Illinois FOID Card Changes Headed To Governor's Desk

SPRINGFIELD, IL — Lawmakers approved changes to Illinois gun laws this week that backers say will streamline the state's backlogged gun licensing process and keep firearms away from people forbidden to own them.

State representatives approved House Bill 562 by a 75-40 vote Wednesday. A handful of Republicans joined the Democratic supermajority to pass legislation the Senate approved last month by a party-line vote of 40-17.

Instead of requiring fingerprinting for firearm licenses, as an earlier House proposal had done, the bill expected to be signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker includes incentives and data sharing provisions intended to encourage voluntary fingerprint submissions.

The legislation also increases background check requirements for private firearm transfers; allows for the development of a eventual single, electronic gun license; provides additional funding for mental health and state police; and establishes a new stolen gun database, among other things.

The bill was backed by gun safety advocacy groups, while the state's largest gun rights advocacy did not oppose it, suggesting its alternative would have been worse.

"Make no mistake," Sen. Ram Villivalam (D-Chicago), who sponsored and helped negotiate the bill, told Patch. "First and foremost this was legislation to reduce gun violence, and it achieved 90 percent of the original legislation."

Last year's 56 percent increase in the number of gun license applications has left a backlog of tens of thousands of people awaiting processing by the Illinois State Police to be issued firearm ownership identification, or FOID, cards.

"The feedback from FOID card holders on the backlog and other issues with the system were heard loud and clear, and I believe they were addressed," Villivalam said.

While state law calls for applications to be processed within 30 days, the ISP Firearm Services Bureau takes an average of 207 days to process new FOID card applications and 218 days for renewals, according to last month's data.

Currently, providing state police with fingerprints can expedite the processing of concealed carry licenses, or CCLs, but not FOID cards. Only about 5 percent of the state's 2.4 million FOID cardholders have fingerprints on file with state police as part of that process.

Once signed by the governor, HB 562 will offer automatic renewals for those who submit fingerprints. FOID cards must be renewed every 10 years and CCLs every five years.

Plus, the new law would allow ISP to gain access, with permission, to fingerprints already on file with other state agencies, which accounts for 46 percent of cardholders.

According to one of the bill's sponsors, the combination of voluntary incentives could bring the percentage of firearm owner fingerprints on file with the state police up from 5 percent to about 70 percent.

"That's a huge accomplishment," Villivalam said.

"Because the research shows that the more fingerprints you have on file, the more accurate and prompt background checks can be done with the folks that are obtaining FOID cards or concealed carry licenses," Villivalam told Patch Thursday. "If we get one more fingerprint, that means it will make it more accurate and faster for the Illinois State Police to get to the next person and actually get to those that have illegal firearms or should not have firearms."

Meanwhile, Attorney General Kwame Raoul has appealed a ruling from White County Circuit Judge T. Scott Webb that found the Firearm Owners Identification Act unconstitutional in the case of Vivian Brown, who was charged with possessing an unlicensed rifle in her home in March 2017.

“The burden should be on the state to demonstrate that a citizen has committed an act thereby disqualifying them from being in the group of people that already possess a Second Amendment right," Webb said in an April 26 ruling.

"Instead, the opposite is true. A citizen in the State of Illinois is not born with a Second Amendment right. Nor does that right inure when a citizen turns 18 or 21 years of age. It is a façade. They only gain that right if they pay a $10 fee, complete the proper application, and submit a photograph," he said. "If the right to bear arms and self-defense are truly core rights, there should be no burden on the citizenry to enjoy those rights, especially within the confines and privacy of their own homes."

This week's measure was opposed by the National Rifle Association, but the Illinois State Rifle Association remained neutral on the bill.

ISRA Executive Director Richard Pearson said HB 562, the "FOID Modernization Act," was far preferable to the other bill under consideration in Springfield in session, House Bill 1091, the "Fix the FOID" bill. It was inevitable, he said in a message Thursday, that the Legislature was going to pass one of them.

"Like it or not, the FOID card system is the law of the land," Pearson said. "There are thousands of people waiting to get their new or renewed FOID cards. One of the short-term goals of the ISRA is to do what we can to get these FOID cards into the hands of law-abiding citizens. To not do so would make us complicit with the anti-gun side. The long term goal of the ISRA is to get rid of the FOID card."

Villivalam told Patch he hoped the bill would be a model for other states on how to approach gun policy.

"We've taken the most politically divisive issue in the country, I believe," he said, "and we have made monumental strides forward on reducing gun violence."

In another change to state gun laws, a bill sponsored by state Rep. Denyse Wang Stoneback (D-Skokie) was approved to strengthen the Firearms Restraining Order Act.

Stoneback's amendment to House Bill 1092 expands the definition of family members to include former spouses and co-parents, including ammunition and gun parts to the items that can be seized under the so-called "Red Flag" law and increases training and publicity around the state's firearm restraining order process.