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One of Governor J.B. Pritzker‘s first acts when he was seated in January of 2019 was to sign the Gun Dealer Licensing Act. On the surface, this is what it is:
Under the new law Pritzker signed Thursday, it would be illegal for retailers to sell guns without being certified by the state. To qualify, stores first must be licensed by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Then, they would have to submit a copy of that license to the Illinois State Police, along with an affidavit declaring it remains valid. Shop owners would have to install surveillance equipment, maintain an electronic inventory, establish anti-theft measures and require employees to undergo annual training.
“Certify” by the state equals pay fees and red tape. Well, in true gun grabber fashion, there’s more to it than that.
On October 24 of last year, the Illinois State Police had a meeting regarding the new law and allowed for public comment from FFL’s and such (although the ISP did not send notice of the meeting to FFL’s, even though this new law is what directly affects them). The full video of the meeting can be viewed here.
The whole thing is such a mess that the ISP doesn’t even know how to fully implement the new law. In early January of 2020, this was filed in an “emergency” because “the deadline for dealers to be in compliance is here and permanent rules have not been approved.” Part of that filing is below:
In short, buy a gun at a brick & mortar FFL and you and your gun are entered into an electronic database that the Illinois State Police can request a record of, therefor they just need to walk into a FFL, request a printout, and BOOM! They have a registry of every gun that was sold and to what person from that FFL. That‘s backdoor registration, folks. This can also be used to hunt down individuals that don’t comply with proposed legislation if it becomes law, like Julie Morrison’s SB107 (register all guns deemed ”assault weapons”). How can it be used to enforce a law like that? Simple!
”Hey Bubba, I’m with the Illinois State Police. Please pull up all sold Bushmaster rifles and print it out. Great! Now, please hand over all of the bill of sales and attached documents“.
And there you have it. I sincerely hope lawyers are getting their briefcases packed and gearing up to fight this law. And just a reminder to the state of Illinois:
There is no comprehensive national system of gun registration. In fact, federal law prohibits the use of the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) to create any system of registration of firearms or firearm owners.
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Let’s not also forget that the State Police can’t even keep up with FOID/CCL cards, so how are they going to regulate and keep track of all of this stuff?????