In Full:

A new Cook County Sheriff’s team is crisscrossing the suburbs to seize guns from thousands of people whose Firearm Owner’s Identification Cards have been revoked.

More than 3,000 people in Cook County have failed to surrender their revoked FOID cards to the state. Sheriff Tom Dart said he thinks many of them continue to possess firearms.

The Chicago Police Department conducts regular missions to recover revoked FOID cards and seize guns from the holders, but there wasn’t a concerted effort to do that in Cook County’s suburbs, Dart said.

“The system is broken,” the sheriff said. “The system revokes cards, but the guns are of no consequence. . . . Our strong hope is that we will eliminate tragedies.” (Edit:Such as citizens having rights and such)

FOID cards are supposed to protect the public from dangerous people. Mental illness, felonies and protection orders are grounds for the state to revoke the cards from their holders. It’s illegal to buy guns or ammunition without one.

In February, Dart assigned a sergeant and four investigators to a gun team that has recovered about 160 FOID cards and taken more than 160 guns from the cardholders.(Edit:Just like the Constitution says and the Founders wanted...wait, what?)

In one case, the team recovered more than 35 firearms, including four AR-15 assault rifles, from a suicidal man whose card was revoked. (Edit:Sure he was, because the cops say so)

People with revoked FOID cards can’t buy guns from federally licensed firearms dealers. For any gun sale, a store must conduct a background check that will uncover a FOID revocation.

But background checks aren’t required for ammunition. Someone buying bullets must simply show a FOID card. A person with a revoked card probably would still be able to buy bullets because the salesperson wouldn’t know it was revoked, Dart said.

The sheriff said the bigger problem is that most revoked FOID card holders continue to possess guns. Dart said he persuaded the General Assembly to include new language in the FOID law that would allow sheriffs and municipal police to obtain search warrants to look for guns in the homes of people with revoked FOID cards. Dart called the provision a “hammer” for police to wield when investigators suspect people with revoked cards have guns — but the people insist they don’t. (Edit:Just what cops need to use against citizens, a hammer)

Sheriff’s investigators learn from the State Police whether someone with a revoked FOID card was ever approved to buy a gun after going through a background check at a gun store.

If the answer is yes, sheriff’s investigators ask the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for any records of the store selling a firearm to the person.

Every week, the State Police alert the sheriff’s gun team of about 10 to 20 new revocations in Cook County. The investigators conduct a basic inquiry into the gun purchasing histories of the people they intend to contact. Then they knock on their doors.

On Tuesday, Sgt. Chris Imhof, the team supervisor, and investigator Adrian Sandoval hunted for a dozen people whose FOID cards were revoked. At many addresses, no one answered the door. Other times, a mother or grandmother came to the door and said her son or grandson wasn’t home. Many of the women were cooperative, and in some cases they were able to call the cardholder and arrange a time to surrender it.

But a woman in Calumet Park, whose son’s FOID card was revoked because of a drug case, told the officers he wasn’t home and he didn’t have a gun because she threw it into the lake. “I explained to her that’s not the way to do things,” Sandoval said, adding that he found her story questionable. (Edit:Then he beat her with the hammer)

The officers then met a 31-year-old woman at a McDonald’s in Calumet Park and she handed over her FOID card. The woman, whose card also was revoked because of a drug case, had arranged to meet the officers after they went to her mother’s house and she wasn’t there.

They finished in Lyons, where a 43-year-old truck driver handed over a FOID card and a duplicate card with a different address — along with ammunition and the barrel of a 9mm pistol. The driver took the day off to meet the officers after they visited his house the day before and he wasn’t there.

The officers’ final tally for the day: three recovered FOID cards but no guns. They had visited 10 addresses where their targets weren’t even home. It showed just how time-consuming the work can be.

What makes the job rewarding, though, is when the team removes guns from a home where family members are scared of the FOID cardholder, Sandoval said. “We’ve had people say, ‘Thank you, I didn’t want these guns here anymore,’ ” he said.

Is their anything left in this country to be proud of except the blue collar hardworking middle class and guys like Jerry who  worked hard and honestly to make a good living and he deserves everything he's got.. We have a president who is a racist and promised to make things better but the biggest thing he's done is try to take away our constitutional rights. The Washington ratings are the lowest I've seen in my lifetime. The congressmen do nothing and become multi millionaires when they leave office. The whole country is going to end up like Detroit before long. No one man or Congress can straighten out the mess Washington has got us into. The voters are higly misinformed or plain stupid and put perverts and known liars back in gov and Congress. Obama promised to work on our infrastructure. Any one seen any work done on that? We need someone to stand up to these foreign countries who are begging money off of us and tell them the piggybank is empty. We need less military and put those guys to work on the infrastructure. We need to send the national guard in and bust up these city gangs and make it safe for people to walk the streets again. Our terrorist are here, not in the middle east. I love my family and friends. but I hate the crooked local goverments and Washington. Just cant find much to be proud of this country anymore except some of the hard working people who are constantly getting screwed by their employers and Washington.

This isn't unjustified revocation. You need to have a valid firearm permit to possess firearms in that state.
It's not a blanket confiscation.


--Steve

Paraquat wrote on 07/29/13 at 06:16:26:


And the only people that they will "revoke" it from is non criminals ...
Worthless idea ...
Keep records, keep rifling data, and when bullets turn up @ a crime scene, arrest the fool who's on record ... Atleast you're putting a trafficker in jail.

Cool.
Srinath.

Pine wrote on 07/29/13 at 06:49:09:


BINGO!!!

Dane Allen wrote on 07/29/13 at 14:24:24:


If its registered, then every sale should be ... its a slippery slope to getting all the guns tied to people that are holding them. Yea .. slippery slope alright, the second amendment guarantees guns should be given to criminals without question or any reason to put their name to it ever ...

However, there is a huge hole in the registration net ... called south carolina.

Only if its enforced nationwide, it will have any use.

Else we are only registering guns owned by law abiding citizens, then when confication begins, it will start there ... Unless they decide to start from where there is no registration ... you have registered, they give you a decal, they can them target the ones not having that decal.
BTW the fools are too chicken shiete to ever go after the real criminals.

Cool.
Srinath.