TRIBUNE SAYS STICK IT TO GUN OWNERS AGAIN
Raise the firearms card fee
Published January 17, 2006
Motorists in Illinois pay $78 a year to renew their license plates, up from $48 as recently as 1999. The daily cost of camping permits at most Illinois state parks has jumped in recent years to $15 from $5. Driver's licenses, which used to cost $5, now cost $10.
The cash-strapped state has been raising just about every fee imaginable in recent years to help make ends meet. One glaring exception has been the firearm owner's identification card. The $5 FOID price hasn't changed a penny since 1968, when the state first began requiring gun permits in an attempt to keep weapons out of the hands of criminals. That $5 pays for a permit that is good for five years.
Gun lobbyists are fuming because the state police have been slow at processing FOID applications. State law requires that be accomplished in 30 days. But callers to the state police bureau that handles FOID cards get a recording that says it may take eight weeks. A gun owner is in technical violation of the law if his card expires before a new one arrives in the mail.
Who is to blame? Blame the gun lobby. The National Rifle Association has vowed political revenge on any politician who tries to raise the $5 FOID fee. As a state legislator, Rod Blagojevich pushed to raise the fee to $100 a year. He was pummeled over that in his race for governor, and now he won't touch the idea of any such price hike.
The state police, though, say it costs at least $7.39 to process each application, and there are more than 210,000 a year. The state is losing money. The application backlog developed after the state, in a cost-cutting move last year, reduced the staff dedicated to vetting the firearms cards.
Gun owners want better service? Hike the FOID card fee. The state could double or triple the fee and still be well within the charges of other permits and licenses in the state. The state has no trouble asking motorists, campers and others to pay. Gun owners should not be an exception.
But with the Instant Check why do we even have the FOID Card?
Chicago Tribune | Raise the firearms card fee
5 Comments:
Or how about getting rid of the entire asinine system. Law-abiding gun owners wouldn't have to worry about "better service" at all, criminals will still continue to use weapons without being issued FOID cards, the state will save money, and ISP resources can be put to better use.
48 other states seem to have miraculously avoided carnage in spite of not having FOID-type programs.
Yea a hundred dollars a year for a foid card is a good idea? Funny how the libune supports the govenors fee raises but hardly says a word when he gives away a million dollars of my money to a south side church or bankrolls free medical for the ghetto childrens. How about the libune report that the foid card should be done away with and the problem will be solved.
how about doing away with useless red tape instead of raising taxes.....again.?
None of the other fees listed in this story are on *RIGHTS* that appear enumerated in the Constitution.
When are we going to see the Church registration fee or the Media operators card? I bet they wouldn't be eager to see that instituted and raised.
FOID is the proverbial anti-gunners foot through the door. Gee, do you think our USELESS RINOs have enough guts to introduce legislation to rid us of this neverending ISRA-horror?
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