So Illinois passed Public Act 102-1116 that went into effect January 1, 2024. Basically, the convoluted language of the bill requires Illinois gun owners to register their “assault weapons,” any .50 caliber rifle or cartridge for said .50 caliber rifle, and “attachments” for their assault weapons which include:
(i) a pistol grip or thumbhole stock;
(ii) any feature capable of functioning as a protruding grip that can be held by the non-trigger hand;
(iii) a folding, telescoping, thumbhole, or detachable stock, or a stock that is otherwise foldable or adjustable in a manner that operates to reduce the length, size, or any other dimension, or otherwise enhances the concealability of, the weapon;
(iv) a flash suppressor;
(v) a grenade launcher;
(vi) a shroud attached to the barrel or that partially or completely encircles the barrel, allowing the bearer to hold the firearm with the non-trigger hand without being burned, but excluding a slide that encloses the barrel.
Anyway, all Illinois FOID holders who own said weapons or accessories were to register them online by January 1, 2024. Failure to do so is a Class 2 felony, punishable by 3-7 years in prison.
According to this YouTube video, here’s how that’s going:
So compliance seems to be about 2% at best.
Good on ya, Illinois. I wonder how soon there will be an arrest and prosecution under this law?
And I note, if you don’t possess an Illinois FOID card, but do possess a firearm, you won’t be punished under this law. So the gang-bangers who are doing almost all of the shooting are unaffected by this latest “gun control” measure.
Typical.
Your tax dollars at work.
It really is a mess. The law contains a heck of a lot more than just that, and some of it is just plain wacky. The guide the state police put out doesn’t appear as restrictive as the law itself (not shocking for a law so broad) but they can change their rules every year so there’s a risk of something they say is OK now being declared verboten later. They basically could become their own mini BATF.
From my reading, it would be hard for someone with a semiauto rifle and many semiauto pistols to be 100% in the clear. Even I made some modifications just to be safe and I don’t have anything scary.
Our suspicion is that they will find a friendly judge to authorize warrants on a few high profile people fairly soon then brag about it with pictures of captured “arsenals.” Then whenever something bad enough happens they will rush through a new law for a “mandatory buyback” of anything on their list.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go oil up a lever action.
I don’t know if you do that Twatter/X thing, but I’m sure these FOID holders will be papering their Salt Weapons.
https://twitter.com/CWBChicago/status/1665064161380794369?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1665064161380794369%7Ctwgr%5E2cfec03250b186fccada1fa47c4da126c37360ff%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thetruthaboutguns.com%2Fthe-atf-lets-chicagos-machine-gun-toting-thugs-slide-concentrates-instead-on-banning-legal-ar-15-rifles%2F
Same with these folk.
https://twitter.com/Mrgunsngear/status/1720834431148069133
I’m assuming that the definition of “assault weapon” includes semi-automatic action?
Asking because I’ve seen bolt-action rifles that check off 4/6 of those “features”, if you count a bipod as “any feature capable of functioning as a protruding grip that can be held by the non-trigger hand”.
Sure, a bipod is not designed for that and wouldn’t be comfortable to grip that way, but the statute says “capable”, not “comfortable” or “designed”, and we’ve already seen how they feel about stabilizing braces on AR-pattern pistols, which are “capable” of being held to the shoulder even if they’re not “designed” or especially “comfortable” to use that way. (Hell, even a bare buffer tube is “capable” of being held to the shoulder during firing, so then is there any such thing as an AR-pistol, or are they all SBRs?)
And that’s separate from the idiocy of trying to register every .50-cal cartridge. They’re not serialized, so how are they going to track that?
(Yeah, I know it’s not intended to be useful or realistic; it’s intended to harass lawful gun owners and provide the State a way to entrap them. Nothing more or less.)
Wow… I’m glad I live in ‘free’ America! And I wonder how many people this will drive out of Illinois?
Just
Say
No!
The government doesn’t obey the law. Why should we?