"FOID card fee eyed for hike" - more fun and games in Illinois

[beevul]

FOID card fee eyed for hike

By Kurt Erickson
[e-mail]

SPRINGFIELD — Spurred by the shooting deaths of five students at Northern Illinois University, Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s former point man on hunting and outdoor issues says the state should charge more for gun licenses.

Former Illinois Department of Natural Resources Director Joel Brunsvold told a House panel Wednesday that the state should boost the cost of a Firearms Owner Identification card to $25 for five years, up from its current level of $5.

The proceeds of the higher fee could help the Illinois State Police conduct more thorough background checks that might reveal an applicant’s prior mental health problems, he said.

The concept arose as the panel gave its approval to legislation backed by Chicago Mayor Richard Daley that would ban semiautomatic weapons and .50 caliber rifles, as well as a plan to limit handgun purchases to one a month per person.

“We’ve been fighting this for years,” said state Rep. Edward Acevedo, D-Chicago, who is the chief sponsor of the proposal to ban semiautomatic weapons.

http://pantagraph.com/articles/2008/02/28/news/doc47c612e097e5c810541779.txt

More fun and games in Illinois...


While Heller probably wouldn't impact FOID cards, hopefully it will put an end to this kind of out of control "ban happy" business.

[jody]

1. I fail to see how raising the price of FOID cards could have prevented the NIU murders. n/t

[Boomer 50]

2. He uses both forms of insanity in one sentence.............

Keep doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result and throw more money at it and the problem will go away.

Stupidity really should be painful.

[Turbo Teg]

5. What a MORON!

If you always do what you always did, you'll always get what you always got. I'd be looking at NIU as a reason for Concealed carry, especially on a school campus. People to stupid to see the truth, unfortunatly there decisions will probably never effect them, only the innocent people that are subject to them. On the other hand, they were voted in by the voters, but maybe that was because of lack of anyone better. Lesser of two evils type deal.

[hendo]

8. Daley

is very corrupt, yet for some reason he keeps getting elected.

[krispos42]

3. So the board approved a ban on semiautomatic weapons and .50-caliber rifles?

I think it's time for Springfield Armory to pack up and move to a different state. Like, Minnesota. Like, the town where I live!

Maybe I could get a job there. That would be awsome!

[benEzra]

4. In 2006 (latest year full data is available), rifles accounted for exactly 4 murders

out of 487.

2006 data:
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2006/data/table_20.html

Illinois

Total murders...............................487
Handguns....................................380
Edged weapons................................46
Other weapons (non firearm, non edged).......35
Hands, fists, feet, etc.......................13
Shotguns......................................6
Rifles........................................4
Firearms (type unknown).......................2

This is grandstanding, and using the blood of innocents to push for an unrelated agenda. The NIU shooting involved a hunting style shotgun and regular-capacity handguns, NOT "assault weapons" or high capacity magazines, but that isn't stopping the demagogues.

[DonP]

6. It's not about gun control, it's about the fee $$$$ increase

Blago is using this tragedy as an excuse to go back on one of his campaign promises to leave the FOID system alone.

This will have zero impact on background checks since he's already stripped the FOID card investigation unit of the Illinois State Police down to the point a judge had to order him to add troopers and staff back to the job. It was taking 4 to 6 months to get a FOID card when the law said it is a 6 week process. Blago doesn't like guns, except those of his bodyguards of course, so he didn't mind making citizens wait to buy them. Then the judge said "or else be in copntempt" and it was an election year for him.

Short Illinois history lesson, for any that care.

Before he ran for his first term Blago made a lot of speeches in Chicago about how he would raise the FOID card fee to $500 a year "to drive guns off the street". His advisors finally pointed out that there was actually more to the state then just Chicago and it would cost him the votes of 1.5+ million Illinois gun owners and all the support of our Downstate Dems. In short, there is no way he'd get elected.

So he changed his tune quickly and made a big deal out of making public promises every chance he got that, if elected, he would leave the FOID card at $5 for the entire time he was in office.

Now, with the state deeply in the hole financially for the fifth year in a row he's looking everywhere he can for more money. Heck, a 500% increase in a fee, times 1.5 million, that's a nice chunk of change for his next no bid trucking contract. It has nothing to do with stopping crime or even with controlling guns more carefully.

He thinks the NIU tragedy will give him the political cover he needs to raise the fee, "for the children". But I'm not sure he'll be able to pull it off. He and Daley have been trying to cram more restrictions down our throats every year and fail every year. The Illinois Gun Owners Lobby Day (I-GOLD) is March 11th and a couple of thousand gun owners show up, mostly in suits and ties, to meet with legislators and let them know one-on-one how important we feel it is and how improtant it is to their electoral chances to leave gun owners alone.

It's our counterbalance to one or two Illinois local Brady people funded by our buddies at the Joyce Foundation and Daley's Handgun Control guy making speeches.

The FOID card is still an abomination, but at the time gun folks were willing to settle for it to avoid Califronia type restrictions.

(On a non gun related side note, our governor was just identified as "Public Official A" in the Tony Rezko Federal case, yes the same Tony Rezko that Obama was playing nice with)

[hendo]

7. Im a little surprised..

That gun ownership at least holds some popularity here. I would have expected the exact opposite. Thank you for showing me how wrong my expectations were.

[benEzra]

10. Why are you surprised?

BTW, I'm one of those eeeee-villlll "AK-47" owners that the repubs at the Brady Campaign are always warning you about.


----------------------
Dems and the Gun Issue - Now What? (written in '04, largely vindicated in '06, IMO)

The Conservative Roots of U.S. Gun Control

[gorfle]

9. Ridiculous

Like an extra $15 a year is going to deter a criminal who probably doesn't bother with the FOID anyway.

Financially punitive measures like this are decidedly anti-progressive. They burden those who can least afford it, while not inconveniencing the rich at all. Is this what we want? Make it so only rich people can afford their Constitutional right?

As for limiting gun purchases to one a month, I wish I could afford to buy one a month. I'm lucky to buy on every two years.

[SteveM]

11. I smell a racist poll tax. Oh, wait! It's just gun control (nt)