Confiscation
Ravenwood notes that the pending assault weapons ban in Illinois would force residents to destroy or turn in guns. If their guns fit the bill, turn them in as they are illegal. And, since Illinois has registration, the task of finding those guns won’t be that difficult.
Mr. and Mrs. America, turn them in.
April 15th, 2005 at 12:23 pm
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No registration after all
|By SayUncle|
Xrlqy Wrlqy, comments in this post that the Illinois FOID does not register firearms. It does, however, regist […]
April 13th, 2005 at 10:04 am
I was born in that God-foresaken state, and I thank God that I live in East Tn.
Molon labe!
April 13th, 2005 at 10:40 am
But… but… but…
They assured us that registration would NEVER lead to confiscation… How can this be???
April 13th, 2005 at 11:48 am
Illinois doesn’t register guns. Chicago does, but “assault” weapons have been banned there since the mid-1990s, along with the rest of the county.
April 13th, 2005 at 11:55 am
Is it unethical to buy guns at ‘firesale’ prices from unfortunate Illinois residents?
April 13th, 2005 at 3:00 pm
Xrlq, are the FOID cards not used for registration?
April 13th, 2005 at 4:39 pm
FOIDs register people, not guns. They don’t tell the state what guns you own, how many, or even if you own a gun at all. Using the FOID registry to track down suspected owners of “assault” weapons would create a huge needle/haystack problem.
April 13th, 2005 at 4:44 pm
‘or even if you own a gun at all’
I would think it safe to assume someone with a FOID would likely own a gun.
April 13th, 2005 at 4:48 pm
I suppose so, if you assume everyone who holds a driver license owns a car. In any event, it is not at all safe to assume all FOID holders, or more than a small fraction of them, own “assault” weapons.
April 14th, 2005 at 10:25 am
“I suppose so, if you assume everyone who holds a driver license owns a car. In any event, it is not at all safe to assume all FOID holders, or more than a small fraction of them, own “assault” weapons. ”
Yea, but it it ever turns into a witch hunt, you know where are the witches are (all it would take would be high profile crime with a banned assult weapon, and someone could use that to go door to door).
April 14th, 2005 at 10:28 am
People sometimes have an incentive to get a driver license as a form of ID. I doubt someone gets a FOID for that purpose.
April 14th, 2005 at 3:18 pm
Of course no one gets a FOID solely for identification purposes, but you do have to get a FOID months in advance of your first purchase, and not everyone who considers purchasing a gun ends up actually buying one. Also, owning a gun is not the sole purpose of holding a FOID. When I lived in the greater Chicago area, a local range required a FOID even to rent their guns, so I’m sure some people got the FOID for that reason, or to allow them to borrow a friend’s gun on a hunting trip, etc.
On balance, I think it is safe to assume that most people who have had a FOID for more than a few months have probably acquired a firearm or two since. Thus, an argument could be made that if all guns were banned without grandfathering, cops may be able to argue that a person’s possession of a FOID, plus his failure to account for having disposed of his guns, constitutes probable cause he owns a gun illegally. This won’t work for “assault” weapons, however, as the FOID can only constitute probable cause that the holder owns some kind of gun, not that he owns a now-prohibited “assault” weapon.
In other words, there are only two problems with your “registration leads to confiscation” argument on FOIDs: (1) they’re not registration, and (2) they won’t lead to confisaction. Other than that, it’s 100% correct.
April 14th, 2005 at 6:26 pm
When the opportunity to move from Illinois to Wisconsin for economic reasons arose seven years ago, the difference in the gun laws was mentioned by my wee wifey as the final clincher. The difference has increased since, making us look prescient.
April 15th, 2005 at 3:59 pm
Xrlq,
FOIDs have already led to confiscation. When FOIDs expired and weren’t renewed, Chicago area police showed up and took people’s guns.