Staff Reports
Well, well, well. It looks like the good people of Illinois are not buying into Governor J.B. Pritzker’s gun ban registry scheme. According to a gun dealer group, the compliance rate for this intrusive and overreaching law is shockingly low, with only a measly 1.22% of firearm owners actually bothering to register their now-banned guns before the January 1 deadline.
Illinois’ gun ban registry compliance low ‘no matter how you slice it,’ group says https://t.co/7uuqHvsNlZ https://t.co/7uuqHvsNlZ
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) January 9, 2024
The governor, in his infinite wisdom, tried to justify this egregious infringement on Second Amendment rights by claiming that knowing who owns “very, very deadly weapons” will help solve crimes. But let’s be real here – law-abiding gun owners are not the ones out there committing crimes. This is just another example of liberal politicians punishing the wrong people while doing nothing to address actual crime.
Dan Eldridge of Federal Firearms Licensees of Illinois pointed out that even if we give the state the benefit of the doubt, the compliance rate might hover around a pitiful 4% to 8%. That’s right, folks, even under the most generous estimates, this gun ban registry is an utter failure.
To make matters worse, those who haven’t jumped through the bureaucratic hoops of this nonsensical law could face criminal charges. You heard that right – Illinois is more concerned with penalizing law-abiding citizens than actually going after criminals.
And if you thought the state’s handling of this debacle couldn’t get any worse, think again. The Illinois State Police have left the registration window open without setting any penalties for late submissions. It’s like they’re making up the rules as they go along, and it’s not a good look for those who are supposed to uphold the law.
To add insult to injury, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition challenging the law, showing just how little respect there is for Second Amendment rights in the legal system. But fear not, because separate federal lawsuits are still in the works, and we can only hope that some common sense prevails in the courts.
In the end, this whole ordeal is just another example of Democrats trying to trample on the rights of law-abiding citizens while doing nothing to address actual crime and violence. The people of Illinois have spoken loud and clear: they won’t stand for this government overreach, and neither should any American who values their constitutional rights.
