Springfield, Illinois –-(Ammoland.com)- A new law in Illinois requires gun dealers to be licensed by the state.
Becoming a legal gun dealer is not an easy task. The prospective dealer has to apply with the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (BATF). The application process is not simple to navigate. Most dealers pay for expensive packages from companies to learn how to deal with just the application process.
The applicant must provide the BATF with passport pictures, fingerprints, and the ATF will submit their information to the FBI for a criminal background check. This step is just the beginning. The new business also has to provide other things such as articles of incorporation, zoning information, a lease that states that the building owner lets the dealer sell firearms, and copy of their business licenses.
The BATF will send an agent out to the new business to inspect the facility to make sure the dealer secures the firearms by lock and key. The BATF agent will then interview the dealer about their business. The ATF will consider everything and issue a Federal Firearms License (FFL) or deny the application.
This lengthy process is about to get longer for any FFL located in the state of Illinois. Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a law into effect that would require all gun dealers to be licensed by the state as well. This new process is leading the business owners to cry foul.
The dealers must seek a state license that is certified by the State Police. The dealer must provide annual training to all their employees to be able to spot straw purchases. A straw purchase is when one person buys a gun for someone else who is usually not allowed to own a firearm.
All gun dealers must install expensive security cameras and must record all activities within the retail section of the stores. These recordings must be made available to State Police upon request.
Gone will be the days of dealers using the popular log books that most tabletop dealers use to keep track of their firearms. The new law would require all dealers to use electronic logbooks. These digital logbook programs can get costly and can be complicated to install. Also, some dealers have thousands of sales that they will have to transfer to the new system.
Under the new law, the gun dealer must allow inspections of their business by not only state police, but also by local police departments. These inspections are in addition to the surprise inspections that are performed by the ATF.
The license will cost $1,500 for retail stores and $300 for tabletop dealers. The dealers must renew their license every five years. The 2,400 dealers in the state of Illinois will have six months to get the new license.
The anti-gun group, Moms Demand Action, celebrated the passage of the anti-gun law. The law is just one of the many rules that the anti-gun group has been pushing to make it costlier and more difficult to buy and sell guns.
“We feel like celebrating,” said Karen Irvin of Moms Demand Action. “It’s been a major focus for Moms Demand Action. We spent the summer with a push for electing J.B. Pritzker as our gun-sense candidate, and we knew that there was a great likelihood that he would not only support this measure, but he would move to enact it. We canvassed our neighborhoods, made phone calls, and it was something we believe in and think it’s important.”
Gun dealers across the state believe the new law was passed just to make it harder to sell the guns. The margins on firearms are already low so by adding more cost of the price of doing business it could put dealers out of business.
The Illinois State Rifle Association is planning a lawsuit challenging the new law.
“The federal government already licenses gun dealers,” executive director Richard Pearson of The Illinois State Rifle Association said in a statement. “There is no need to add yet another layer of bureaucracy on gun dealers. The only thing this measure is going to do is make it cost more money for gun dealers to do business in Illinois, which is going to hurt the smaller dealers.”
The Illinois State Rifle Association views the new law as an attack on the Second Amendment.
About John Crump
John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. He is the former CEO of Veritas Firearms, LLC and is the co-host of The Patriot News Podcast which can be found at www.blogtalkradio.com/patriotnews. John has written extensively on the patriot movement including 3%’ers, Oath Keepers, and Militias. In addition to the Patriot movement, John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and is currently working on a book on leftist deplatforming methods and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, on Facebook at realjohncrump, or at www.crumpy.com.