Comments on: Confiscation

By: Ravenwood

Ravenwood — Fri, 15 Apr 2005 19:59:10 +0000

Xrlq,

FOIDs have already led to confiscation. When FOIDs expired and weren’t renewed, Chicago area police showed up and took people’s guns.

By: triticale

triticale — Thu, 14 Apr 2005 22:26:36 +0000

When the opportunity to move from Illinois to Wisconsin for economic reasons arose seven years ago, the difference in the gun laws was mentioned by my wee wifey as the final clincher. The difference has increased since, making us look prescient.

By: Xrlq

Xrlq — Thu, 14 Apr 2005 19:18:04 +0000

Of course no one gets a FOID solely for identification purposes, but you do have to get a FOID months in advance of your first purchase, and not everyone who considers purchasing a gun ends up actually buying one. Also, owning a gun is not the sole purpose of holding a FOID. When I lived in the greater Chicago area, a local range required a FOID even to rent their guns, so I’m sure some people got the FOID for that reason, or to allow them to borrow a friend’s gun on a hunting trip, etc.

On balance, I think it is safe to assume that most people who have had a FOID for more than a few months have probably acquired a firearm or two since. Thus, an argument could be made that if all guns were banned without grandfathering, cops may be able to argue that a person’s possession of a FOID, plus his failure to account for having disposed of his guns, constitutes probable cause he owns a gun illegally. This won’t work for “assault” weapons, however, as the FOID can only constitute probable cause that the holder owns some kind of gun, not that he owns a now-prohibited “assault” weapon.

In other words, there are only two problems with your “registration leads to confiscation” argument on FOIDs: (1) they’re not registration, and (2) they won’t lead to confisaction. Other than that, it’s 100% correct.

By: SayUncle

SayUncle — Thu, 14 Apr 2005 14:28:26 +0000

People sometimes have an incentive to get a driver license as a form of ID. I doubt someone gets a FOID for that purpose.

By: cube

cube — Thu, 14 Apr 2005 14:25:57 +0000

“I suppose so, if you assume everyone who holds a driver license owns a car. In any event, it is not at all safe to assume all FOID holders, or more than a small fraction of them, own �assault� weapons. ”

Yea, but it it ever turns into a witch hunt, you know where are the witches are (all it would take would be high profile crime with a banned assult weapon, and someone could use that to go door to door).

By: Xrlq

Xrlq — Wed, 13 Apr 2005 20:48:35 +0000

I suppose so, if you assume everyone who holds a driver license owns a car. In any event, it is not at all safe to assume all FOID holders, or more than a small fraction of them, own “assault” weapons.

By: SayUncle

SayUncle — Wed, 13 Apr 2005 20:44:41 +0000

‘or even if you own a gun at all’

I would think it safe to assume someone with a FOID would likely own a gun.

By: Xrlq

Xrlq — Wed, 13 Apr 2005 20:39:30 +0000

FOIDs register people, not guns. They don’t tell the state what guns you own, how many, or even if you own a gun at all. Using the FOID registry to track down suspected owners of “assault” weapons would create a huge needle/haystack problem.

By: SayUncle

SayUncle — Wed, 13 Apr 2005 19:00:31 +0000

Xrlq, are the FOID cards not used for registration?

By: Stormy Dragon

Stormy Dragon — Wed, 13 Apr 2005 15:55:51 +0000

Is it unethical to buy guns at ‘firesale’ prices from unfortunate Illinois residents?

By: Xrlq

Xrlq — Wed, 13 Apr 2005 15:48:12 +0000

Illinois doesn’t register guns. Chicago does, but “assault” weapons have been banned there since the mid-1990s, along with the rest of the county.

By: Jay G

Jay G — Wed, 13 Apr 2005 14:40:47 +0000

But… but… but…

They assured us that registration would NEVER lead to confiscation… How can this be???

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 13 Apr 2005 14:04:57 +0000

I was born in that God-foresaken state, and I thank God that I live in East Tn.

Molon labe!

By: SayUncle : No registration after all

SayUncle : No registration after all — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

[...] a name="5336"> No registration after all |By SayUncle| Xrlqy Wrlqy, comments in this post that the Illinois FOID does not register firearms. It does, however, regist [...]