It’s too easy to get a gun in Illinois
A woman in white, her arms folded defiantly, looks straight into the camera and talks about Illinois’s failure to recognize women’s right to defend themselves. It’s a YouTube video about gun rights, set to eighties music and featuring more zooms than a Mazda commercial. The video ends with her taking a gun out of her purse, pointing it at the camera and saying firmly, “Demand your right to defend yourself the only way that balances the strength of a hundred-pound woman against a two hundred-pound attacker.” She’s wearing a cross.
The question of whether or not guns are necessary to defend ourselves becomes even more prominent after the recent rash of highly publicized school shootings — at Virginia Tech, Louisiana Technical College and Northern Illinois University. There’s an argument being made that having more armed officers around, even armed students, would prevent or mitigate a gun-related catastrophe on a college campus.
However, the solution can’t logically involve more guns. On the contrary, more guns would only add tension to a situation creeping toward its breaking point. More guns means more possibilities that one of them will be used for violence.
So, as guns continue to find their way into dangerous hands, the system and its safeguards must be examined. The process, from applying for and getting a registration card, to finding a store to sell you the gun, turns out to be less complex than expected. There’s hardly any legislation in Illinois to demand that thorough background checks be performed on persons buying guns — and that’s without even considering online purchases, such as those made by both the Virginia Tech and NIU killers.
In fact, our system makes obtaining a firearm considering less grueling than getting a driver’s license: aside from the price of the gun, it only takes five bucks and a little time.
“The first thing you need is an [Firearm Owners Identification] card,” said John Riggio of Chuck’s Gun Shop in Riverdale, Ill., “You can print one out at isra.org.”
Riggio said that after sending in the form, five dollars and a personal picture to the Illinois State police, they’ll send back the card in about seven weeks, “if you’re a good guy.”
If and when the buyer decides to purchase a gun, the the seller contacts the police for a thumbs up or thumbs down. To obtain a rifle or shotgun, the buyer must be at least 18 years old, and the elapsed time between selection and pickup is 24 hours and one minute. For handguns, a 72-hour-and-one-minute waiting period is required, and the minimum age is 21.
Guns have been as commodified as dental floss and can be purchased either at megastores like Wal-Mart, alongside groceries and underwear or at specialty gun shops. One Illinois gun store was found to have made the most sales in the nation where the gun was later linked to a violent crime. Chuck’s Gun Shop, Riggio’s establishment, sold 2370 guns between 1996 and 2000 that were traced to crimes.
Despite the recent shootings, the constant crime and the inevitable accidents that occur with guns, owning a gun is still a right provided for by the Illinois legislature. The mounting number of tragedies tend to reflect our current gun laws’ glaring shortcomings. Maybe it’s time some laws were reevaluated. Maybe it’s time some lives were saved.
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Don't shoot someone over the scandals of this past week. Or you can return home.
Criminals will have guns. Period. Why further reduce the rights of law-abiding citizens, and their ability to defend themselves? Gun control laws only serve to skew dangerous situations more in favor of criminals.
Dan K
February 27, 2008 at 10:24 am
I’ve done nothing wrong why punish me.The state of Illinois wants to pass a bill that will mark every bullet casing I buy with my personal information ,this will raise the cost of a box of ammo over an average of $200.00 a box, where do you think the bad guys will get there ammo not from a store like I do?They will steal it from me now crime has increased with the possibility of identy theft becouse of a law that only hurts me!
I’ve done nothing wrong why punish me.I live in cook county and this is what my county thinks about me “Larry Suffredin dismisses hunters, sportsmen and other lawful firearm owners as nothing more than criminals waiting to happen,” fuel for the fire,just who is getting cooked here?
I’ve done nothing wrong why punish me? The Illinois State Police is trying to abolish Youth Hunting/Shooting/Gun Safety Programs in Illinois,you must educate our youth this is the first step in gun control!
I’ve done nothing wrong why punish me? Young adults are having Illinois Firearm Owner Identification (FOID)denied by the Illinois state police due to a bogus age restriction they inforced with a excuse ” The Law Might Change “Funny thing is that They still cash the checks,Wait a minute Who are the bad guys again?
I’ve done nothing wrong why punish me?lets look at this in the other direction,Maybe its time we get the right to protect ourselves and I don’t mean like the state police who recommend a nail file or a rat tailed comb or a set of keys to ward off your attacker,or like the Park district police at the state capital who are handing out plastic whistles that are bright yellow, red, blue or green.Park District Police Chief George Judd said, he hopes potential attackers “see the whistles and are scared off.” lets get real here people 48 out of 50 states have some sort of personal protection carry permit,Its proven it works look at all the numbers.Like I’ve been saying I’ve done nothing wrong why punish me.
Bill W
February 28, 2008 at 10:40 am
The “author” of this article is typical of an uninformed anti-gun minded moron that doesn’t have any idea what they are talking about. The part about the police giving the thumbs up or down on a gun purchase is incorrect. Every gun sale is subject to a instant back ground check. That is Federal law. 2370 guns sold in 5 years linked to crime in from one gun shop? Seriously! That is 474 guns per year, over one per every calender day of the year. Wow. Do people really believe that this shop owner ran 2370 back ground checks, all were approved, all customer had FOID cards, and all guns were traced to crimes? Is anyone that gullable? And hey brilliant author person, internet sales have to be transferred through a federally licensed dealer. I know these anti-gun types would have you believe that you can just point and click and have a gun sent right to your door step, no questions asked, but guess what? Doesn’t work that way! BTW, had someone at Virginia Tech or up here in Illinois had a concealed carry permit, the situation could have been halted as fast as it started. Think about it, these jerk off campus shooters know that the campus is gun free. It’s easier to shoot when there is no threat someone will shoot back. Anti-gun people, like the author of this article, need to wake up and understand that sometimes bad people do bad things, and the responsible, law abiding citizen should be allowed to protect themselves.
Mike
March 7, 2008 at 10:18 pm
I’m sorry, did you just question Sam’s authorship of the article? “The ‘author’…” You people just can’t let journalists make reports. Did you do your own check on the store that sold those guns? Did you even read the hyperlinked pdf of his source? It’s despicable that a small group of gun fanatics will bombard every local article with misinformation and terror-insighting rhetoric that’s based not on information but on what a bunch of gun salesmen and country hunters say to keep the weapons market thriving.
Steve
April 19, 2008 at 6:19 pm
Steve,
Let’s turn the question back to you. Did you read the PDF attached and Mike’s post? The statistic came out of a lawsuit NAACP v. AcuSport, Inc., (a suit that appears to have been dismissed by Judge Weinstein out of New York). What the PDF article does state is 1/10 of 1% (that’s one tenth of one percent) of gun dealers make up those 120 “High Crime Gun Stores” and that those stores account for at least 15% crime guns. Further, the PDF states that it has been reported that 1% of the gun dealers are traced to 57% of the guns involved in a crime. The article implies that most of these dealers are usually uncooperative with police or has a history of reporting arms stolen. This would imply that a very small number of dealers are shady and they account for a disproportional number of guns involved in a crime. What I believe Mike was eluding to is that no one in their right mind thinks that Chucks Guns followed the letter or the spirit of the gun laws already on the books. But, we can’t paint the majority of gun dealers with the same broad brush. I’d like to see true statistics on how many doctors write scripts for medications for people who only use it to feed their addictions. That doesn’t mean all doctors (or even the majority of doctors) are bad. Nor should we stop producing and selling prescription drugs. It just means we need to go after the bad apples so to speak. As Mike points out, bad people do bad things and unfortunately sometimes they use guns. There are extremists on both sides of the issue on guns and gun control. However, the right for law abiding citizens to protect themselves needs to be protected.
I’m not a gun owner and I’m not necessarily for students on campus carrying guns (let’s see, much excessive use of alcohol on campus and the carrying of guns, doesn’t sound like a good plan). However, it is hard to deny that if someone responsible had a gun at that hall at NIU on the day of the killings, they could have saved lives. And if you come from a town where one of those killed came live, you might see things in that light.
By the way, who are “You people” anyway? More importantly, I’ve personally seen blatant misinformation and out and out fabrication in many “reputable” publications (on many topics). This doesn’t mean that all or even most articles overtly try and mislead. However, many articles give slanted (even if accurate) statistics or half points that lead readers to a certain conclusion. It is every reader’s responsibility to not just “let journalists make reports”. We must ask responsible questions less we become blind.
LM
December 6, 2008 at 2:34 am
guns= FREEDOM
steve
December 14, 2008 at 9:16 am