By John Boch
Illinois State Representative Ed Sullivan, Jr. (R) called me in recent days to explain his new House Bill 4290. In a nutshell, it’s more or less a single-paragraph in length (why couldn’t more bills be like this one?) and says if you fraudulently certify that someone has completed firearms training as required by Illinois concealed carry law, you will be convicted of a Class A misdemeanor — and it’s non-probational. In other words, commit instructor fraud and you’re going to spend time in jail – up to 364 days, in fact . . .
You’ll also never again be an Illinois State Police-approved instructor. Ever.
Representative Sullivan said the bill is pretty close to a sure thing for passage in both chambers and will be signed into law. Brandon Phelps, the downstate Democrat who introduced the Michael Madigan-authored Firearms Concealed Carry Act last year, was added to as a co-sponsor yesterday earlier this week.
The new measure is a good thing, as inept or crooked instructors offering non-compliant training for personal financial gain should not be covered-up. Instead, they should be dismissed, prosecuted and shunned. A guarantee of jail time *might* provide the incentive some of these crooked instructors need to shape up and do it right or give up training.
House Bill 4290 Summary:
Amends the Firearm Concealed Carry Act. Provides that a certified firearms instructor who knowingly provides or offers to provide a false certification that an applicant has completed firearms training as required under the Act is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor. Provides that a person guilty of this violation is not eligible for court supervision. Provides that the Department of State Police shall permanently revoke the firearms instructor certification of a person convicted of this violation. Amends the Unified Code of Corrections to make a conforming change. Effective immediately.
We’ve heard myriad reports of unethical instructors – mostly some of them brand new – who end classes hour(s) early, in part because they abbreviate legal lectures and weapons handling in particular. Both of these subject areas are required to be four hours in length, although rulemaking changes adopted December 31, 2013 reduced these to one hour for weapons handling and two hours for legal lectures.
Did you take an NRA Basic Pistol class that was dismissed in mid-afternoon or earlier? You aren’t alone. If you didn’t spend eight hours in an eight hour class, you were robbed of learning time and your certificate might not be accepted by the Illinois State Police if your instructor is subsequently stripped of his or her credentials. If your training certificates aren’t accepted by the ISP, you’ll forfeit your $153.00 concealed carry license application fee and it’s non-refundable.
We’ve heard of classes where students spend as little as twenty minutes handling their guns, and most of that time is spent shooting exactly 30 rounds for the qualification. Ironically, one of many of these so-called “instructors” (who also run a gun shop of sorts) touts a ten-question checklist you should ask your prospective instructor before signing up for a class. Nowhere on the checklist is “Does your instructor actually meet the ISP’s requirements in his or her class?” He does ask students to ask their prospective instructor if they’ve ever declared bankruptcy. We’re not sure what that has to do with the price of tea in China.
Those offerings are a step up from classes using laser simulator guns or Airsoft guns to shoot the supposedly “live fire” qualification. We suspect that’s not what the Illinois General Assembly had in mind when they passed the FCCA last summer.
Yes, range space in and near Chicagoland is very expensive and hard to come by. And it’s been a very cold winter and spending hours shooting outdoors when the wind chill is hovering around zero degrees is unpleasant. The folks at the Holiday Inn tend to get surly when you start popping off live rounds in their conference rooms. But none of these excuse shooting portion of the qualification with a laser simulator gun (be it LaserShot, or SIRT) or Airsoft.
But even those non-compliant classes are a step up from situations where students don’t even step into a classroom or onto a range – where the instructor signs off on a training certificate with a wink and a not in exchange for a check.
John Boch is president of Guns Save Life. This articl
First, I am of the mind that that any amnesty offering is a trap coming and going. I fear that post amnesty dis-obedience will be met with an iron fist and many otherwise law abiding citizens will suffer without pity because they “had no more excuses”. Unless you are from here, it is hard to understand just how paternal, righteous, and vindictive Yankee culture can be.
With a 95% non compliance rate, how long before you hear about the cases of ex wives, broken friendships, or nosy neighbors reporting non- complying people. Has CT set up an 800 rat line yet? What about a case where a person defends themselves with a non registered rifle? Are there going to be raids?
We need the link to this, so we can soundly mock the writer for not knowing what the law is actually about.
“…block any sort of “amnesty” for owners of automatic assault weapons or high capacity clips.”
” Ignorance of the law and/or a belated sense of concern about being caught is no reason to change the law. Let these “law abiding citizens” reap what they have sown ….”
Oh, the delicious Irony…. The butt-hurt is strong with this one.
All my handguns have been taken off the list if they were ever on it. Thank god I do not live in CA. Regretfully, I do have to visit family there on occasion.
I’m licensed in multiple states and I’ve had to sit through the same bullsh1t time after time. I would have paid big money to get out early, but my instructors weren’t going to take any shortcuts — even though I’m an instructor certified by the NRA and the MA State Police.
Firearms instruction for first-timers can be helpful, depending on the curriculum. For experienced shooters who have already qualified through an NRA pistol course, they’re a complete waste of time.
I managed to get exempted where I live but I am sure there are places where almost no one is exempted and a combat veteran needs to sit and listen to which end of the gun to look down. Absurd.
This is *exactly* why hours-based requirements are the wrong approach. Creating criminal penalties because instructors are not following this wrong approach is just a crap sandwich.
*If* there is going to be training, the requirements should be based on objective criteria: For instance: Hit a b-27 from 21 ft 70% of the time of 20 shots; Pass a quiz on self defense law in the given state. etc. Why does it matter if this takes 1 hour or 16 hours?
Maybe some instructors *can* teach this stuff in less than the allotted time, I don’t know. Point is, passing penalties for not using all the time will not lead to better training. It will lead to a whole lot of quiet time at the end of class.
Passing penalties for not following a stupid law in the first place is itself stupid. But, you know, welcome to the world of gun and drug laws.
@dwb, you nailed it. All bullseyes.
Good point. The focus should be on properly teaching a required curriculum with specified legal information, such as any restrictions on lawful carry and the proper use of force in self defense situations, and a qualification course with clear and specific objective accuracy and safety requirements. As long as all information is properly covered, which can be confirmed through a written test, and the qualification course is passed, the amount of time the training took should not be an issue. This new law should include a requirement for those convicted to return the class fees for all the students they improperly certified and cover the CC license application fee if the ISP rejects the training certification.
You’ve made a very, very good point, but I think people miss the reason why the laws are so frequent in specifying a number of “hours of training” as opposed to some other criteria such as “displays competent knowledge of the subject material.”
See, the police, paid fire departments, teachers, and other government employees work on an hour system, X hours means Y pay. Period, no discussion of adjusting pay for performance will be entertained. Cops don’t get paid any differently when crime rates go up or down. Legislators get paid for showing up in session X so many days per year, regardless of whether they do anything useful. School teachers and professors don’t get paid less because their students are flunking out or drop out. Their entire mindset is one of punching the clock without being accountable for their actions, being paid a base rate for holding some paper credential, then being bumped upwards for time in the job, regardless of any actual skills or competence.
Same deal with their CCW training requirements: Their mindset is one of “X hours equals Y certification.” Not “X training equals Y competence.” They don’t care about competence. They care about meeting some number of hours being required for a piece of paper. Suppose a lawyer who knows the laws of self-defense and criminal action who can drill a 3″ hole into a B-27 at 25 yards before s/he’s had the first cup of coffee in the morning is applying for a CCW. That would be a pretty competent person who should probably be rushed through the class and either rubber-stamped or dragooned into being an instructor.
Pass them early? No way. Make ’em sit through the class, every minute of it, to acquire the piece of paper, the magic credential, that indicates to the elected perverts that said lawyer has jumped through the required hoops and bowed in the direction of the legislature.
Actual competence in any subject is a threat to legislators and public employees. That’s why public employee unions (especially teacher unions) fight merit-based pay raises. That’s why bureaucrats everywhere want to spend their entire budget rather than show any competence through thrift. It’s a mindset that permeates our entire government now.
That little old lady or old man can do more damage then any (biker). They don’t give a rat A about laws.
I would be great if a few hundred thousand gun owners moved to Maryland and helped to change the concealed carry laws here. You can also help by supporting and donating too organizations like MarylandShallIssue.com.Otherwise,Virginia is starting to looking pretty good right about now!!!!
Virginia will follow Maryland – just watch. NOVA funds the rest of the Commonwealth, so they get to call the tune.
What’s with the early-morning hate? Lots of people are up and about that early for perfectly lawful things. Including student-atheletes.
Don’t play the Anti’s game. It ain’t cool and the kool-aide is bad.
Didn’t de Blasio raise money for the Soviets in Cuba or something?
Or am I way off and thinking of someone else?
He honeymooned in Havana, and traveled to Nicaragua to support the sandanistas.
Brilliance. Utter brilliance.
And to celebrate mailing the letter and having it reproduced here, this psycho snaps, buys some cheap red wine, drinks it down, fills the bottle with gasoline, stuffs their shirt in the open neck of the bottle, and goes out looking for an “assault weapon owner’s” house to firebomb, thereby killing them, their spouse, and their children.
Because guns are dangerous!
But, but, but, but guns are only good for killing people!
Nevermind the fact that that’s only an extremely small percentage of actual gun use.
And speaking of psychotic NYC tyrants:
http://nypost.com/2014/01/31/bloomberg-tapped-to-be-un-cities-climate-change-envoy-report/
Does this mean Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will host Shannon Watts in his private jet? Or that we’ll be seeing blue helmets in the streets of L.A.?
Do these colours co-ordinate?
Sadie Hawkins day just took a terrible turn.
Bridesmaids for Obama’s daughter
gunaway bride.
One of the differences is the anti’s don’t want to eliminate pools. And if they did they know they can’t instill fear of them.
I think we can use videos like this to show that gun restrictions are NOT about children’s safety. If they were, there are much better things to focus on.
After the wedding, guests toss Browning rice on the bride & groom.
As the toll of those injured continued to grow as some 22 of those who escaped returned to hospital with respiratory complications, police investigating the blaze have confirmed it is likely to have started when the band?Gurizada Fandangueira?lit an allegedly cheap outdoor flare, which ignited soundproofing foam on the ceiling. That initial error was compounded by the near-total lack of emergency infrastructure such as a fire alarms or sprinkler systems. It also seems that the club also had only one working door, one or more faulty and sub-standard fire extinguishers and has not been inspected in the last twelve months.??A number of details are disputed by the local Fire Department.
Pebble Peaks Website is down, many predict the venture is over and $150,000.00 plus has been absconded.
You really can’t blame the guy for pulling a scam. If 1500 suckers give money without checking out the venture, they deserve to be ripped off…
Joe Gotts
Comecei hoje, sobre princípio do dia estava muito e também sem fome, antes que do jantar tive uma ligeira dor de carola.