap-in-the-face to Illinois gun owners that would not be received with the open arms that the ISRA believed it would. Our conversations did not have the desired outcome. The increased burdens on gun owners to conduct private transfers will impact all residents of Illinois but will be particularly burdensome for Chicago residents due to the lack of retail FFL dealers in the city. The ASC Board of Directors took no pleasure in this action and hopes that the ISRA will reconsider its position.

Like ASC, we take no pleasure in this action.  But we’re not going to let the ISRA speak for us to members of the Illinois General Assembly on this bill.

GUNS SAVE LIFE URGES A STRONG NO VOTE.