Will County Gazette

In the opinion of Illinois Republican House Floor Leader Mark Batinick (R-Plainfield), sweeping funds from a program meant for the Illinois State Police to help facilitate gun registrations is a direct affront to the United States Constitution.

“You can have some pretty negative repercussions from not having that database up to speed,” Batinick told the Will County Gazette. “What if someone is involved in a domestic violence situation and can’t defend themselves because something with their conceal-and-carry paperwork isn’t in order? Denying someone their Second Amendment rights is serious business and not something you want to be messing around with.”

Batinick’s reaction is in response to news that over the last five state budgets, lawmakers in Springfield have secretly funneled to other areas of government roughly $30 million meant for FOID card registrations and conceal-and-carry programs without replacing any of the funds. According to Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA) Executive Director Richard Pearson, the deception was only uncovered when ISRA officials decided to probe how FOID card and concealed-carry programs are managed through attempts by anti-gun groups to enact legislation that would have more than doubled FOID card fees.

ISRA Executive Director Richard A. Pearson

“That’s probably why we’re so far behind in processing FOID card applications,” Batinick said. “There isn’t a week that goes by that someone hasn’t contacted my office complaining about some sort of delay.”

Despite the dire consequences the practice of sweeping inevitably leads to, Batinick admits he does not expect the flawed system to be reformed anytime soon.  

“I don’t think anything’s about to change or be cleaned up from all this,” he said. “The truth of the matter is, they’ve been operating like this in Illinois for years and all the people in Springfield that stand behind it aren’t about to just leave the Congress on their own.”