October 30, 2023
Recently, the Illinois State Police have announced three public hearings to explain the registration scheme of the recently enacted, so-called, “Assault Weapons Ban”. The three upcoming public hearings on the incredibly vague administrative rules surrounding Governor Pritzker’s unconstitutional firearms ban & registration scheme will give 2nd amendment rights advocates another opportunity to show how these rules do not align with recently decided court cases or even the legislative intent that was expressed during debate.
Make no mistake, the ISRA and the groups listed here are opposed to this unconstitutional ban on commonly used firearms and collectively we continue to fight the ban in Federal Court. In the interim, we must represent the interests of the millions of law-abiding firearm owners in Illinois. The vast majority are unaware that they are about to become criminals in the eyes of Governor Pritzker for failing to register their very common firearms. Many of these firearms look nothing like what some members of the public may consider to be an “assault weapon”, yet they are now banned.
The rules proposed are so confusing and vague that the ISRA and the other groups listed have received hundreds of phone calls weekly from firearm owners trying to make sense of the documents and explanations put forth by the Illinois State Police.
For these reasons, the ISRA, in conjunction with the Illinois Federation for Outdoor Resources, Federal Firearms Licensees of Illinois, Freedom’s Steel and others will be testifying at the three public hearings on these rules. It is our intent to get the Illinois State Police on record answering our detailed questions on specific cases where we think the law is extremely vague and potentially will make criminals out of law-abiding citizens.
We strongly encourage firearms owners from around Illinois to peacefully attend the meetings in person to demonstrate support for our organizations and opposition to this attempt at criminalizing legal gun ownership.
The hearings are scheduled for the following dates & times:
Thursday November 2 – 9:30a.m. Room D1, Stratton Office Building 401 Spring St, Springfield, IL 62704
Friday, November 3, 2023 – 9:30 a.m., Room C-600 of the Bilandic Building, 160 N. La Salle Street, Chicago, IL 60601
Monday, November 6, 2023 – 9:30 a.m., Caseyville Community Center, 909 South Main Street, Caseyville, IL 62232
More information on them can be found at https://isp.illinois.gov/Home/AssaultWeapons
Sincerely,
Richard Pearson – Executive Director, Illinois State Rifle Association
Dan Eldridge – President, FFL of Illinois
Todd Vandermyde – Editor, Freedom’s Steel
Scott Bryant – President, IL Federation for Outdoor Resources