Someone who I know and love is on the first line against the Coronavirus near my old stomping grounds in the Chicagoland area.
They and I have never seen eye to eye on politics, they being very hard Left.
All hell seem to be breaking loose around them and now said individual is griping at Illinois gun laws and their inability to obtain a weapon for self-defense in an expeditious manner during a burgeoning crisis.
Keep in mind that they don’t even have a FOID, so they are at least 30 days out from that, then the 72-hour waiting period for handgun, and that only lets them have a gun at home. Add in another 90 days for the processing time for a CCW permit, on top of training time, which is at least two days, assuming that all the class time isn’t booked and they will have to sit on a waiting list for that.
That assumes that the FOID and CCL permits process is still moving at its normal pace during the Coronavirus crisis and the government employees that handle that work have not been sent home.
To sum it all up, when the shit hits the fan in a matter of days, a resident of the Land of Lincoln is 34 days away from being able to get a gun and 126 days away from being able to carry it.
And now they are worried.
It’s times like this that I really appreciate the “get your permit while you wait” process that I’ve experienced in Indiana, Alabama, and South Dakota (mine predated the new multitiered permit system).
When it gets to the point that you really think you need a gun, you need it now, not months from now when the paperwork is pushed through.
FOID’s are currently at 60 (working) days+ and there are several lawsuits regarding delays of years. The state recently ‘swept’ $30m from the fund that’s supposed to be running it and the State Police are crying poverty
Don’t for get the 8 hours class that is obligatory for CCW and might be postponed due to Virus
And then there is the costs in IL
CT is currently anywhere from 1-2 hours wait on the state to complete a transfer and that is without being affected by the covid-19 but don’t being inundated with transfer requests due to the sudden surge in purchases of others and transfers.
Once the state shutdown that department due to covid-19 that means no legal transfers or sales and no processing of pistol permits, ammo certs, or pistol and long gun certs. The only thing you’d legally be able to buy would be ammo if you were already credentialed or if you were super lucky and you got an automated approval on a transfer or purchase of a firearm you could move forward.
Hopefully this will open some eyes here as well.
The time for a CCW in NH is 10 Business days. Pay your $10 at time of pick up (By law, reality is you pay when you fill out the form). You are suppose to have three references but they don’t really check that.
Good side is you don’t need a CCW to carry as we are now a Constitutional Carry State.
The first time I got my CCW I think it was 5 calendar days. The 2nd time it was the full 10 Business days. And the last time it was 7 Business days.
Oh, the 2nd and 3rd times was because the local police fumbled around for 3 or 4 days before they sent the paper work into the state. State got it back within the day and the locals fumbled it for another 3 or 4 days before they were ready for me to pick it up. And there was nothing nefarious about the locals, they are just small town and the CCW wasn’t high on their priority list.
Yup, getting my NH permit by mail was super easy. $100 non resident, fill out the form in which they give you explicit instructions on how to complete, wait 2 weeks for it to come in the mail by itself in an envelope with not other paperwork.
Two steps for your friend:
1. Stop voting for the people that did this to them
2. If that doesn’t work, stop feeding the beast (paying taxes). That could mean making less, buying less, moving (BUT ONLY AFTER STEP 1), or just straight up tax evasion.
This definitely is a place where the word “Schadenfreude” comes to mind.
It is also worth pointing out to this person that the only reason things are this “easy” is a Supreme Court decision overturning a blanket ban against concealed carry in Illinois. The current laws are the IL legislature’s attempt to find the most draconian restrictions they can possibly get away with.
On other states with better processes: yes, that’s definitely a good thing. But let’s not forget that the right answer still remains Constitutional Carry. So long as the state imposes permitting requirements, they have the ability to stop or delay permit issue. Whether from incompetence or intentional malfeasance will vary, but the outcome either way is our rights, denied.
Not SCOUTS, Moore v Madigan case decided in 2013 by the U.S. Court of Appeals, 7th Circuit.
Tell them to head across the state line. The powers in charge claim that’s where all the guns come from. (Snark off)
Just look for the iron pipeline!
While we tend to focus on guns in this particular forum, what we’re seeing is really a more general lesson – in case of a real emergency, there’s a good chance that stuff you need will not be available unless you already had it. Not everyone can prep for a couple of years spent buttoned up; city apartments usually just don’t have that much space. But there are things one can do in the “non-crisis” times pretty much wherever you live: if you’re on meds, make sure you have more than a de-minimus supply; get a gun (depending on city) and learn how to use it; have some freeze-dried meals around (and rotate stock by going camping on occasion; get a LifeStraw; and so forth.
That medicine supply question, for instance, can be a big one; some medical plans have rules about how much they’ll let you keep on hand (e.g. sell only in 30-day increments) so it might take some doing. Most mail-order pharmacies will send out 90-day supplies. So it pays to ask questions beforehand.
I find it hard to feel sorry for someone who has been voting for people promising draconian gun laws after they discover that the gun laws apply to them, too.
A friend of mine ran into a dilemma today. They have firearms, they are trained, but they have hand issues so had given their M&P to somebody else and hadn’t replaced it yet. They have rifles but they suddenly realized that they didn’t have ammo for said rifles.
No ammo to be found locally for said rifles. They had been spending their extra money on food stocks (This person is well prepared in most senses. It was more of having her husband sent to jail for kiddy diddling that broke her) She sent out a request on a private list. The ammo she needed wasn’t to be had.
Within 2 hours she had a rifle, a pistol, 200+ rounds of rifle ammo. 200+ rounds of pistol ammo. Multiple magazines for both. All loaned to her for the duration. And no F’ing paper work.
This is just how we roll in this part of the country. We don’t have the ammo you need, here have ammo and the guns to use them.
“See honey, I have to buy more guns, just so I can lend them out to other people in need. It’s not for me, it’s a community service.”
I tried it with the honey do list. “I need another AR-15 build because reasons!” her answer was a honey-do list that required all my fun tokens.
Matthew Bracken wrote an essay that made a point like that. (Arm thy neigbor — first essay in “the Bracken Anthology.) He included the observation that it was good to be able to do that for people who have advocated anti-gun policies. The idea is that, when they come to their senses, helping them out increases the collective safety level in the neighborhood.