By Nick Gale, WLS-AM 890 News
(DEERFIELD, Ill.) — State Sen. Julie Morrison (D-Deerfield) was caught on camera at a recent town hall meeting suggesting the confiscation of the AR-15, a popular sporting rifle.
“Maybe we won’t have a fine at all, maybe it’ll just be a confiscation and we won’t have to worry about paying the fine,” Morrison said in response to a person in attendance who was asking about SB-107, which would ban future purchases of semiautomatic firearms and require a fee and registration of currently held semiautomatic firearms. The video was captured by a member of the audience and posted to YouTube.
Meanwhile, the Illinois State Rifle Association is warning that Morrison is going to run the FOID card bill (SB-1966) in the Veto Session. The bill, which didn’t move in the spring session, would raise the price of a FOID card, require fingerprinting among a number of other restrictions.
SB1966:
Criminalize private transfers, with violations being punished as a Class 4 felony.
Require the recipient of a firearm gifted by a family member to call into Illinois State Police within 60 days to run a background check on themselves, even though they must already hold a FOID.
Allow for the indefinite delay of firearm transfers. Currently, federal law allows a licensed firearm dealer (FFL) to release a firearm after three business days if they have not received any additional correspondence after receiving a “delay” when conducting the initial background check for a firearm transfer. This safeguard prevents the potential shutdown of sales via endless delays and allows law-abiding individuals to take possession of a firearm in a timely manner.
Mandate FOID applicants submit fingerprints, including for renewals.
Increase FOID processing time from one calendar month to thirty business days, which can span more than six weeks.
Reduce the duration of the FOID from ten years to five while also increasing the application fee from $10 to $50, resulting in a 1000% increase in the cost to maintain a FOID for the same amount of time.
Require FOID applicants pay all costs for fingerprinting and processing the background check, totaling around $150 on top of the application fee.
Allow courts to direct law-enforcement to seize firearms from those who have their FOID revoked.
Prohibit those with a revoked FOID from transferring firearms to someone in the same household, which would create confusion in determining the owner of the firearms and would take away the right to self-defense from individuals due to the alleged actions of someone else in their household.
Require the owner of the seized firearms to petition the court to have them transferred to a third party.
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