New Illinois Gun Laws for 2022

Yes, it’s that time of year again where I go over the laws the morons in control of the laws of this state try to force down our throats, mostly in violation of the 2nd amendment.

FOID Law Changes

The new FOID law makes following changes beginning Jan. 1, 2022:

• Encourages but does not require fingerprinting. Those who agree to fingerprinting are granted a streamlined process for renewal of FOID Cards and CCL licenses.
• Allows for the Illinois State Police to issue a combined FOID Card and concealed carry license to qualified applicants.
• Requires the Illinois State Police to establish a public database of all firearms that have been reported stolen to be checked prior to the transfer of any firearm to prevent the inadvertent transfer of stolen firearms.
• Tasks a new Violent Crime Intelligence Task Force to conduct enforcement operations against those with revoked FOID Cards.

In addition, the following additional provisions take effect on Jan. 1, 2024:

• Requires person-to-person firearm transfers to be subject to National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) checks at a federal licensed firearms dealer or through online validation by the Illinois State Police using NICS.
• Requires Federal Firearms Licensures (FFL) to keep the record of a transfer for 20 years. On the demand of a peace officer, transferees have to identify the FFL dealer maintaining the transfer record. The penalty for not doing so is a Class A misdemeanor.
• Requires that those who receive a firearm in a private transfer to provide a record of the transfer to a licensed firearm dealer within 10 days. The dealer in turn must keep the record for 20 years and may charge up to $25 for keeping it. The recipient of the firearm must be able to provide the name of the firearm dealer maintaining the record for that particular firearm upon demand by law enforcement. Failure to do so is a Class A misdemeanor.

New Combined FOID/CCL Card

OK, strap yourself in for the idiocy of this one. First, there will be no separate FOID and CCL cards, one yellow, one blue like there has been. Now you’re going to have 1 card, with a CCL indicator in the top right of the card. Here’s what it will look like:

New combined FOID/CCL card. Note the indicator in top right.

So why is this such a problem? Well, to begin with, there is no issue or expiration date on the new FOID card. So it’s up to you to remember when your card expires and file for a renewal at the appropriate time. If you’ve supplied your fingerprints to the state, your FOID will automatically be renewed every time you purchase a firearm. What remains to be seen from the time of this writing is what online sellers are going to do when you send them a FOID without an expiration date to buy guns or ammunition online. We already have to deal with sellers that wont ship to Illinois because they don’t want to deal with the hassle of collecting and keeping track of FOID cards from Illinois, will some of the more wary ones now not ship to Illinois completely because there is no expiration date on the FOID card?

Are you a concealed carry holder or waiting on a card? First, you’ll have the same card, just a CCL indicator on the top right. If for some reason you lose your concealed carry privileges, but not your right to own firearms, you’ll still have the same card, you just won’t be able to carry concealed. The police will still be able to tell if your CCL is valid or not when they run a check on you.

So what idiot came up with this? I wish I knew.

Carrying in Cook County Forest Preserves

It has been illegal to carry inside Cook County Forest Preserves, even in the parking lots. Last year, a federal judge ruled that Cook County’s ban on concealed carry doesn’t pass constitutional muster.

In an opinion issued Sept. 13, U.S. District Judge Robert Dow Jr. said the challenged Cook County firearms regulation is overbroad. But the judge paused enforcement of his ruling for six months, giving the Illinois General Assembly until March 15, 2022, “to act definitively on this matter if it chooses to do so.”

Dow said the government’s evidence doesn’t show how its blanket prohibition serves the need of public safety. Not all sites have high concentrations of visitors or children, there is very little evidence of gun crimes on FPDCC land, including “no violent crimes by CCL holders,” and ultimately nothing that shows a “relationship between CCL holders and threats to public safety, and no evidence that the regulations reduce crime or prevent injuries or death.”

In fact, since the law has been enacted the only people who have been arrested with guns in Cook County Forest Preserves were 4 actual CCL holders who didn’t follow that part of the law. No murderers, no gangbangers, no morons just taking guns out to the preserves to shoot them off. 4. In 8 years. Further proving that this law did not actually prevent any crimes.

Private Tranfers End in 2024

The bullshit ISRA has decided to sit back and not fight against the passage of a “Universal Background Check” bill, and following the NRA in Negotiation our Rights Away, let this bill pass without even fighting it. They gave a weak-kneed response to it saying, “If we fought it they would pass an even worse one” which they did anyway after they passed this. Thanks for nothing, ISRA. Starting in 2024, all transfers will have to go through an FFL. So why is this a bad thing? It’s a backdoor way of creating a gun registry. And we all know the only reason you need to create a registry is so you can go after people later. An FFL does not submit your gun purchase to a state or federal register, but they are required to hold onto those records for 20 years. What happens if an FFL goes out of business in those 20 years? Well then all of their records get turned over to the ATF. The ATF takes those records, puts them all into a nice big database, and there you have it, backdoor gun registry. Please keep in mind that a federal registry was barred by the US Government with the passage of the Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986.

Get Involved in Illinois Politics

We cannot continue to let the tyrants of this state dictate laws to us anymore, especially ones they do not feel they need to obey either. Every year, the anti-gun nuts try to pass a variety of bills, such as a microstamping bill – despite the fact that the technology doesn’t exist yet. Or a serialized ammo bill – so they can get the serial number off of the shell casings left at crime scenes to connect it to a person. But what if that person is using a revolver? A revolver doesn’t eject spent casings, so there goes that. What if I’m a criminal and go to the range and pick up a bunch of spent brass from the other shooters? I go commit my crime, possibly with a revolver, but leave a bunch of spent ammo casings I found at the range at the crime scene? Now innocent people are going to get brought into this. We cannot let the idiotic anti-gun people trample all over the rights of law abiding gun owners.

These are just a few examples of crap that I hear year after year.

What Else To Remember

As law abiding gun owners, it is our responsibility to keep up to date with the laws of the state in which we live, or if we’re concealed carry holders, the laws of the state in which we are traveling through. Check out websites like illinoiscarry.com which keeps track of all new bills to be voted on and passed into law.

Please be safe, train hard, train smart, and train often and I hope to see you all in several of my classes this year. Whether you are a beginner, intermediate, or advanced level of shooter, we have classes for all of you!

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