If you live in Chicago, you might be thinking about buying a gun to protect yourself, your family, your home or your business against rioters, looters and assorted violent criminals.
But before you can exercise your Second Amendment rights in Illinois, you need permission from the state police, a process that can take months.
Contrary to a state law that requires approval or denial of an application for a firearm owner’s identification card within 30 days, Illinois residents often wait two or three times as long. Such delays are plainly unconstitutional, according to a federal lawsuit filed last month by the Goldwater Institute on behalf of four Chicago area residents and two gun rights groups.
The violent unrest that Chicago saw this past week is the latest manifestation of a pattern that emerged in late May, when rioters and looters marred protests against police brutality provoked by George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis. Meanwhile, homicides in Chicago are up 55% as of Aug. 2 compared with the same period last year.
All this alarming criminal activity has been accompanied by a surge in applications for FOID cards, which Illinois residents need to legally possess any sort of firearm. On June 2 alone, CBS Chicago reports, the Illinois State Police received nearly 5,000 applications — “more than the previous eight days combined.”
At the time, the State Police said it was taking an average of 51 days to process FOID applications. Since that is an average, it means many people were waiting even longer.