(WSIL) -- Since 1968, Illinois has required gun owners to purchase Firearms Owner Identification, or FOID, cards.
After receiving a record number of applications in 2020, Illinois State Police is dealing with a months-long of applications.
Which is why Illinois Sen. Neil Anderson (R-Moline) introduced last month that would eliminate the FOID Card system.
Sen. Dale Fowler (R-Harrisburg) joined as a co-sponsor to the bill Wednesday in Springfield. Fowler hopes more Democrats join the bill to eliminate a program that creates unnecessary spending.
"When you're duplicating background checks it just doesn't make good economic sense. It's an expense that the state of Illinois' inquiring that it shouldn't have to have," Fowler said. "All we can do is continue to strive to get the bipartisan support that this action needs."
ISP received a record 483,041 FOID Card applications in 2020. The number of FOID card holders increased from 1.2 million in 2010 to 2.2 million in 2020, according to ISP.
State law requires FOID applications to be processed within 30 days. The current processing time for an application is 121 days, or four months, according to ISP.
Rep. Andrew Chesney (R-Freeport) filed a similar in the house last month. Reps. Paul Jacobs (R-Pomona), Dave Severin (R-Benton) and Patrick Windhorst (R-Metropolis) are currently co-sponsors.
is currently assigned to the Judiciary-Criminal Committee.
