SPRINGFIELD – — More than 19,000 Cook County residents whose gun permits were revoked have failed to turn over their firearms owner’s identification cards to law enforcement as required by law, a top police official said on Thursday.
Deputy Chief Arthur Jackson of the Cook County sheriff’s office told a panel of legislators that staffing shortages have prevented his department from collecting revoked FOID cards and guns from residents who haven’t voluntarily turned the cards and gotten rid of their guns, either by turning them in or transferring them to someone permitted to have them.
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Issues surrounding the state’s gun permit system were again highlighted earlier this month when it was revealed that the alleged gunman in the July Fourth mass shooting in Highland Park, which is in Lake County, had a valid firearm owner’s identification card despite previously exhibiting dangerous behavior that some believe should have prevented him from being allowed to own a gun.
Illinois residents must possess a valid FOID card to make legal gun purchases. But just because someone has a FOID card — attainable by passing a criminal-background check — doesn’t mean they own a firearm. It’s not clear how many FOID cardholders in the state actually own guns but as of July 1, 19,508 Cook County residents had not turned in their revoked FOID cards, officials said.
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“One of the issues that we’re currently facing in Illinois is the lack of follow through in ensuring that individuals that have revoked FOID cards no longer have access to firearms,” Jackson said. “So, we know that there are a number of revoked FOID cards out there and it’s just a matter of having the resources to retrieve them.”
FOID cards can be revoked for a number of reasons, including if a holder has been convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence or a violent felony, or has been flagged for exhibiting mental health issues.
According to a document authored by Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart that was obtained by the Tribune, as of June 6, more than 6,100 people who had not turned in their FOID cards had a felony indictment, over 4,300 had an order of protection taken out against them, more than 4,100 had possible mental health issues and about 150 were considered fugitives for various alleged crimes.
Authorities said 21-year-old Robert “Bobby” Crimo III had a valid FOID card and legally obtained the high-powered rifle used in the Highland Park shooting, which left seven people dead and dozens wounded. Crimo was able to obtain a FOID card from the Illinois State Police months after Highland Park police had responded to emergency calls at his home in 2019.
In one of the calls, Crimo allegedly threatened family members, and authorities also learned that Crimo was suicidal. His behavior was reported by Highland Park police to state police and flagged as being potentially a “clear and present danger,” a designation that could allow the state police to deny or revoke a FOID card.
The state police in September 2019 learned about those allegations against Crimo and determined he didn’t meet the threshold of being considered a clear and present danger. A state trooper reviewed the allegations against Crimo, but at that point he had no pending FOID application. Shortly thereafter, the clear and present danger designation apparently was cleared from the state system.
The Cook County sheriff’s office has had a gun team in place since 2013 that concentrates on retrieving weapons and revoked FOID cards, Jackson said. Since then, the department has confiscated about 2,000 guns from 881 “FOID revocation efforts,” he said.
The department is working with the state police to secure funding for extra teams of officers, or at least for more overtime, to focus on FOID card revocations and gun retrievals, he said.
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“There are so many out there, we don’t have enough manpower to actually retrieve everything the way that we would like to at this time,” he said, referring to revoked FOID cards.
A revoked FOID cardholder would not be allowed to purchase a new firearm from a federally licensed firearms dealer if the dealer properly checks the status of the card. But a person with a revoked FOID card wouldn’t be prevented from purchasing ammunition.
Dart is working with state legislators to push for a measure that would require customers to present valid FOID cards to buy ammunition.
“A gun is not dangerous unless it has bullets,” Dart said in the document. “By declining to sell ammunition to those with revoked FOID cards, you can help keep ammunition out of the hands of individuals who have not followed clear laws requiring they surrender their FOID cards and designed to keep our communities safe.”
