(The Center Square) – With challenges of Illinois’ gun and magazine ban pending in state and federal courts, more litigation is possible, especially with the requirement certain gun parts will need to be registered.
A memo circulating online confirmed to The Center Square by Illinois State Police said additional requirements of Illinois’ Protect Illinois Communities Act, the state’s ban on certain semi-automatic firearms and magazines, require people with not just the banned firearms, but “assault weapons attachments,” to “have provided an endorsement affidavit signed under oath to the ISP no later than Jan. 1, 2024.” Noncompliance could lead to criminal penalties.
Gun rights advocate Todd Vandermyde said registering parts is unworkable.
“For certain people, it’s going to be impossible to comply,” Vandermyde told WMAY. “I was cleaning off a table the other day and I started finding all kinds of parts that I forgot I had; hammers, triggers, springs.”
The other issue is about what he called “common parts.”
“This part will work on a shotgun that’s legal. It will work on an AR over here that’s illegal,” Vandermyde said. “How do you delineate that?”
Vandermyde expects more legal challenges to try and block the registry.
“There are groups that are having conversations about how to tackle the registration issue as it gets closer to an implementation date, depending on what the court of appeals does,” he said.
State police are set to open the portal for registration beginning Oct. 1, with a Jan. 1 deadline to file an affidavit. Vandermyde questioned the ability for ISP to manage such a system.
“We know how good they are at websites. Just look at the disaster that is the [Federal Firearms Licensees] website,” he said.
Adding to the concern could be that in August 2021, hackers attempted to breach the ISP Firearm Owners ID database, possibly exposing more than 2,000 individuals’ private information.
