Illinois –-(Ammoland.com)- Call to Action: In spite of our efforts to see protections added to HB4290, the Certified Firearms Instructor bill, it passed out of Senate committee yesterday unchanged.
Having already passed the House, it now goes to the Senate floor for second and third reading and then vote.
Please contact your State Senator and urge them to vote no on HB4290 unless protections are added for instructors who act in good faith within the vague and confusing rules established by the Illinois State Police.
Call Your State Senator!
Urge him/her to VOTE NO ON HB4290 unless proper safeguards are included.
- Senator’s phone numbers may be found by clicking their name in this list.
- If you do not know who your State Senator is, find out here.
We suggest you contact their Springfield office immediately and, as always, we ask that all contact be polite and businesslike.
Major problems with HB4290
Ongoing confusion exists with instructor requirements caused by the very frequent changes in the rules and regulations implemented by the Illinois State Police.
- ISP institutes new emergency rules for instructors but has old rules posted on their website.
- Late Feb. early March the ISP sent new rules out to instructors – PROBLEM – the new rules are vastly different than the previous permanent rules and did not have the required approval of the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules.
- Official training certificates the instructors must issue to students are now in their 4th or 5th revision. Each revision makes changes in how the instructor verifies and attests to number of credit hours to be given for prior training and number of hours supplied by the instructor. Yet another change in the certificate is expected in June 2014 involving how the training hours are verified/submitted to the ISP.
- ISP new emergency rules for instructors filed on April 16, 2014 again make major changes in instructors’ record keeping of proof of accepted training.
- There are unintended consequences with HB4290 which could and will most certainly cause instructors, who are acting in good faith, to be targeted and penalized with jail time and steep fines.
- There are no safeguards against charges being leveled for the most minor misunderstanding or slight variation in length or content of training.
- The IL Council Against Handgun Violence and the Cook Co. State’s Attorney office support HB4290! There is great potential for Chicago/Cook Co. to use the threat of jail time/huge fines to intimidate good instructors into refusing to offer state recognized training because they will not want to take the risk of conducting classes under confusing rules and regs and then possibly facing criminal charges over a possibly minor infraction. This could cause an even greater shortage of instructors in that area of the state, which leads to further disenfranchisement of that population.
Unless and until the authoritative agency which oversees the instructors settles on a set of rules, approved by JCAR, instructors will continue to be at risk for prosecution because of confusion about what is required by law.
We thank each and every one of you for your diligence and commitment to the Second Amendment. Please feel free to forward this Alert to your friends, family, and other contacts.
Sincerely,Valinda Rowe
IllinoisCarry.com spokesperson
About:
The IllinoisCarry forum was started in April 2004. The idea was that Illinois needed a central location to communicate ideas and information regarding 2nd Amendment issues in Illinois. There are many organizations in Illinois working to protect our 2nd Amendment Rights. Working with these groups IllinoisCarry has become the central location for information and Action Alerts. IllinoisCarry will not endorse political candidates. We simply provide information so voters can make informed decisions. Our goal is to join the other 48 states that allow their citizens to carry concealed firearms. We encourage you to register on our forum and join the fight for your 2nd Amendment Rights in Illinois. Visit www.IllinoisCarry.com