By Shawn in Chicago
Several months ago, I was denied a concealed carry permit, despite fulfilling all of the obligations of the statute, with a no-details form letter. I had my 2nd court date yesterday regarding my appeal to my denial for a permit. My first court date, of which I was informed by mail somewhat unexpectedly, was originally going to be a straightforward agreement to the release of the documents regarding whatever objections were made to the Concealed Carry Licensing Review Board regarding my application. Upon going before the judge . . .
all that was completely forgotten, as the representative of the Attorney General’s office presented me with the ’emergency amendments’ made to the conceal carry act after they realized they were going to get slapped hard for blatantly violating over 800 persons’ basic civil rights. I was handed a 10-page document with emergency amendments, containing mostly details about administrative rules to govern the review board, and in it was a small section regarding denials.
Under these new rules, the review board is not just allowed to, but required to inform the applicant of the exact objections made to the application, by what jurisdiction and then allow for a response by the applicant. The response is required to be submitted within 10 days of the mailing of this information.
Naturally, I was annoyed that I had paid over $300 to appeal a decision and was being told they knew they were wrong and were asking for the case to be remanded. A status hearing was then scheduled for another date (yesterday).
After thoroughly reviewing the new amendments to the law and the motion to remand, I decided to ask the judge to either order the documents released to me or at least order the review board to allow me 30 days to review and respond to their objections, as 10 days barely allows for the mail to reach more than one party. She agreed to neither, and I essentially had no choice but to allow the motion to remand go through as it stood (I can’t afford to shell out $2-3k+ for an attorney).
So the case will now be remanded to the state police, who will direct the board to send me the objection information and allow me to respond before making a second decision. I asked the representative of the attorney general’s office how long that would take. Naturally, she didn’t know.
Therefore, for those of you who are counting, I have spent:
- $225 on the the required 2-day class
- $60 on fingerprinting
- 70 rounds of .380 ACP
- $150 on the non-refundable application fee
- $315 on filing costs for the appeal
Illinois’ ban on carrying firearms was declared unconstitutional at the end of 2012. It took until the summer of 2013 to pass a law. I took the qualifying class last fall. I applied for the permit at the beginning of January. I was mailed the denial letter in March and filed my appeal in April.
My first court date was supposed to be mid-August, but I was informed with very little notice that my first court date would actually be at the end of July. At this point, I have a status hearing set for the beginning of December, which may or may not be necessary depending on how the remand order to the board goes.
That’s over $750 and eight months of my time, and I still don’t even know why I was denied. When I do find out and am allowed to respond, it will be at least another month or two in a best case scenario. Longer if I have to appeal again. All of this in order to exercise a right deemed by both the state and federal Supreme Courts as being as basic and individual as voting, free speech, protection from self-incrimination, unwarranted search and seizure and everything else we hold as dear as freedom itself.
This is my tax dollars at work. This is my government keeping me safe. Denying someone who has never been convicted of anything more than a speeding ticket the right to lawfully carry a weapon, while literally dozens of people are shot in my city on a weekly basis.
The struggle continues.