SB 1657: “Low-blow Licensing Law”

Tucked away in the 69 pages of SB1657 are a number of provisions and regulations that duplicate and exceed current Federal oversight under the BAFTE with the overall intent, not of better regulating current FFL holders, but to run them out of business. Here are just a few rules that SB 1657 would impose on gun store owners and legal firearm owners in Illinois:

Universal background checks. All gun sales or gifts would have to go through a dealer. Gun rationing. Non-dealers get only nine transfers per year. A Gun Dealer Licensing Board. Five people would be in charge of establishing operation requirements for FFL holders. More fees. With an estimated implantation cost of $2.1 million, this bill would require its new license to cost approximately $5,000 a year from each existing FFL holder in the state… if the already cash-strapped state wants to break even. More red tape. No limit would be placed on requested information from those seeking to do business in Illinois including written exams and in-person interviews. This bill also would not limit the number of inspections a gun dealer would be subject to – inspections already overseen by BAFTE. It also establishes extraneous prerequisites for someone to become a dealer, one of which is that the applicant serve at least one year working for a licensee with a minimum of 100 hours in the last five years. No defined penalties. The bill currently does not have any stated penalties for infractions. What are the penalties? Fines? Loss of license? Loss of ability to legally own firearms?

This bill claims to better regulate gun stores in order to “weed out” the bad ones. What it really does is impose undue hardship on existing small business owners, prevents entrepreneurs from opening new ones, and further encroaches on the rights of law-abiding gun owners in the state.

Anti-gun politicians in Illinois are furious that their de facto ban on Illinois licensed gun dealers was ruled unconstitutional, and are now running an end-around in an attempt to again legislate legal gun store owners out of existence. Of course, this ruling is only the most recent setback for anti-gunners in the state who saw their handgun ban crumble in a 2010 Supreme Court ruling, and were rebuked in 2014 for a different prohibition on gun stores.