A few days ago, The Southern Illinoisan reported on legislation that the Illinois House passed last week. The legislation penalizes the state police for failing to renew Firearm Owner Identification (FOID) cards in a timely fashion. For those of you who are not aware, Illinois requires its law-abiding citizens to carry Soviet-like identification cards if they wish to own a firearm. Yes, I know what you're thinking. Just accept the fact that we've suspended the U.S. Constitution here in Illinois -- except for criminals, who seem to continue to own guns without FOID cards.
The point is, the General Assembly had to force the bureaucracy to allow us our already very limited rights and freedoms. The state police have been abysmally slow in providing and renewing their citizen ID cards to those who have applied, had a background check, been cleared on the Federal and State levels, etc. In short, their refusal to do so made felons out of thousands of citizens.
Rep. John Bradley (D-Marion), who voted for the legislation, asked The Southern Illinoisan: "Name me another situation where the state not doing its jobs makes a person a felon."
Well Representative Bradley, we can't name another situation where the failure of the state makes a person a felon. However, we can name a situation where it makes them a law-breaker. One need look no further than your fellow Democrat, Jesse White, whose mismanagement of the Secretary of State's office led to thousands of citizens not receiving their license renewal letters and thereby driving illegally. Of course, his (White's) incompetence did result in millions of dollars in revenue collected by the state and police through fines collected on tickets they wrote to innocent (and law-abiding) Illinois citizens. So, I guess that makes it alright. (more info here)
