Article from For Liberty by Norm Leahy.
Illinois residents seeking to buy firearms are running into a bureaucratic, and likely unconstitutional, roadblock: lengthy delays in processing the applications residents are required to file in order to receive a license to purchase a firearm.
The Illinois State Police is in charge of running the application process, with the intent of preventing guns from falling into the hands of criminals.
The delays have gotten so bad, the Arizona-based Goldwater Institute has filed a federal lawsuit challenging their constitutionality:
Illinois requires its residents to obtain a state license—called a Firearms Owners Identification (FOID) card—before they may purchase or even possess a firearm of any kind. But for {D’Andre] Bradley and the other plaintiffs—who diligently applied for a card and qualify under the law—owning a gun is a virtual impossibility because the state has failed to issue cards within the 30 days required under the law. In fact, the state is taking as long as 60 days, 90 days, or even longer to issue licenses.
“This is a basic civil rights issue,” Bradley says. “Everyone has a fundamental right to self-defense. If the state is going to require a license to exercise that right, then it should at least respect its own time limit.”
In a time when violence and looting are widespread in the Chicago area, it’s not surprising that there’s been a surge in applications for FOID cards. On June 2 alone, the state received nearly 5,000 applications. Yet as Illinoisans are desperate to defend themselves, Illinois’s rule is a severe restriction on their Second Amendment rights. In fact, it’s one of only two states that requires a license (the other is Massachusetts). Without an FOID card, an Illinoisan can’t have even the simplest rifle or shotgun for home defense.
According to the Institute, the state of Illinois “admits that this problem of long delays in fulfilling applications exists.”
The suit seeks a court order requiring the state to issue FOID cards immediately. If the state can’t do so, the Institute wants the court to “strike down the FOID scheme.”
Image Credit: By Cory Doctorow (Flickr) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
wpDiscuz
Owning a gun is right, not a privilege. Especially in a city like Chicago. The only thing that should be checked into is whether or not a person is a felon, or has mental issues. Other then that, there should be no issues on gun ownership. Owning a gun, is not like driving a car. Even drivers licenses are unconstitutional, because it restricts a person’s right to free travel. However a license should be used like a high school ,or college diploma, to prove you know how to drive. Get it once and that’s it.
“or has mental issues”. And there is the RUB. Such laws are being used nation wide to take away rights without a legal hearing. An accusation on a form and suddenly the police raid your home and steal all your legal weapons. No right to a hearing and no right of representation and your inalienable rights have disappeared.
No, the ONLY person that should EVER be able to BEGIN such a hearing is your own psychiatrist and ONLY if he believes you WILL harm yourself or others. Then a legal hearing MUST take place, PERIOD.
Too many evil neighbors and idiots want to use the system to get one over on an honest person who the other person is mad at.. That kind of report should be a felony as it attempts to remove inalienable rights.
The nov 2020 elections are only a few days away . The Illinois voters have a chance to CORRECT THEIR PRIOR VOTES .
Gonna have to apply “IN PERSON” to get my license/permit…. And then buy a gun!!!!
I would love to see this infringement on my second amendment rights struck down. It was put into effect when JFK was shot in Dallas before this you just had to show a drivers license to prove you were a citizen and that was all. I purchased my first firearm (a hand gun) when I was 16 years old. I was taught to use one safely and never used it for anything but target practice. I sold it to a friend when I enlisted in the Army. He in turn sold it to someone down in Texas where he was born and lived his early years.
The entire scheme MUST BE eliminated. It is unconstitutional on its face. A Federal Background check and then issue instantly within 30 days maximum. In fact it should be the other way around, every citizen who does NOT have the right to bear arms should be on a list. Anyone not on that list MUST be allowed instant purchase upon PROOF of identity.
Time to end this crap.