Editorial: Thousands in Cook County haven’t turned in revoked FOID cards. That’s dangerous.

Just a handful of states require a gun permit for the purchase of any kind of firearm. Illinois is one of them.

Don’t have a firearm owners identification card? Then you can’t legally possess a gun, period.

There are several reasons why an FOID card could get revoked, including a violent felony or domestic violence conviction, issuance of a protection order against the gun owner, or the owner being flagged as having mental health issues. These are common sense reasons to take away someone’s FOID card, and we’ve seen what happens when someone who shouldn’t have a gun is allowed to carry.

Last week, Robert Crimo III appeared in a Lake County courtroom and pleaded not guilty to 117 felony counts in connection with the Independence Day mass shooting in Highland Park that killed seven people and injured dozens of others. Before the shooting, Highland Park police had deemed Crimo “a clear and present danger,” though he didn’t have an FOID card at the time. Later that designation was cleared from state records, allowing him to get the gun permit and buy the semi-automatic rifle he used in the attack.

In the wake of that shooting, we urged Illinois to close the loophole that paved the way for Crimo’s firearm purchase, and thankfully Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the Illinois State Police moved quickly to address it.

But there’s another disturbing impediment to gun safety in Illinois. FOID revocation rules only matter if they’re enforced.

In Cook County, it’s clear that a backlog of FOID revocations isn’t getting addressed. The Tribune recently reported that more than 19,000 people in Cook County have had their gun permits revoked but haven’t turned in their FOID cards. They’re hanging onto their permits, keeping their guns if they own firearms and breaking the law.

So why hasn’t Cook County law enforcement retrieved these revoked cards and confiscated whatever firearms those individuals possessed? The county lacks the resources to follow up, authorities say. The Cook County sheriff’s office has a team of six officers and a sergeant that focuses on tracking down revoked FOID cards and the weapons linked to those cards. Since 2013, officers with that team have confiscated roughly 2,000 firearms associated with 881 FOID revocation efforts.

Though it’s impossible to know how many people with revoked FOID cards own guns, it’s a fair bet that many are breaking the law.

“So we know that there are a number of revoked FOID cards out there, and it’s just a matter of having the resources to retrieve them,” Deputy Chief Arthur Jackson of the Cook County sheriff’s office recently told lawmakers with the Illinois House Public Safety and Violence Prevention Task Force.

Of the people in Cook County with revoked FOID cards who have not yet handed them over to law enforcement, 6,100 had a felony indictment on their record, 4,300 had a protection order issued against them, 4,100 had possible mental health issues and 150 were fugitives from the law, the Tribune reported. The criteria for FOID card revocation are far from trivial; often they’re red flags that come up in the background of people who perpetrate mass shootings or commit other crimes involving a gun.

Jackson was flagging the problem for lawmakers. The General Assembly needs to respond.

There’s nothing more vexing for local governments than the state legislature’s penchant for passing laws without ensuring that municipalities and counties have the resources to implement those measures. Gun reform won’t work if it’s not backed up by funding mechanisms from the General Assembly.

After America endures another major mass shooting, like the recent tragedies in Highland Park, Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, New York, an outcry for stronger gun reform legislation always erupts. It’s not only understandable — it’s warranted. But no amount of new legislation will help if law enforcement isn’t given the means — in other words, the money — to turn those reforms into tangible results on the streets.

There’s no end in sight to the era of mass shootings in America, and rampant gun violence in U.S. cities. When it’s discovered that a coldblooded killer with a revoked FOID card murdered with a firearm, will that finally nudge state lawmakers to back sensible gun laws with sensible funding? Perhaps. But it shouldn’t get to that point. They can act right now.

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