Uniquely Illinois

It is uniquely Illinois.

We stand alone in requiring a citizen to obtain…and pay for…a firearms owner identification card….or FOID card. Each year, the state rakes in millions of dollars in revenue because of the law. And also uniquely Illinois, in that we are robbing that fund to finance other parts of the budget.

The Illinois Rifle Association is calling out the state for “sweeping” millions of dollars out of the fund administered by the Illinois State Police. Sometimes it takes weeks to get a FOID card, or a conceal carry license. That’s because the state police are undermanned in their duties.  The state has not hired more help. They have instead raided the fund.

 If you apply for a FOID card, it costs you $10 every ten years. Three dollars of that amount goes to the State Firearm Services Fund. Conceal Carry licenses cost $150 for five years. Of that, $120 dollars goes to the fund.

In the last four years, the state has swept more than $13-million dollars out of the fund, diverting it for other purposes. And the beautiful part of this robbery is that there is proposed legislation designed to increase the cost of the cards. In other words, the state is proposing to shake down gun owners for exercising their constitutional 

right…..while they are already shaking down gun owners.

Here’s my question. If this fund is used to do background checks on the people who apply for firearm and conceal carry licenses…do we really need to be robbing it?

Uniquely Illinois.