Archives for February 2014

This morning the NRA Lobbyist for Illinois, Todd Vandermyde, was in a Task Force meeting with government officials devising a plan to combine the FOID card and the License to Carry into one card.  This Task Force was created by the Firearms Concealed Carry Act and includes representatives from the State Police, the Senate, House, State Police, etc., and the NRA.

As a result of discussions this morning, Todd believes that the first licenses should be sent out next week (week of 24 Feb) or the following week.  Todd isn’t one to engage in wishful thinking – and he got this information firsthand.

Most of us instructors have experienced a bit of a lull in the number of people inquiring about classes.  The first big rush of “early adopters” seems to be through (about 50,000 statewide) and once people see the licenses are actually being issued, we expect the next big wave.

Stay tuned – you’ll see a photo of me with my license as soon as I get it.  I applied the first day, in the first hour (I am “Applicant #87) and will be watching my mailbox.

Mike

I hear all sorts of things every day from fellow instructors, students and people on the street about all the changes that could be coming.  The fact is that nothing major is expected.  That comes from the experts in Springfield, like our NRA lobbyist Todd Vandermyde.

Here is the deal.  “Our side” has enough votes to improve the concealed carry law for us and lessen the restrictions.  However, the leadership in Springfield (Senate Majority Leader John Cullerton and Speaker of the House Mike Madigan) don’t want to allow those bills to get a vote.

Meanwhile, the anti-gun crowd continually proposes all sorts of crazy laws to restrict our Right to Bear Arms and the bills will go nowhere, because they don’t have the votes.

So we can all take a deep breath – what we have is what we’ll have for a while.  That is not to say that the NRA, ISRA and Todd Vandermyde and IllinoisCarry.com and all of our advocates are not working hard for us!

So far, the Illinois State Police website for applying for the License to Carry is functioning alright.  Yes, there are some glitches (like you can’t use a “Mac” and you need to use Internet Explorer instead of Google Chrome), but on balance, this has been pretty smooth.

More details / updates to come!

Mike

This is the big question on the minds of all the Instructors, as the Instructors were allowed to apply Dec. 18th as part of a “beta test.” After about 30 days, a great number of Instructors noticed that their online application status changed from “Under Review” to “Approved.” There was even an issue date and an expiration date.

However, within 4 days, the statuses all changed back to “Under Review” as this was apparently just a de-bugging.

Then, in the first days of February, many instructors got an email saying that their licenses were approved and would be mailed within 30 days. However, a couple hours later, another email was sent telling them to disregard this “test.”

Rumors abound, but most of us believe that no licenses will be issued until the first batch of instructors receive theirs, a full 90 days after their application date.

We will stay tuned!