The Illinois State Police agency is required by law to process FOID applications within 30 days. But the process is taking up to 60 business days, according to agency spokesman Lt. Scott Compton.
"Gun owners can't go shooting, can't go hunting, can't buy ammo, and can't legally own a gun. They're caught in a problem with the state police not complying with their own law," said Richard Pearson of Chatsworth, executive director of the Illinois State Rifle Association.
Under certain scenarios an otherwise law-abiding gun owner without a valid FOID card could be charged with a felony punishable by up to three years in prison, said Todd Vandermyde, a Springfield lobbyist for the National Rifle Association.
Even people who keep guns locked away in their homes while they await their FOID renewal are in technical violation and can be charged with a misdemeanor.
This is why registration of guns or owners is so anti-constituitonal. The gun owners only need to do nothing, and they have become criminals. Even if they take the proper steps, and the *state* fails to do the paperwork, they become criminals. Becoming a criminal is the default state, once registration is enacted.
The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.
Ayn Rand
Mark
To buy a firearm or ammo, or to transport an assembled firearm on a public right of way, the statute explicitly requires a current and valid FOID. To merely possess a firearm within one's dwelling, the statute requires a FOID previously issued by the state police. The use of the terms "current and valid" in one context but not the other has a logical meaning.