Metro East Sun

Illinois state Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer (R-Jacksonville) has had enough of the long delay to get a Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) card.

“They’ve been going on for a long time; they got incredibly worse during COVID-19,” Davidsmeyer said during a recent news conference on the issue.

“I Googled the other day ‘how long does it take to get a FOID card?’ and it came up 127 days.  Now that was as of March 5. I think that was the most recent number they had, but they're still way behind.”

Davidsmeyer said he hears nearly every day from frustrated citizens who are unable to get a response one way or the other from government officials regarding their applications for legal gun ownership.

“I have constituents that I've helped get a FOID card that have been waiting for 13 months,” he added. “It is absolutely crazy. Here is the crazy part: My wife's from Ohio; she moved to Illinois when we got married. She pays taxes here, she works here, she does all the things she's asked to do. She does not have a FOID card and if I say ‘hey can you run and pick me up some ammo,’ shotgun shells, whatever if I'm shooting sporting clays or something of that sort, she cannot do it, but if my mother-in-law from Ohio comes to visit she can go do it.”

Davidsmeyer argues it sends the wrong message to Illinois residents who have done nothing to be treated like this.

“We are second-class citizens in our own state, and by the way that FOID card follows us to all the other states,” he said. “This is an impediment to exercising our Second Amendment rights. The state police, I will tell you the rank-and-file, they are great to work with, they are awesome to work with, but they cannot handle this program. They've proven over and over, time and time again that they cannot handle this program. The only answer they’ve come up with (is) maybe we should charge more for it and maybe we should make people apply more often, and from my point of view if you apply more often your backlog is going to get longer.”

Davidsmeyer argues change has to come, and state Sen. Neil Anderson (R-Moline) has presented Senate Bill 1754 as the solution.

SB 1754 seeks to revoke the Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) Act, which was created more than 50 years ago.

“The citizens of Illinois should no longer have to deal with the unnecessary burden of applying and renewing a FOID card that has outlived its purpose,” Anderson said in a post to his website. “It’s just another way of impeding on law-abiding citizens’ Second Amendment right.”

At its core, the bill seeks to eliminate the need to possess an FOID card while keeping other requirements needed for securing a gun card in place. Strict federal background checks would also stay.

Anderson views it as the only way forward.

“The FOID Act is now over 50 years old, making the process very outdated with the advancements made since,” he added. “Illinois is one of the few states to still require this kind of process when purchasing a firearm.”

Illinois State Police recently admitted the time for processing new FOID card applications is taking an average of 121 days, or more than four months.