Rock Island Today

Veteran state Rep. Tony McCombie (R-Sterling) says a bill meant to streamline the Firearm Owner Identification (FOID) process instead creates more bureaucracy for legal gun owners.

"To me, the bill that was put forth by Rep. Kathleen Willis (D-Northlake), it had Republican bipartisan support, Illinois State Rifle Association was a proponent of it and now you have zero Republicans,” McCombie said in a video posted to YouTube. “The ISRA is not going to support this; it just goes too far. I’m always interested when we compare things to other states because maybe the people of Illinois are better than the people in other states when it comes to these issues.”

In its original form, HB 562 sought to amend the Home Inspector License Act to require that all applicants and licensees provide a valid address and email address to the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation and inform the Department of any change of address or email address within 14 days.

Senate Amendment 1 would create "the Firearm Prohibitors and Records Improvement Task Force to identify and research all available grants, resources, and revenue that may be applied for and used by all entities responsible for reporting federal and state firearms prohibitors to the Illinois State Police and the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. Provides that under the Firearm Owners Identification Card Act, these reporting entities include, but are not limited to, hospitals, courts, law enforcement and corrections."

The second Senate Amendment to HB 562 “Provides that any person within this State who receives any firearm, stun gun, or taser from a person who is not a federally licensed firearm dealer shall provide a record of the transfer within 10 days of the transfer to a federally licensed firearm dealer and shall not be required to maintain a transfer record. Provides that the federally licensed firearm dealer shall maintain the transfer record for 20 years from date of receipt.”

McCombie had previously voiced her opposition to HB 562, arguing that it will not make the state any safer.  She recently queried assistant majority leader of the House Democratic Caucus Rep. Jay Hoffman (D-Swansea) on his sponsoring of the bill.

"Why do you think there's an increase of FOID applications in Illinois?" McCombie asked Hoffman rhetorically. "Is it possibly because we pass policy that makes people feel their second amendment rights are threatened?"

The bill passed both legislative chambers and now awaits the governor's signature.