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This story appeared on Saturday.
An untold number of Illinois gun owners may be unwittingly breaking state law because of a paperwork backlog at the Illinois State Police. State officials acknowledged Friday that a rush of applications and a decline in staffing has resulted in a significant delay in processing Firearm Owner Identification cards.
That means any gun owner whose new card or renewed card hasn’t yet arrived in the mail is committing a felony.
“They are technically in violation at that point,†agreed state police spokesman Lincoln Hampton.
The reason? Contract workers that handled the paperwork were laid off.
Yesterday, the Blagojevich administration announced that temporary workers would be hired to handle the processing and permanent workers would eventually replace them.
The state got rid of a bunch of contract workers last year and we were all assured that state services would not be hurt. I’m not sure yet if this is connected, but, in the meantime, the Illinois State Rifle Association is not amused.
posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Jan 10, 06 @ 4:30 am
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This is and has been every state agencies problem since this bunch has tried to balance the budget on state workers back.UNDER STAFFED,UNDER BUDGET AND IN ABSOLUTE DENIAL THAT THERE IS A PROBLEM.
Comment by DOWNSTATE Tuesday, Jan 10, 06 @ 6:08 am
What’s even better is that the state *knows* who is committing the felony…they have the list. I suggest sending the unprocessed list over to Lisa Madigan’s office. (Of course, ’sending a list over’ probably would require 15-20 contractors working several hundred hours of overtime.)
She can have a whale of a time with a PR campaign designed to inform us of how she is protecting us from the risk those gun nuts are exposing us to. (Unless, of course, she is still too busy prosecuting the cell phone companies for selling calling records).
All this trouble because Illinois residents are woefully undertaxed and are too cheap to pay for proper government services, putting us all at risk.
Comment by Sheesh Tuesday, Jan 10, 06 @ 6:40 am
I do hope a legislator takes up this issue and changes the law so that if someone applies according to ISP guidelines, and ISP can’t process the app in time, then a person’s FOID is extended until the situation is resolved.
Following ISP guidelines, I sent my FOID renewal in over six weeks in advance of my Jan. 1 expiration. I still don’t have my FOID card. Yet they cashed my check in mid-November.
Blago cuts services, sends jobs to Chicago, doesn’t care about people (1.2 million FOID card holders) which all leads me to commit a felony because of his incompetence.
It is scary that the ISP spokesman said it was up to local police departments to determine to prosecute if someone is found to be in violation because of an expired FOID card. I DID NOTHING WRONG. It is the Blagos who should be prosecuted, not me.
Comment by Brad Tusk's Ego Tuesday, Jan 10, 06 @ 6:50 am
Thanks for pointing out where the problem starts Downstate. These FOID cardholders aren’t to blame and shouldn’t be in any trouble. It should go back to Blago, just like Tusk’s Ego indicated.
What a freaking mess. On top of the many other messes that exist because of there not being enough frontline staff. I’m sure management can fix this somehow…….
Comment by Tessa Tuesday, Jan 10, 06 @ 7:06 am
On the last comment .What if your FOID card has expired and you get caught by some badge heavy gung ho type that does not like you?Is that scary and don’t say it can’t happen.You know you will lose your guns and be labeled a crimnal all because the people running this state had no idea what it takes to operate the everyday services the state and LAW calls for.The real sin was they got rid of the people that did and refilled a few jobs with people that thier only experience was walking the campaign trail.The rest of the jobs were actual working people that this group said was not needed.
Comment by DOWNSTATE Tuesday, Jan 10, 06 @ 7:15 am
The proverbial fish rots from the head down. Just take a look at the bright lights who are running the State Police these days, and this is entirely plausible. From the director, who came out of retirement working for Cellini’s riverboat to take the job, to the crack bodyguard detail, to the geniuses who are running up legal bills by the hundreds of thousands of dollars on the Callahan case that they will never win. (In summary:Rhoads murders/Paris/bungled investigation/transfer the whistleblower.)
Let’s see, would the average law-abiding hunter travel through certain parts of our great state with an expired FOID and “trust the local PD” in those areas to cut him any slack if he were, say, African=American in a rural area? Not bloody likely.
This screwup can’t even be fairly blamed on the GRF reductions because the FOID program isn’t funded there. It’s funded off the FOID card fees. Of course, Filan has hit that fund for walking around money at least twice; I’m sure all hunters and gun owners don’t mind a piece of their 5 bucks going to pay for a study to show what a great job CMS has done saving money. How ironic. Guys, remember this when you vote. He did say he wasn’t going to raise the fee;he just left out the part about keeping your $5 and not sending you a new card until they could get around to it.
Alternatively, perhaps the cards are being redesigned with an ad for “Governor Blagojevich’s AllKids Program” on the back and hence the delay.
Comment by Charlton Heston Tuesday, Jan 10, 06 @ 7:59 am
This is an ongoing andpervassive problem. Take a look at HB-136.I think it will be making a comeback.
The statute says they have 30 days to act, if they don’t, Illinois residents face criminal penalites for no fault of their own. Seems the State police have an attitude of catch me if you can.
I can envision something liek the mess Crook County is going through with their court case on the Jail and more guards.
no time to process applications in keeping with the law, but all the timein the world to keep databases on those pesky gun owners.
Gotta love it.
Comment by Todd Tuesday, Jan 10, 06 @ 8:12 am
So…databases? Bad.
Wiretaps without warrants? Good?
Comment by Anon. Tuesday, Jan 10, 06 @ 11:36 am
I sent in my FOID renewal in early october. They cashed my check in november and I received my FOID card in early January. So, I was able to hunt rabbits only once this year thanks to their timely turn around. Oh, my FOID card has my first name mispelled too. How do you misread William and come up with Dillian???
Comment by Anon Tuesday, Jan 10, 06 @ 12:10 pm
Yeah great idea ROD…cut union jobs and hire contract services. I see that worked out well for you.
Comment by SHAFTED STATE EMPLOYEE Tuesday, Jan 10, 06 @ 12:33 pm
Add to this nonsense the huge pile up of appeals of workers’ compensation claims at the Illinois Workers Compensation Commission.
It now takes over two years for an injured worker to get the money due him. Perhaps the Gov will finally appoint the three Commissioners to fill the vacant chairs to hear these appeals?
Comment by injured worker Tuesday, Jan 10, 06 @ 12:41 pm
Just to show you how our state is being ran.This has been an on going problem since Blago done all the job slashing.It took a headline in a paper at primary election time for them to try to correct it.Then instead of hiring state people back he is going to hire a private contractor to do state police work.Doesn’t the law state that these checks have to be done by the state police.Want to bet it will be a no bid contract.
Comment by DOWNSTATE Tuesday, Jan 10, 06 @ 12:53 pm
What else is new, once it makes the paper Blogo takes action, remember the DNA backlog, doesn’t know or care that there is a problem before in comes to light in the media, what is it going to take a trooper getting killed when his 200,000 mile squad car breaks in half as he is going to a call , oh and it is the same car that they have spent $20,000 on to keep it running because it might look bad if Blago buys new cars, oh and do you know that we have $60,000 troopers doing secretary work because they won’t replace them when they leave or retire , and at some Dists the troopers take out the trash and shovel snow from the sidewalks, makes sense to me.
Comment by western Tuesday, Jan 10, 06 @ 7:42 pm
This is a fine opportunity to streamline the process. Make the PDF application a fillable, bar-coded form - the kind that writes it’s own barcode as you enter your details. Then, no data entry is required - you just scan the b/c and the data is put in a d-base. (And then if your card comes back Dilliam when your name is William, it’s your own non-typist fault!)
The dead, fieldless form they have at the website may as well be a Word document, for all the utility it offers.
Time to do more with less.
Comment by Oracle at Delphi Tuesday, Jan 10, 06 @ 8:24 pm
A good investigative reporter should take a peek at the State’s vehicle inventory, by agency, when Rod came in, after the fleet was “reformed and renewed”, and what it is now. There seem to be plenty of shiny new Tauri around Springfield these days.
That’s a double tragedy if the mopes are getting the new cars and the troopers aren’t.
Comment by just wondering... Wednesday, Jan 11, 06 @ 4:03 pm