PIKE: Deadline for gun registration passes with low numbers recorded
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By BETH ZUMWALT
The Dec. 31 deadline for gun owners to register their assault weapons, high capacity magazine, rapid firing triggers, armor piercing bullets and a number of others weapons with the capability to do great bodily injury in a short period of time.
The requirement to register guns comes as result of the passage of HB5471 which bans the delivery, sale and purchase of assault weapons in testate, impacting dozens of specific type os firearms. It also bans specific attachments, extended magazines and rapid firing devices.
Those who own the guns must register them and merchants who sell them are required to sell or return their current stock. Illinois based manufacturers can still sell their products outside the state.
The Illinois State Police, who handle most gun issues, estimate there are 2.5 million guns in Illinois, not all are considered assault rifles.
As of late December, the ISP had received 24, 381 total disclosures from a total of 8,143 firearm owners; 15, 877 firearm disclosures, 8,335, accessory disclosures, and 169 ammunition disclosures.
“I’m not surprised in the low numbers,” Pike County Sheriff David Greenwood said. “I think it is a huge infringement on our second amendment rights.”
Greenwood said last November that he believed the registration of gun was a “slippery slope.”
“What if in the future, Illinois outlaws all guns, they will know right where to get them,” Greenwood said. “I don’t believe it is my business what guns law abiding citizens have.”
Greenwood is one of 100 sheriffs in Illinois who do not agree with the registration. Only two sheriff’s support the new law. John Idleburg of Lake County and Tom Dart of Cook County are the only two sheriff’s to opening support the bill.
The other 100 have stated they believe the law to violate the second amendment and they will not enforce it.
No breakdown is available on which counties had the most guns registered or how many were registered in each state.
“I doubt we get a list of those who register their guns,” Greenwood said in November. “We would only use it if we had to.”
