GOP Critical of State Police Backlog on Gun Licenses
Participants in a concealed carry licensing class in downstate Farmer City in 2018.
What may be the surest sign in Springfield there’s light at the end of the pandemic tunnel and life may be getting back to normal is the return of the issue which triggers people on the left and right the most: guns. Four downstate Republican state representatives said Wednesday they want to head back to Springfield to fix what they call the chronically broken Firearm Owners Identification system.
“We can do this. Let us do our job. Let us fix it or Governor Pritzker, you fix it,” said Rep. Avery Bourne (R-Morrisonville).
The 52-year-old system has been plagued with delays for years. Add in a global pandemic and a bad situation only got worse. FOID was established in the late 60’s to help approve gun owners across the state.
Like with other licenses and certifications during the pandemic, the Pritzker administration allowed both FOID cards and Concealed Carry Licenses (CCL) to remain valid during the state’s disaster proclamation and for 18 months afterward, even if the holder has yet to file for a renewal.
Clearing the backlog of applications didn’t get any easier when COVID-19 dramatically work life for everyone, including State Police staff who process the applications.
“It just keeps getting worse and worse,” said Representative CD Davidsmeyer (R-Jacksonville). “COVID can’t be the scapegoat for everything. I understand that it’s extended time but we weren’t even hitting the mark before COVID started and it’s getting worse and worse.”
The squad of downstate Republicans included Rep. Mike Marron (R-Fithian) and Rep. Patrick Windhorst (R-Metropolis). They’ve proposed a series of bills to extend how much time people would have to renew their FOID, allow Illinois State Police to automatically renew some CCL and FOID cards for people in good standing and even get rid of the FOID system altogether.
“This program has not been utilized and administered fairly for the law-abiding gun owners in the state,” Marron said. “It’s done nothing to curb gun violence in Illinois since its creation back in the 1960’s. It’s time for the majority to stop using hateful rhetoric and try to increase restrictions to people’s constitutional rights. We need to clean up this program and get it working.”
While the group of Republicans certainly has no love lost for Governor Pritzker, the Chicago Democrat said Wednesday during his COVID-19 briefing the FOID backlog is a concern of his.
“We certainly want to bring down that backlog,” Pritzker said. “In 2020, there was a significant increase in purchases of firearms, I mean by an enormous amount, so it just exasperated the backlog that already existed that ISP is attempting to whittle down.”
ISP said FOID card applications this year were up 167% compared to 2017. More than 400,000 Illinoisans have applied for a FOID card this year. The number of CCL applicants was more than three times the amount it was in 2014, when the program began.
Pritzker put some of the blame for the backlog on his predecessor, Bruce Rauner. He said funding for the Illinois State Police Firearms Services was “swept” for years with no plan to replenish or refund that money or to expand staffing.
A spokesperson for the Illinois State Police pointed to a laundry list of upgrades made in the last year from hiring more than 20 people to handle applications to streamlining the process to make it more efficient for both state workers and applicants.
ISP said the FOID system is “slowly but steadily improving” but admitted more needs to be done. The average time to get a FOID card is 121 days while a CCL is 145 days. Those are numbers that are “unacceptable” to ISP. The state CCL law requires a 90-day turnaround on the approved applications.
“If the State of Illinois expects the people of Illinois to follow the rules, the least we should expect is for the State Police to do same,” Davidsmeyer said,” There are rules set within the FOID system of how long they have to process these and they’re certainly not following them so I would say we need to suspend the FOID system until they can get it under control and stop violating people’s Second Amendment rights.”
Suspending or eliminating the FOID system may be a conservative pipe dream with the large Democratic majorities in the General Assembly. The question is whether this is an issue with enough pressure on lawmakers in both parties for them to tackle this problem the next time they reconvene in Springfield, whenever that may be.