Illinois' New Gun, Magazine Ban Registry Met With Massive Non-Compliance
Illinois' new "assault weapon" and magazine ban is in effect, and on October 1, that state opened its registry for grandfathered weapons and magazines so that owners who already have legally purchased weapons can register them with the state. Illinois gun owners, of course, rushed to register their weapons and magazines in compliance with the new law.
Just kidding. Almost nobody has registered anything.
With Illinois’ gun and magazine ban still facing legal hurdles in federal court, a registry created in relation to the ban has been open for a week. A fraction of a percent of gun owners have complied so far.
As part of the Protect Illinois Communities Act that was enacted earlier this year, the registration portal for firearms owners in Illinois that own certain semi-automatic firearms, accessories and ammunition opened Oct. 1. While the law bans more than 170 semi-automatic rifles, shotguns and handguns, it also bans handgun magazines over 15 rounds and rifle magazines over 10 rounds. Magazines do not have to be registered.
Illinois State Police published the first round of statistics Tuesday, and of more than 2.4 million Firearm Owner ID card holders, 1,050 individuals have registered a total of 3,202 firearms, .50 caliber ammunition and accessories.
“You’re at 0.0004%. That’s a rounding error,” gun rights advocate Todd Vandermyde told The Center Square.
While a fair number of gun owners may well be waiting for the legal challenges to the law, it's very likely that many, if not most, gun owners have no intention of complying with a law that is clearly unconstitutional. And it's not just American gun owners who are loathe to register their weapons in preparation for a possible confiscation; Canada struggles to get Canadians to comply with gun laws, and Australia and New Zealand have not had much luck, either.
But that won't stop various states and municipalities from trying, even as the Supreme Court's Bruen decision is still making its implications known.
It would be nice of the would-be gun-banners to face facts; their laws don't have any effect on criminals, as evidenced by crime rates in many of our Democrat-controlled major cities, in spite of the many gun laws in those places. Criminals, by definition, won't obey laws, these or any others, and increasingly, it seems gun owners, who bought their guns legally and who believe in their Second Amendment rights, aren't going to comply with a registration scheme that they see as a doorway to confiscation.
The CenterSquare has presented the obvious conclusion:
Of the 3,202 items disclosed, ISP said there were 2,060 firearms listed at the registry. ISP did not provide a breakdown of what types of firearms were registered. For .50 caliber ammunition registrations, there were 1,125 disclosures. There were only 17 reported accessories being registered in the first week. Vandermyde said that highlights the vagueness of what is an accessory.
“They’ve got a long way to go if they think they’re going to get any real sort of compliance,” Vandermyde said. “I think this is starting off about where we thought it would.”
Agreed; it's started off about where I would have thought, as well, with compliance so low as to be damn near invisible.
Video blogger The Liberty Doll brought us a cogent analysis:
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