Gunning for a Firearm Owner’s Identification Card in Illinois? You may have to wait a while.
The Illinois State Police Firearms Service Bureau is swamped in what the Sun-Times reports is its busiest month ever processing applications for the FOID cards. A state police spokeswoman said the typical wait for a card now hovers around 64 days.
Some gun shop owners have said customers are reporting 10 to 15-week waits for a card that's "supposed to be in their hands in 30 days or less," according to KHQA news. Currently, there are roughly 1.5 million FOID cardholders in the state.
The Illinois General Assembly is currently hashing out provisions of a new law that would end the ban on concealed carry, per a Federal court ruling from December.
“When people start hearing or thinking that things might be banned, they tend to run out and buy those things while they can,” Greg Tropino Sr., president of GAT Guns in East Dundee told the Sun-Times on a possible reason behind the spike in applications.
So far this month, more than 70,000 FOID card applications have poured in, putting March on track to be the record month so far for the program which began in 1969, reports the Associated Press.
According to state police data, the number of total FOID card applications has been increasing steadily since 2010 with four months of record-breaking application numbers in 2012.
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