Rockford Sun

Republican State Rep. Andrew Chesney (R-Freeport) remains opposed to Firearm Ownership ID card amendments weaved into House Bill 562.

In addition to combining concealed and carry cards into one card that comes in digital form, the bill would allow gun owners to automatically renew their FOID cards provided they submit a copy of their fingerprints.

“I always get a little bit nauseated when we talk FOID cards,” Chesney said in a video posted to YouTube. “And the reason I get nauseated is because I can’t name a constitutional right that has a tax or fee. I don’t think you can name one in the entire country where we have a tax or fee on a constitutional right. About 8% of the country has these FOID cards, but we always talk best practices in Illinois, and for whatever reason no one seems to care that over 90% of the country doesn’t have these things.

"I don’t believe the FOID cards addresses public safety, and we all know that a criminal is not going to willfully partake in these firearm transfers,” Chesney said. “I think this gives people a false sense of hope, and I know this because Chicago is effectively a war zone. We have more murders in the city of Chicago than New York City and L.A. combined.”

Having now passed through both chambers, HB 562 now sits on Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk awaiting signature.

Chesney asserts that he’s already come to his own conclusions.

“I understand why we have violence problems in our state,” he added. “The majority party has endorsed efforts to defund the police, end cash bail, vilify our police departments and absolutely disarm our communities. Republican districts, we don’t have the crime problems. We arm our citizens and we put bad people in jail. This will do nothing to make your communities safer.”