Confiscation of Registered Guns Begins in Illinois (more info please)

http://www.wmsa.net/kc3_020122.htm ^

[Stew Padasso]

Confiscation of Registered Guns Begins in Illinois

The Chicago Police Department and the Illinois State Police have teamed up to make good on Mayor Daley's pledge that, if it were up to him, nobody would have a gun. Daley and his elite "CAGE" unit are apparently taking advantage of gun privacy loopholes to pinpoint certain individuals for inclusion in the confiscation program.

The ISRA is following up on leads in one case that has disturbing implications. An elderly first-generation Chicago resident was recently paid a visit by an Illinois State Police trooper. After asking to come inside the man's home, the trooper asked if the man owned a gun - to which he replied yes. The trooper then directed the individual to surrender the firearm. The man complied with the officer's demand and the trooper left with the gun. And the story gets better...

The gun in question was purchased legally by the man in the 1970s shortly after he became a U.S. citizen. When Chicago's infamous gun registration scheme went into effect in the early 1980s, the man registered the firearm as per the requirement. However, over the years, the fellow apparently forgot to re-register the firearm, and forgot to renew his Illinois FOID Card.

So...what does this all mean?

In the last edition of The Illinois Shooter, we reported on the activities of a shady taskforce known as the Chicago Anti Gun Enforcement (CAGE) unit. This elite squad, operated jointly by the Illinois State Police, the Chicago Police Department, and the Cook County State's Attorney's Office, supposedly exists to identify illegal gunrunners. However, information gained by the ISRA makes it clear that the CAGE unit is targeting law-abiding citizens, not criminal gunrunners.

Thanks to a ruling by a liberal federal judge, the CAGE unit now has the name of every single person in the United States who, since 1992, lawfully purchased more than one handgun in the period of a week. The CAGE unit also has all the makes, models and serial numbers of those guns. In essence, the Chicago Police Department is now registering guns and gun owners nationwide.

The ISRA has also learned that the CAGE unit has compiled a list of families where more than one person in that family holds a FOID card. Acting on that information, the CAGE unit is now contacting gun shops where those families have shopped, and is illegally registering all guns purchased by those families.

Now, it appears that the CAGE unit is scrubbing Chicago's gun registration list against the list of FOID card holders. Indications are that folks who have let their registrations and FOIDs lapse will have their guns confiscated. We have to wonder how long it will be until state troopers show up at the doors to confiscate the guns of non-Chicago residents who have let their FOIDs expire.

More later as this story develops.

[Stew Padasso]

"An elderly first-generation Chicago resident was recently paid a visit by an Illinois State Police trooper. After asking to come inside the man's home, the trooper asked if the man owned a gun - to which he replied yes. The trooper then directed the individual to surrender the firearm."

Did not see this posted. Any more details would be greatly appreciated!

[oolatec]

Welcome to Daley country...

[Enterprise]

Two things:

First:
Deny entrance without a search warrant.

Second:
Upon production of a search warrant, invoke Miranda/5th Amendment rights to have an attorney present before any questioning. And then STFU!

[Who dat?]

Did not see this posted. Any more details would be greatly appreciated!

Details… don’t know any. I used to have a FFL and Class II (even III) weapons permits. Don’t know anymore. Bad stuff. Don’t get hung up with it or you’ll die too. Seriously.

Everything I had was stolen in 1993 or there-abouts.

I don’t even know anybody that knows anybody with knowledge of things like that. You’ll have better luck, I’m sure. Or something.

[E Rocc]

Travis wrote a pretty good book on how to deal with people like this.

-Eric

[microgood]

Good advice.

[kingu]

However, information gained by the ISRA makes it clear that the CAGE unit is targeting law-abiding citizens, not criminal gunrunners.

I don't like a lot of laws in this nation, and I work to see that those laws are overturned. But if I want to maintain the claim that I'm a law abiding citizen, I certainly make sure that my driver's license and registration are up to date. It's a stupid law, and it should be wiped from the books, but until it is, you can't claim being a law abiding citizen when you're breaking the law by not re-registering the firearm as the law proscribes and keeping current whatever other related licenses and permits are required.

A low level criminal, someone the police should never have targeted, and a complete waste of resources - yes, those are grounds I'd say to fight it, but wrapping oneself in the cloak of innocence actually requires someone to be innocent.

[Travis McGee]

Seems like a pretty good arguement that these CAGE cops are some of the "domestic enemies" we swore to defend the Constitution against.

[Sonar5]

Screw daley, and screw Illinois....

I'm glad I left that cesspool of lib dem hacks...

Let them wallow in being the murder capital of the country while banning guns...

And screw daley, his fat ass wife and her garden for closing meigs field...

[HaveGunWillTravel]

A low level criminal, someone the police should never have targeted, and a complete waste of resources - yes, those are grounds I'd say to fight it, but wrapping oneself in the cloak of innocence actually requires someone to be innocent.

Your position seems to rest on the notion that one is either a law abiding citizen or a criminal. To the extent that it is, I disagree. It is possible to be neither. It is possible to only be an outlaw. Just because someone may be an outlaw, either by accident or on purpose, does not mean that they are a criminal. Secondly, I don't even know if you are really even an outlaw if the law you are failing to abide is itself voided by the supreme law of the land, the constitution, as most gun related laws are. Finally, it is also possible to be a total criminal without ever breaking the law. Being a law abiding citizen is not always the best thing you can be and be a good citizen. It depends on the body of law you are abiding.

[ApesForEvolution]

BTTT

[supercat]

A low level criminal, someone the police should never have targeted, and a complete waste of resources - yes, those are grounds I'd say to fight it, but wrapping oneself in the cloak of innocence actually requires someone to be innocent.

The Supreme Law of the Land says people don't have to register their firearms with anyone. Further, if this guy had a FOID card in his possession that was formerly issued by state police, whther expired or not, he would be in compliance with the FOID statute provided he didn't transport the firearm on any public right of way without disassembling it first.

[kingu]

Does your response also include a bit about what 'is' is?

Yes, I take the position that if one does not follow the laws, not so much the letter of the laws, but the spirit of the laws, then yes, you are not a law abiding citizen. The cloak of apathy doesn't fit well with me.

There are many, many, many wonderful moral arguments as to why this is a stupid and wasteful action by the state against someone who presents no danger to society in any fashion, but trying to squeeze them into the box of innocence just isn't one of them.

There's some facts I'd take into account, however - if the registration program doesn't send reminder notices for renewals for both the card and the gun, that stinks of entrapment to me. There, you would have me. Somehow I doubt that there is a lack of renewal notices.

As to the supreme law of the land applying, I doubt that will happen until we start getting more judges who want to follow the constitution instead of whatever the moment brings to them.

[neverdem]

I thought Bloomboob was bad. Daley truly has a sick mind.

[Hank All-American]

But the idea someone is not innocent because there is a law being broken is circular and ignores the fact there is a specific constitutional provision being violated here to begin with, namely the second amendment. You don't get more clear than the statement that the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Nowhere in the constitution is abortion mentioned or even hinted at, but could you imagine the media uproar if someone were forcing women to register when they had an abortion? This is worse than a double standard, since there is no constitutional provision mentioning abortion.

This is a question of power. An armed citizenry is an empowered citizenry--empowered to protect themselves without reliance on the state. Liberals hate gun ownership not because they abhor violence (as they would have you believe), but rather because gun ownership diminishes the threat of violence to the gun owner. The left believes private property rights are the culprit; if there were no real private property, or if it were equitably distributed, there would be no crime. Crime in their view is therefore an understandable response to the inequities of our society by those "victimized" by an unfair system where some people have more than others. If a person can protect his own private property, he is less likely to submit to political blackmail regarding the redistribution of wealth, and his victimization by a criminal cannot be turned into a referendum on "root causes" of crime because he will be more likely to thwart the crime or kill the perpetrator. This is intolerable to the left, because it stands in the way of their agenda. Criminalizing gun ownership is merely their way of removing this obstacle.

Someone comes to confiscate my gun, he'll get the bullets first. Okay, I guess it depends on the circumstances, but you get my point.

[ikka]

Anyone here remember the scene in the movie "Red Dawn"? The Russian general instructs his troops to go get all the Form 4473's and use those to confiscate the guns.

[risk]

Freedom is never safe. It's vulnerable and unassuming, and there are numerous avenues in a democratic system to advocate limits on freedom without any danger of reprisal or retalliation. Lawyers, judges, legislators, and executive officials can erode it with a single comment. With the stroke of a pen, it scales further back. With a gavel strike, it retreats. With a lawsuit, even a failed one, it reels.

[iThinkBig]

This is VERY true point:

"wrapping oneself in the cloak of innocence actually requires someone to be innocent."

Register as necessary and it won't get confiscated. One isolated case of an old man forgetting doesn't move me to take up real action.

Now on the other hand if a national gun ban was proposed and it somehow passed then I would either move to a different country or start a revolution. The patriots of this country defended us from tyranny with guns. If it ever had to happen again, We The People would happily do it. However, I see us a long ways from this happening.

[Mike-o-Matic]

bump

[Travis McGee]

Daley, the "gun safety crusader," travels surrounded by a phalanx of bodyguards armed to the teeth.