Firearm Owners Identification Card (FOID)

A FOID is required for you to purchase or possess a firearm and ammunition in the state of Illinois. This absolutely should be obtained first. Illinois gun shops will not even let you touch a firearm without it. Out of state ammunition suppliers may ask for your FOID if shipping to you in Illinois.

Note: the FOID (nor any other registration from any state) do NOT authorize concealed carry. The FOID card is $10 and must be renewed every 10 years. There are no minimum age restrictions on applicants.

Online FOID Application to print and mail in.

To complete the FOID application you will need to send along a photograph of yourself measuring 1.25″ W x 1.5″ H. Do NOT send a Passport photo, your application will be rejected.

Although the Illinois State Police (ISP) have indicated their current processing time is more than 50 days Illinois state law requires the ISP to issue or deny your card within 30 days. If you do not have your FOID within 30 days, call your State Representative and advise them of the delay and ask them to call on your behalf. You can call the ISP as well, but expect to wait 60 minutes or longer.

Once you have received your approved FOID you can purchase your weapon, however residents of Chicago should consider waiting to purchase a handgun until they receive their Chicago Firearms Permit (CFP) because of the 5-day registration restriction.

You could choose to patronize a “local” gun shop, but you can purchase a handgun from anywhere in the country. When you purchase a firearm it must be shipped to a Federal Firearm License (FFL) holder, such as a gun shop. Expect to pay between $20 and $50 for this service.

Long guns (rifles and shotguns) may be purchased in Illinois or any neighboring state (IA, IN, WI, MO, KY) and transported by you personally back across the state line. Any state beyond those bordering states requires shipment to a FFL as noted above.

In all cases, the FFL holder must verify your FOID before delivering the weapon to you.

Another option would be to make a private purchase (any legal long gun or handgun) from an individual in the state of Illinois. In this case the seller is required to copy down your FOID information and retain this information for 10 years after the sale.

You could also purchase a handgun from a private party out-of-state but the weapon MUST be shipped to a FFL shop first.

Chicago Firearms Permit (CFP)

Chicago Police Department CFP Requirements

City of Chicago Residents MUST also have a CFP to legally own or possess a firearm within the city limits. A major component of receiving your CFP is to take an APPROVED CFP training class. Make sure the class you take is CFP approved before signing up. Expect to pay between $100 and $150 for a CFP class.

You will also need two passport-sized photos taken which you will submit with the CFP application.

There is a CFP Application PDF to download and print however it has been rumored that the city will only accept their original forms (on yellow card stock) which is available at the CPD HQ. Note that the application must be brought in person to 3510 S. Michigan (Chicago Police Department HQ). Note: The address on Kedzie no longer accepts CFP applications.

The CPD will take your finger prints, check your vision and take the application fee of $100. The initial CFP is valid for 3 years.

Chicago Gun Registration

Once you have a valid FOID and CFP you can now purchase a firearm. Any gun MUST be registered within 5 days of entering the city. The Chicago Police Department gun registration is $15/gun and you can’t register more than one firearm per 30 days.

CPD Gun Registration PDF to download and print however it has been rumored that the CPD will only accept their original forms which are also available at the CPD HQ.

Responsible Gun Ownership

The Chicago city ordinance places additional restrictions on your legal rights regarding your firearms. Although Illinois state law allows you to carry your weapon anywhere on your property (yard, garage, or porch), Chicago’s ordinance allows firearm use only INSIDE your home and not even your attached garage or outside your front door.

To move or possess the firearm beyond the confines of your living space Chicago requires that you have a CFP, the weapon be inoperable (i.e. disassembled), unloaded, in a case designed for gun storage and amunition stored in a separate case. Note that this differs from Illinois state requirements which only require a FOID and allow for ammunition to be in the same container as an unloaded firearm.

Illinois State Police Firearm Transportation Guidelines Download PDF

“This is good news for Second Amendment advocates and our ability to deliver on another public service at the Department. I’m incredibly proud of the dedicated staff at the Department of Justice. Throughout the implementation of the concealed carry law, employees were willing to adjust and go above and beyond to help us reach this point,” Attorney General Van Hollen said.

MADISON — Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen addressed members of the media from the secure license processing area of the Department of Justice (DOJ) headquarters in Madison as the Department marked a milestone this morning – the printing of the 100,000th Concealed Carry License — fewer than six months after 2011 Wisconsin Act 35 took effect.

“This is good news for Second Amendment advocates and our ability to deliver on another public service at the Department. I’m incredibly proud of the dedicated staff at the Department of Justice. Throughout the implementation of the concealed carry law, employees were willing to adjust and go above and beyond to help us reach this point,” Attorney General Van Hollen said.

The DOJ has received nearly 111,000 concealed carry applications since the law took effect November 1, 2011. Wisconsin’s handgun hotline, staffed by employees of the Crime Information Bureau of the DOJ’s Division of Law Enforcement Services, handled a record 88,895 calls in 2011. To date, February 2012 set the record for the highest number of calls to the hotline within a single month at 15,842. All registered firearm dealers are required to call the Handgun Hotline before transferring a handgun. More information about the Handgun Hotline is available at the following link: http://www.doj.state.wi.us/dles/cib/handgunhotline.asp

A video of Attorney General Van Hollen’s remarks from this morning is available at the following link:

MOLINE – Thursday, William Holland, Auditor General of the State of Illinois released the audit of the Firearm Owner’s Identification (FOID) Card Program pursuant to House Resolution 89, which was sponsored by State Representative Rich Morthland (R-Cordova). Rep. Morthland introduced this legislation as a companion to House Bill 3500 that gained statewide notoriety for protecting the privacy of FOID cardholders in Illinois.
The Office of the Auditor General found “significant deficiencies” in the reporting of potentially disqualifying mental health conditions by circuit court clerks through the state. Notably, “…only 3 of the 102 circuit court clerks submitted mental health court orders.”  The report identified shortcomings of the Illinois State Police’s Firearm Services Bureau to respond to phone calls and applications due to understaffing. It was also reported that the State Police spent over $200,000 in overtime pay for three employees over the period of three years.  In light of these facts, the Illinois FOID card program is found to be severely limited in promoting and protecting public safety.

 
“The audit notes the inefficiencies of the entire process,” Morthland stated. “Let’s use this audit as a tool in cooperation with the Illinois State Police to streamline the bureaucracies behind the FOID card process from the application, to the mailing, to the screening of potential applicants.”

Morthland added, “We are exploring legislative options to apply the recommendations by the Auditor General and apply the principles of fiscal conservatism to this understaffed and failing governmental program.”
 
To read the full report and the recommendations visit: http://auditor.illinois.gov/

The National Right to Carry Act, a piece of legislation that would enable those with concealed carry permit in any state to carry in every other state that issues concealed carry permits, has passed the House of Representatives with flying colors. The final vote was almost 2:1 in favor of the bill, mostly along party lines with Republicans in favor of passage. Heck, even one of the representatives from Illinois rose in support of the bill, stating that he wanted the passage of the bill to send a message to the governor of his state that concealed carry needs to be enacted in that state, just like it has been in the other 49 states in the Union. The debate was fascinating to watch — Republicans were calm, cool and collected in their support of the bill while Democrats came off as rambling old coots who didn’t really understand the issues involved. It was like the Nixon / JFK debate all over again. But there was one belle of the ball…

Read more at

Are you in favor of concealed carry in Illinois? Why are we the only state without it?

On Wednesday, November 16, 2011, the House is scheduled consider H.R. 822, the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011, under a rule. The rule provides for one hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on the Judiciary. Additionally, the rule makes in order ten amendments, each debatable for ten minutes each, and provides for one motion to recommit with or without instructions. The bill was introduced by Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL) on February 18, 2011, and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. On October 25, 2011, a mark-up was held and the bill was reported by a vote of 19 to 11.

The bill would allow individuals with valid state-issued concealed firearm permits or licenses to carry a concealed firearm in any other state that also issues concealed firearm permits or licenses, or in any other state that does not generally prohibit the carrying of concealed firearms.

H.R. 822 would require the Comptroller General of the U.S. to conduct an audit of the laws and regulations of each state that authorizes the issuance of a valid permit or license to permit a nonresident to possess or carry a concealed firearm. The audit would include a description of the permitting or licensing requirements of each state that issues concealed carry permits or licenses to persons other than the residents of that state. The audit would also include the number of valid permits and licenses issued or denied (and the basis for the denial) by each state, and the effectiveness of state laws and regulations in protecting public safety.

According to the House Committee on the Judiciary, this legislation would not create a national licensing scheme, but rather would require states that currently permit people to carry concealed firearms to recognize other states’ valid concealed carry permits. H.R. 822 would not affect a state’s ability to set eligibility requirements for its own residents. Instead, the bill would make clear that a person cannot use this federal grant of reciprocity to carry a concealed weapon in his or her own state of residence under another state’s permit license, unless their own state’s laws permit this.

H.R. 822 would not impact state laws governing how concealed firearms are possessed or carried within the various states. All state, federal, and local laws regarding the possession and carrying of a concealed handgun that would apply to a resident of a state will also apply in equal force to a non-resident.

H.R. 822 would address concerns regarding law enforcement’s ability to confirm the validity of an out-of-state concealed carry permit by requiring that a person show both a valid government-issued identification document, such as a license or passport, and a valid concealed carry license or permit. States are currently able to verify the validity of out-of-state concealed permits. The Nlets [En-Lets] system, formerly the National Law Enforcement Teletype System, permits federal, state, and local law enforcement to query handgun permit information for 12 states that have elected to participate in the program. Law enforcement can also use Nlets to send inquiries regarding concealed carry permits directly to out-of-state agencies that issue permits but do not participate in the Nlets concealed carry program.

Forty states currently grant some form of reciprocity for out-of-state concealed carry permits and all of the states are subject to the Firearms Owners Protection Act’s Safe Passage Provision, which provides a process by which non-residents can transport lawful firearms through states where they could not otherwise carry the firearm. Accordingly, law enforcement is already very familiar with handling and verifying firearms carried by non-residents.

Based on the costs of similar GAO activities, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that implementing H.R. 822 would have no significant cost to the federal government. Enacting the bill would not affect direct spending or revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply.

H.R. 822 would impose an intergovernmental mandate as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) by preempting some state laws that limit the ability of nonresidents to carry concealed weapons. Laws allowing individuals to carry concealed weapons vary from state to state and range from allowing anyone to carry such weapons without a permit to prohibiting nonresidents from carrying concealed weapons and requiring residents to complete training and meet other conditions before obtaining a permit. Some states recognize permits issued by other states and some do not. If enacted, the bill would require states that currently do not recognize permits to carry concealed weapons issued by other states to recognize those permits for nonresidents. The costs for states to comply with that mandate would include the cost to change protocols and train law enforcement officers.

The bill also could result in the loss of revenue for some states. Currently, some states issue permits to nonresidents and charge fees ranging from $20 to $140 for those permits. If this bill is enacted and individuals have a permit to carry concealed weapons from their resident state, they would no longer need to purchase nonresident permits in other states they visit. There is no data on how many individuals this may affect, but the loss to states that issue nonresident permits could total a few million dollars annually. CBO estimates that the total costs for states to comply with the preemption, including the training costs for law enforcement and the lost revenue from the nonresident permit fees, would be small and would not exceed the threshold established in UMRA ($71 million in 2011, adjusted annually for inflation).

Amendment No. 1—Rep. Woodall (R-GA): This amendment would protect the rights of states that already have reciprocal agreements in place for the concealed carry of firearms to continue enforcing those preexisting agreements.

Amendment No. 2—Rep. McCarthy (D-NY): This amendment would specify that the legislation can only go into effect in states that have passed legislation enacting the bill.

Amendment No. 3—Rep. Hastings (D-FL): This amendment would exempt states from issuing a carry permit on the basis of state reciprocity which do not require individuals to apply for and complete a carry permit application in person.

Amendment No. 4—Rep. Jackson Lee (D-TX): This amendment would require a state to create a comprehensive database to contain all permits and licenses issued by the state for carrying a concealed weapon and make this comprehensive database available to law enforcement officers from all states 24 hours a day.

Amendment No. 5—Rep. Conyers (D-MI): This amendment would effectively gut the bill by “preserving” state laws with respect to eligibility for concealed-carry.

Amendment No. 6—Rep. Johnson (D-GA): This amendment would require the possession or carrying of a concealed handgun in a state to be subject to “any law of the state that limits the eligibility to possess or carry a concealed handgun to persons who have received firearm safety training that includes a live-fire exercise.’’

Amendment No. 7—Rep. Cohen (D-TN): This amendment would exempt from the bill any state law requiring a person to be at least 21 years of age to possess or carry a concealed handgun.

Amendment No. 8—Rep. Jackson Lee (D-TX): This amendment would require a person intending to carry or possess a concealed handgun in a state to inform that state’s law enforcement of their intentions at least 24 hours prior.

Amendment No. 9—Rep. Cicilline (D-RI): This amendment would limit the bill from taking effect in a state until the State Attorney General, head of the State police, and the Secretary of State have jointly certified that the other state’s carry laws are substantially similar to its own licensing or permitting requirements.

Amendment No. 10—Rep. Reichert (R-WA): This amendment would require a Government Accountability Office (GAO) study on the ability of state and local law enforcement authorities to verify the validity of out-of-state concealed firearms permits.

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Here’s the skinny: Jesus Duenas, a FOID card holder, purchases a handgun after the ban is lifted. He does not immediately obtain a Chicago Firearms Permit. In an unrelated incident, neighbors call police to complain about noise and the police use this opportunity to shake him down. They confiscate the handgun after entering the home without a warrant and charge him with having an unregistered firearm.

The judge dismisses the gun charge because the city of Chicago does not have a gun range and this is why Duenas was unable to comply with the ordinance.

Although the fact that there are CFP holders in Chicago this bit of information seems to be lost on the Fox news anchors. It’s at least good for a laugh.

In all seriousness I hope to get some more details on this case and hopefully from a better journalistic source.

The Denial by the Chicago Police Department of David Lawson’s registration of the subject four SKS Rifles is REVERSED. The subject rifles are not prohibited under the Municipal Code of Chicago, 8-20-170, and therefore, registration certification shall issue accordingly. Pursuant to Section 2-14-102 of the Chicago Municipal Code, this decision is final and subject to review under the Illinois Administrative Review Act.

The chain of events began with David Lawson attempting to register five rifles and a shotgun. Four of the rifles are fixed-magazine SKS rifles. On November 2nd he was mailed a denial for registration.

The denial was based on the premise that the rifles could be modified to accept illegal magazines and did therefor did not meet Municipal Code of Chicago 8-20-170(d).

http://chicagohandgun.org/2011/03/lawson-v-chicago-initial-denial/
http://chicagohandgun.org/2011/08/lawson-v-chicago-mayhem-denied/
http://chicagohandgun.org/2011/08/lawson-v-chicago-victory/

Congratulations to Mr. Lawson and his supports for this victory for law-abiding firearms owners in Chicago.

Joining SAF in the original lawsuit were Action Target, Inc., the Illinois State Rifle Association and three Chicago residents, Rhonda Ezell, William Hespen and Joseph Brown. Their attempts to obtain a temporary restraining order against the gun range ban were twice rejected by the district court. The Appeals Court ruling is severely critical of the lower court’s ruling.

“This is a significant victory that could have strong implications well beyond the Chicago city limits,” said SAF Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “The court is making it clear that cities cannot adopt firearms ordinances that are so deliberately restrictive that they make it impossible for citizens to exercise their rights under the Second Amendment.”

Immediately after last year’s landmark SAF victory in McDonald v. City of Chicago, the city adopted a handgun ordinance that required special permits and mandated range training, but banned gun ranges inside city limits. The city argued that citizens could fulfill their training requirement by visiting a suburban range. In today’s ruling, written by Judge Diane S. Sykes, the Appeals Court observed, “It’s hard to imagine anyone suggesting that Chicago may prohibit the exercise of a free-speech or religious-liberty right within its borders on the rationale that those rights may be freely enjoyed in the suburbs. That sort of argument should be no less unimaginable in the Second Amendment context.” In a concurring opinion, Judge Ilana Diamond Rovner noted, “…the city may not condition gun ownership for self-defense in the home on a prerequisite that the City renders impossible to fulfill within the city limits.”

“What the city tried to do, as the court ruling noted, was ‘thumb its municipal nose at the Supreme Court’,” Gottlieb stated. “City governments, no matter how much they abhor the fundamental right of citizens to keep and bear arms, cannot use clever legal devices to prevent the exercise of that right. As Judge Rovner noted, ‘the city must come to terms with that reality’.”

The Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) is the nation’s oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 650,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control. In addition to the landmark McDonald v. Chicago Supreme Court Case, SAF has previously funded successful firearms-related suits against the cities of Los Angeles; New Haven, CT; New Orleans; Chicago and San Francisco on behalf of American gun owners, a lawsuit against the cities suing gun makers and numerous amicus briefs holding the Second Amendment as an individual right.