PARIS, Ill. (WTHI) - A new law in Illinois will change the grace period for an expiring gun ownership card.
Currently, there is a 30-day grace period for an expiring Firearm Owner Identification Card or FOID. During this time, officials say the FOID card isn’t active.
Under the new law Governor Bruce Rauner, there will be a 60-day grace period after a FOID card expires. As long as the cardholder has applied for a new card before their old one has expired, their FOID card will also stay active. This change has one local gun dealer Randy Sutton scratching his head.
He shares, "Say you walked in with your gun card and you're within that period of time that it’s still a valid card, well, you may never have even applied for a new card. How am I supposed to know that?"
Sutton says this creates a grey area for gun dealers and card holders alike. Luckily, the law doesn't kick in until 2019, so Sutton has time to track down how he should cover his bases. But, he says there's a bigger problem at play for gun dealers.
Sutton says, "They can pass a gun law or several gun laws say two weeks or a month ago and the dealer has no information from the state that these laws are passed. It's up to us to abide by the law but most of us gun dealers don't know what the law is."
In the future, Sutton hopes the state will work on a smoother way to get updated legislation to gun dealers.
Sutton shares, "They've got all of our information as far as a dealer, they've got our email addresses. It would be nice if they said, ‘Hey, we just passed this, we want you to know about it."
If you have any questions about the FOID card application or renewal process, you can contact Illinois State Police calling (217) 782-7980, or clicking here. To view the new law, follow this link.
