New evidence on the origins of the FOID Card (and a complaint to the Dept of Justice)

Years back, this author (typing) released lots of research on the origins of the Illinois FOID card. Cliff notes: it was enacted (Senator Arrington’s brainwork) in order to target the “urban population” during the late 1960’s at a time of civil unrest and distrust between the African American community and law enforcement, which at the time, had no law in effect to arrest black people for just possession of a firearm unless they were a prohibited person. Thus, the FOID card, and yes, shortly after it was enacted, the law was used to increase arrests in “urban areas” in the state. All of that and more in above link.

Recently, a Civil Rights complaint was filed with the DOJ’s Civil Rights Dept, and the DOJ has not issued a response as of 4/1/25. The complaint (please click link, lots more details in there) focuses on the fact that the law was in response to racial tensions at the time, and that otherwise non-criminals who are not barred from gun ownership are forced to jump through hoops to be legal. Now, more evidence has been uncovered that the law was, in fact, a 2-step approach to allow racial profiling.

Months after the FOID Act became law (but hadn’t gone into effect yet), Senator Arrington (author of FOID bill) was pushing for a stop-and-frisk law that would allow law enforcement to stop and, well, frisk them if they “believed” they had committed a felony, were committing a felony, or MIGHT commit a felony. The bill failed because, you guessed it, racial profiling:

FOID went into effect on 7/1/68. A little over two weeks after that, Arrington AGAIN tried to get stop-and-frisk passed:

Going into more detail, YES, this was a “gun control” move:

One more. Going to have to zoom in to read it, sorry.

And here’s another piece prior to the FOID being voted on, when both the FOID and stop-and-frisk were side by side in early 1967:

Keep in mind, once the FOID bill was advancing, the REAL reason it was going on came up w/Arrington (see third pic from this article). This is one month after the above article:

While the measure (stop-and-frisk) didn’t advance successfully statewide either before or after, Mayor Daley of Chicago went ahead and did a city ordinance based on it when it was in the IL Legislature, just in case…..

If you recall on the original FOID article in the beginning of this, here’s Daley on blacks with guns while speaking with President Johnson in 1966 at the start of when things were popping off with racial riots:

https://prde.upress.virginia.edu/conversations/4006262

President Johnson

Do you think that you got things [in]pretty good shape in Chicago?

Daley

Well, as good as they can be, but we need some kind of federal help to shut off this gang situation. This gang situation in New York, in Los Angeles, in Philadelphia, in Cleveland, in Pittsburgh, in Detroit, in San Francisco, is no good. And if it’s allowed to go unabated, if it’s allowed to go and fester the way it is . . . The majority of them are headed, as you know, by ex-convicts: dope pushers, robbery with a gun, all of this kind of business. And there—something has to be done, Mr. President, on the sale of the guns. We—Outside [in] the suburbs—in the city we have control—but what the hell, in the suburbs that are—you go out to all around our suburbs and you got people out there, especially the non-white, are buying guns right and left. You got guns and rifles and pistols and everything else. There’s no registration; there isn’t a damn thing. Something has to be done under this gun law because, you see, the same thing happened in Cleveland that happened here—snipers shooting off the roof at police. Well, where the hell did they get the weapon? There’s no—and, you know, you’ve—they’ve got trouble with this national gun law but after the president’s [John F. Kennedy’s] assassination, someone ought to do something.

President Johnson

We thought so, but you can’t get the Congress to vote for it. These damn Conservation Leagues and everybody comes and—

Daley

[speaking under President Johnson] No, that’s right. [Pause.] Those guys, by God, when they see this thing that’s happening here, and they get the facts—and, you see, a lot of people are trying to put it under the [unclear] of civil rights. [President Johnson acknowledges throughout.] This isn’t civil rights; this is civil disorder. There’s no civ—what the hell? Out here, they’ve been voting—as I pointed out to the good Doctor—we had police captains, Negro police captains, 40 years ago in Chicago. We had chiefs of the Fire Department. Today, we have more Negro commanders in command of districts. Even they’re coming in and talking to me. We have more Negro commanders than any city in the United States. [A television becomes audible again in the background.] We have more Negro fire officers, battalion chiefs, [unclear] in the United States.

And there you have it. The FOID was meant to be a harassment tool, and if Arrington would have gotten his way, the targeting of minorities would have been astronomical. This is proof that the FOID card was, in fact, racially motivated. Let’s hope Trump’s DOJ doesn’t just toss the complaint.