Springfield, IL — The Land of Lincoln has taken top prize for the number of NICS background checks run in their state in the last seven months. Reports indicate that just under 4.6 million NICS checks have been run so far in 2020.
While the Gun Rush is headline news everywhere, Illinois residents have turned out in numbers that leave every other state in the dust. And the nearly 4.6 million NICS checks don’t count the nearly 143,000 gun owners that have applied for their FOID cards but are still waiting for the state’s PERMISSION to go get a NICS background check from the FBI.
But even without those 143,000 Illinois residents still waiting on bureaucratic red tape for permission to defend themselves, the state’s numbers blew every other state out of the water! Kentucky took a distant second place with 2.2 million checks run in the same period.
Almost Equal To All Of Last Year
The 4.6 million NICS checks so far in 2020 is getting very close to the total for all of 2019, when 4.9 million checks were run in the state. The demand has been strong all year, with at least 610,000 checks a month since January — July topped out in July at 714,000.
In comparison, the highest month of 2019 was December with 548,000. The lowest number was 190,000 in February of that year.
But the biggest news story when it comes to gun rights in Illinois is the colossal failure of their state government.
From the FOID card system that was backed up several months even BEFORE the Covid Scare hit — causing renewals to all but stop for existing FOID card holders — to the NICS check frequently taking longer than three days, it’s been a mess.
Many gun owners aren’t happy that their gun rights are seemingly out of reach — and that their state government doesn’t seem to care that they’re being denied their rights.
In a local media outlet, one pro-gun legislator commented as much, saying:
State Rep. Brad Halbrook, R-Shelbyville, said aside from calls about problems with unemployment, his office is flooded with frustrated calls from constituents upset they’re Second Amendment rights are being infringed upon. And it’s not just gun owners.
“I got an email from a gun shop owner just a few days ago, there was eight or 10 transactions on there that were 10 days-plus old,” Halbrook said. “That doesn’t really help in times like this. They think that they are intentionally being throttled back on those kinds of things.”
“These are our constitutional rights, our liberties, and they’re being infringed upon,” Halbrook said. “I don’t care how you shake it out, how you spin it, that’s what’s happening.”
Constitutional Carry Fixes This
When times of social unrest come calling, Americans turn to guns for protection. And as the meltdown that is Lori Lightfoot’s Chicago continues to unfold on our television screens, for Illinois residents, it’s clearer than ever that the state and the police will not or can not protect them.
The government can barely keep Chicago from going up in flames, much less worry about the average Joe Citizen! And now hundreds of thousands of law-abiding American citizens are unable to buy a gun to defend themselves and their families because of background checks that are backlogged, FOID applications that are backlogged, and more.
Constitutional Carry — the idea that as long as a citizen is not legally prohibited from carrying a gun, they are allowed to do so — should be the law nationwide.
2020 has told us that Constitutional Carry is an idea whose time has come. DEMAND your legislators advance your gun rights NOW — because when you need your gun but don’t have it, it’s too late.