How long does it take the state to process a concealed carry permit application where you live? In the gun rights hell otherwise known as Illinois, the State Police are taking four months or more.
We’re sure this has nothing at all to do with a desire to see fewer legally carried firearms, but whatever the excuse reason, the Land o’ Lincoln is sitting on a backlog of 34,000 pending approvals.
The delay has caught the attention of the local media. Check out this report . . .
Here is a press release from the Second Amendment Foundation . . .
BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation today revealed that it is considering legal action to force authorities in the State of Illinois to speed up the application and renewal process for concealed carry licenses, following a report by WMAQ in Chicago about the length of time citizens must wait for their licenses.
“A right delayed is a right denied,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “We are considering taking legal to end this abuse of process.”
According to the report, it is taking from 120 to 140 days for the State Police to process license applications when it should be taking between 90 and 120 days. Currently, nearly 34,000 first-time and renewal CCL applications are being processed. The state has almost 301,000 CCL holders, and those who obtained their licenses in 2013, when the law first took effect, need to renew.
“The Second Amendment Foundation’s successful lawsuit forced Illinois to pass their concealed carry license law,” Gottlieb recalled. “Now the slow process is discouraging people from exercising their rights.”
The State Police Firearms Services Bureau reportedly has only five staffers designated to handle about 20,000 phone calls a week. Gottlieb said that is simply unacceptable in a state where revenue from CCL applications and renewals runs into the millions of dollars.
“In neighboring Indiana,” Gottlieb said after viewing the WMAQ report, “authorities process licenses in less than 60 days and in Wisconsin, they do it in five days on the average.
“This isn’t about serving the public,” he observed, “it’s about discouraging the public. It doesn’t take a degree in mathematics or economics to realize there is a growing demand for carry licenses, but the resources clearly are not being provided to meet that demand, and we think it’s deliberate.
“This especially impacts gun owners in the Chicago area, where demand is the highest,” Gottlieb stated. “If the General Assembly and state police don’t care to allocate the necessary resources to solve this problem, we may ask the courts to make them do it.”
The Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) is the nation’s oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 650,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control.
In PA it took 14 minutes for me to be issued my original permit. (The girl was late arriving at work; if only she had been on-time it would have been done in 12 minutes).
At renewal time the process took much longer! I had to wait in a long line. Took 45 minutes.
A right delayed is a . . .
Oh, well, never mind. I guess I don’t have too much to complain about.
A CCW permit is – in an of itself – a right delayed.
“Please come to our office, fill out this form, wait for the background check, pay the fee, and take the required safety course…then we’ll issue our permission.”
I Haz a Question,
It is not a right at all when we must first acquire a permit or license to exercise it. Even if all you had to do was access a government website which resulted in licensed and legal status within 60 seconds, that still is not a right.
About 10 minutes for the original and about 5 for the renewal
I bet you don’t live in Philadelphia county., mark
Same, Bucks County PA
Fill out a form and they run a background check and print the permit on the spot. $20 for 5 years (that’s $20 more than it should cost but at least its better than other states)
We also have constitutional open carry anywhere but Philadelphia
I want to know why SAF is not going after NJ. I used to live there and their “may issue” is a de facto “will not issue”.
“he State Police Firearms Services Bureau reportedly has only five staffers designated to handle about 20,000 phone calls a week. ”
So..Who is getting through to the ISP? i try almost every day, 3 times a day (i sit for long periods looking at spread sheets. FML) and I have never gotten through. Everyone at my CCL class who has called has said the same. My instructor in class concured with this as well.
They are lying. They get 20,000 calles they dont answer. that is not called “handl[ing] about 20000 calls.
I fking hate this place…..
If ILLINOIS forces the SAF to sue over delays in violation of state law than there is a risk that a court not wanting to mandate actions of state officials may instead declare the UUW law as unconstitutional due to the CCW license exemption being insufficient due to illegal delays.
Also non-resident military spouses whose military spouse is stationed in ILLINOIS can not apply nor receive a CCW license or even the FOID card in violation of federal law that requires non-resident members and their spouses to be granted the same rights as ILLINOIS residents.
In ILLINOIS non-resident spouses of non-resident military members that are stationed in ILLINOIS can not apply for a the FCCL nor a FOID despite any and all federal law that requires the spouses to be afforded the same rights as an ILLINOIS resident while their significant other is stationed in ILLINOIS. This effectively means that the UUW law is essentially as unconstitutional as the previous one due to being the same complete ban on carry as the original one as applied to these spouses. It seems to me that the SAF could use non-resident spouses of non-resident military members to challenge both the UUW since for the spouses it is legally the same as the previous version that was ruled unconstitutional as well as challenging the FOID act since it has no provision for these spouses even though federal law requires them to be treated as residents.
yeah, it takes a while. in ’13 maybe six weeks. this renewal close to four months; we’re told the old license is valid during the process.
both times finger prints were NOT submitted.
my carry id number never matched my owner id number, so a few days later a new foid card came that matched up. i’m impressed they caught/ rectumfied that, but since it expires early ’20 they couldn’t renew me?
they must really need the five bucks.
Here in the free state of Missouri, I was told at the CC class that it could take up to a month for approval and was again reminded of this while at the sheriff’s office filling out the forms. 15 minutes later the sheriff was printing out my brand new permit. I find it difficult to believe that under normal circumstances that a police agency can’t get the necessary background information to issue a permit in a timely basis. In a traffic stop they appear to find out all they need to know very quickly.
It sounds to me that Illinois is purposely delaying the process – no surprise there.
“when it should be taking between 90 and 120 days” No that’s also absurd. And the phone call excuse is #1 BS. Don’t they have the process set up online?
Going by memory here. I paid for my course, took my course, the instructor sends my passing grade onto the state. About 1-2 weeks later I get a notification from the state saying to come get my ID. I go get my picture made, and they hand over the ID on the spot. Still a few steps to go through, but any process over 6 weeks is a government failure.
Any government intervention in our enumerated right to bear arms is a failure. So far, 15 states have figured this out. Still waiting on the other 35 to catch up.
I am currently on day 97 waiting for my new CCL from this lousy state. From what I have read in other areas I can expect at least 120. Thanks for posting this article, reminded me I need to donate $$ to SAF.
WHERE are you nra?
The NRA house is still burning, and WLP is trying to put it out by fanning the flames with his $10K suit jacket.
“SAF Considering Legal Action Over Illinois’ Slow Concealed Carry License Processing”
Everyone is always “considering”, WTF, just do it, take them to task…
Perhaps the SAF is hoping that publicly expressing interest in suing the state and possibly the individuals contributing to the illegal delays will force them to speed up especially since government officials can be sue under individual capacity which means they would have to pay their own money for a judgement instead of just paying tax money.
Precisely. SAF and Gottlieb, after all, have had some significant success going up against Illinois opponents in the courts.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/186688347026473229/visual-search/?x=16&y=11&w=530&h=354
The The Peoples Socialist State Of New York it takes 1 year.
Suck to be them then, in WI, 3weeks, that’s all the time allowed…
Fat boy Jabba the Prickster has reportedly ordered a “slow walk” for CCL’s and renewals. BTW in God’s country aka Indiana you can get lifetime carry for some 150(or 175 bucks?). And open carry at least away from Hammond(lots of screaming puzzy types). Another reason to join SAF(oh StuckinILL the NRA hates you…sorry.)
Seems odd that this issue was seemingly not previously raised.
Breaking! Fat boy Jay “I gained 50lbs since I was immaculated” Pritzger fractured his leg ’cause he’s evil😄😊😏😎
Imagine asking the gov for a permit to exercise a constitutional and human right.
dem’s in this state(illinois) will slow walk anything to do with firearms/2nd amendment rights
Your exactly right, and I have proof it’s intentional. State worker gets his CCW in 4 weeks, the rest of us? When they get around to it, its been 6 months so far.One set of rules for state workers, another for the rest of us.
“
SAFNRA Considering Legal Action Over Illinois’ Slow Concealed Carry License Processing.”Musta been a typo in the headline.
Fixed it for ya’
My state has a arduous process of training, gathering 5 testimonials that you aren’t nuts, running an ad in a newspaper for 10.days announcing to the public you plan to carry, and waiting for a court to approve your application. All about 700 dollars when your through and a few weeks or months to finish.
Compare.that to soke.states.that issue in a week or 2 just by applying and getting fingerprinted.
Kentucky. I was told expect six weeks, but it was about four weeks after the class was passed and the instructor file the paperwork the next day in person. Of course I also did all the on-line stuff the Monday following the class on Thursday. No real complaints every thing went smooth.
My concealed carry license expires in December of this year. Almost exactly six months to the day before my license expires, I received a letter from my licensing authority reminding me that my license expires in December and that I can renew it as early as six months before it expires.
It took me about 5 minutes to go their website and pay the renewal fee with a credit card. I received my new concealed carry license (which is not effective until my current license expires in December) in the mail about two or three weeks later.
As far as a licensing process goes, it was pretty fast and efficient, especially given that over 600,000 people have concealed carry licenses in my state — which means the licensing entity is issuing (whether new or renewals) about 150,000 licenses every year.
Illinois really is a Hellhole. (Full disclosure, my state isn’t far behind.)
“It took me about 5 minutes to go their website and pay the renewal fee with a credit card. I received my new concealed carry license (which is not effective until my current license expires in December) in the mail about two or three weeks later.”
Isn’t all this discussion about the speed of applying for/renewing carry licenses merely a contest over whose blacksmith is the most efficient at forging the shackles you will wear?
They said the fees charged are millions annually. That’s a resource to be tapped.
Do we control the legislature enough to pass a law requiring a certain level of staffing per number of applications received annually?
If we don’t have that juice, I hope the lawsuit brings that up as a possible remedy to rectify the situation.
But ‘the crux of the biscuit’ (besides the Frank Zappa apostrophe) is blatant hostility to an enumerated civil right. We need to keep hammering on that until it gets “the respect it deserves” (according to justice Thomas)…
Yeah, that’s on purpose. Virginia license takes a week to hit my mailbox give or take 2 days.
This would end if the DoJ showed up and started relieving those in charge of both their jobs and their freedom.
wisconsin:
i took a FREE…FOUR hour class…IN A BAR…on a saturday morning
i sent all my stuff in on monday with my FORTY DOLLARS
it was back in my mailbox
THAT FRIDAY
in five years it will only be TWENTY dollars to renew it
i in fact got it faster than i got my DRIVERS LICENSE
yall are a bunch of suckers in illinois*
*i can say that because i moved up here from there 7 years ago
When democrats are running things, that’s how it’s going to be and that’s how it is.
I have been waiting for my illinois ccl for over 4 1/2 months and yes I paid an additional 55 dollars to submit electronic fingerprints. I’ve tried calling three times and gave up and I have emailed 5 times .nothing on phone calis and no answer on emails.
very, very frustrating
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