Illinois Gun Control Law Causes ‘Pause’ in Ammo Sales

The constitutionality of Illinois’ Firearms Owner ID requirement has been called in question by several circuit court judges, though the state Supreme Court has managed to avoid a direct ruling on whether or not the permit, which is required to possess a firearm in the home, violates the Second Amendment. 

Thanks to the Illinois State Police, however, gun owners just got a new piece of ammunition to use against FOID: the permitting system puts even those who have received a state-issued permission slip at the mercy of the bureaucracy, who can “pause” aspects of that right whenever officials deem it necessary. 

Illinois gun dealers were unable to sell ammunition Tuesday after a portion of the Illinois State Police website used for verifying firearm owner ID cards was shut down for maintenance.

The state police said the website will remain inactive until 4 p.m. Wednesday.

Ammunition will not be able to be sold until the site is back up, state police spokeswoman Melaney Arnold said. The state police began alerting users May 7 that the system would be down for the 24-hour period, she said.

Retailers depend on the website portal to determine whether a customer’s firearm owner’s Identification card is valid, making it legal to sell a gun to that person.

Gun sales would also be impacted by the website maintenance if it weren’t for another infringement on our Second Amendment rights; the three-business day waiting period on firearm transfers. 

As the Illinois State Rifle Association points out, if the state police decided to suspend the exercise of any other enumerated right because of website maintenance we’d probably be witnessing a meltdown by Democratic politicians in Springfield. 

Make no mistake, what’s being labeled as “system maintenance” is a suspension of Illinois citizen’s 2nd Amendment rights. When the issues caused by this shutdown were brought to the attention of the ISP, they decided to continue anyway. It appears that acting Director Brendan Kelly continues to carry water for Governor Pritzker by interfering with law-abiding citizen’s constitutional rights. 

If law enforcement announced they were stopping protests for 26 hours, or that they could search homes without a warrant for the next 26 hours, we imagine the Governor might intervene. However, since this suspension of rights involves an amendment that Governor Pritzker has shown nothing but contempt for, it will proceed. 

The ISRA says it’s encouraging state senators to keep this nonsense in mind when the vote to confirm the acting director of the ISP takes place, arguing that Brendan Kelly has “shown little to no regard for the rights of Illinois citizens and should be removed from his post.” I don’t disagree, but the problem is that most of the Democratic senators who make up a majority of the chamber either don’t care that folks aren’t able to purchase ammunition for 26 hours or are thrilled to see our Second Amendment rights trampled by the state police in the name of “efficiency.” 

The one silver lining is that those challenging the constitutionality of the FOID requirement can now point to the harm that the system can do to lawful gun owners. As the ISRA argues, “if rights can be suspended for ‘maintenance’, one can only imagine what will happen to them the next time an emergency declaration is made.” 

Our rights cannot be contingent on keeping a website up to date or suspended on a bureaucratic whim. It doesn’t matter if the ISP announced the suspension ahead of time, or that the delay in purchasing ammunition “only” lasted 26 hours instead of a longer period of time. The fact that the state is impeding the lawful purchase of ammunition for even an hour is evidence that the Second Amendment is treated as, at best, a second-class right by Illinois lawmakers, and this is all the more reason for the courts to strike down the FOID system in its entirety.