(The Center Square) – Gov. J.B. Pritzker says with Illinois’ gun ban rules in place, the registry of now-banned items will be “working the way it should.”
Last year, Pritzker signed a measure banning the sale of more than 170 semi-automatic firearms, magazines over certain capacities, various attachments and certain .50 caliber ammunition. The law included a registry with a Jan. 1 deadline for those with grandfathered firearms and attachments to register with Illinois State Police.
Pritzker gave reasons for why he said only about 30,000 of the state’s 2.4 million Firearm Owners ID card holders have registered now banned guns by the Jan. 1 deadline.
“First, they’re expensive,” Pritzker said Wednesday of the banned semi-automatic firearms. “Second, it’s a fraction of the 2.4 million people who have FOID cards that have an assault weapon, many of them having multiples of them. And third, the rules hadn’t really been approved until yesterday by the committee in the legislature.”
Rules for the registry were sustained Tuesday by the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, but Republicans were able to secure a formal objection.
“JCAR object to the Illinois State Police rulemaking .. because the rulemaking does not meet the criteria … which requires the rule to be simple and clear so that the rule can be understood by the persons and the groups the rule affects,” the approved objection motion said. “The rule contains definitions that are subjective and open to broad interpretation by an enforcing jurisdiction which leaves the regulated public without clear direction with how to comply with the rule.”
Despite the objection, Pritzker said the rules are now in place.
“So now that all of that is said, I actually feel very confident that we’re going to have the registration process working the way it should,” Pritzker said. “And again don’t miss the big headline, you can’t buy an assault weapon in the state of Illinois.”
Illinois State Rifle Association’s Ed Sullivan said the law is a “horrific attempt to hurt law-abiding gun owners.”
“They’re still kind of screwed up,” Sullivan told The Center Square. “I don’t think they were ever going to get clean rules, quite frankly.”
Illinois State Police said they will keep the registry open despite the Jan. 1 deadline, noting the law does not set forth penalties for late registrations.
Federal court challenges against the gun ban continue.
