Quote:
Never attribute to stupidity that which can be attributed to malice.
|
I actually found the police to be quite sympathetic to me and the process. Truthfully, the application process is very new and is only compounded by the ambiguous and vague nature of the wording in parts of the ordinance. The politicians designed the ordinance with malice and the police are trying to sort it out.
Quote:
While it's a step in the right direction, I wonder how people would view the infringement on their first amendment rights if they were required to go through that process to get a permit to write a editorial against the government or belong to a church.
|
I agree with you. The city government is treating this like a privilege not a right.
Quote:
Congrats on having the paitence to put up with that. Even here in California, that seems absurdly draconian.
But help me out here...
|
The FOID is $10, the CFP application (including fingerprints) is $100, and firearm registration is $15 per firearm (and apparently renewal is free). The class is a big variable. The one I took was only $75. As mandated in the ordinance, it was 4 hours in the classroom and an hour at the range the next day. The range was at G.A.T. Guns in East Dundee, which is about an hour drive away and had a range fee of $20 ($16 if you buy $25 worth of ammo) and rental fee of $10. I brought my own pistol and ammo, so I don't really know what they were charging for ammo, though I know it wasn't cheap. Due to how quickly I completed the qualification, I simply turned the rest of the time into a normal range day and happily shot a few more boxes while the rest of the class finished up, so it wasn’t a wasted day.
Since taking the class at Fidelity I have heard of other classes that cost $135 plus an all inclusive range fee of $50. All told I guess it cost me $225 after registering my handgun and re-registering my shotgun and not counting the FOID which I already had. The FOID has a 30 day processing time and the CFP currently can take up to 120 days. So I guess that someone totally new and who takes the more expensive class faces a $310 cost plus up to a 150 day wait. This is CLEARLY designed to dissuade people from applying.
Processing at the police headquarters took less than an hour but the train ride was 20 minutes each way. I was asking lots of questions though, so it could have gone a little quicker I suppose. The biggest delay was when their fingerprinting computer froze.
Quote:
The next question -- the Chicago certificate of firearm ownership, as I understand it, is specific to each gun and lists the address where that gun is supposed to be. So what happens if you must move to a new address before applying for a new certificate (i.e. due to a fire, water damage or some other unforeseen event)? Do you incur any liability (risk of arrest) if the city cannot provide the certificate before you move to the new address?
|
The ordinance requires that updated information must be reported within 24 hours. So if you move you have to submit a form to amend your CFP and an additional form for each of your firearms. It appears that as long as the information is submitted, you are in compliance, though who really knows? Personally, I would ALWAYS send forms via Certified Mail, so that they can’t claim it was lost.
I was determined to get my CFP forms submitted as quickly as possible and was quite surprised that it came as quick as it did. I’m sure that others will forego the process simply because it is so burdensome.