A safeguard built into Illinois’ 2013 law permitting the concealed carrying of guns was that local sheriffs could object when they saw someone they deemed a risk applying for a concealed carry permit.
But that safeguard has turned out to be too porous. The General Assembly must tighten it up.
The seven-member Concealed Carry Licensing Review Board decides whether to uphold or reject a sheriff’s objection to a concealed-carry application. The review board can reject a concealed carry application if a preponderance of the evidence shows the applicant is a danger to themselves or the public. The review board also is supposed to provide a letter to a sheriff in each case, telling how an objection has been resolved, but it does not always do so.
Here is the startling number: In suburban Cook County — in cases in which the review board sent a letter — 85% of applicants have received concealed carry licenses since 2020 even though Sheriff Tom Dart’s office filed objections. Yes, 85%.
Such a high number of overruled objections obviously raises a lot of red flags.
As for the letters, the non-response rate to Dart’s office was 26% in 2023, and it has been trending upward in recent years. In 2018, it was only 3%.
Given a permit, then arrested and jailed
Dart filed objections for things ranging from domestic violence or order of protection-related reasons to allegations of aggravated battery and assault, according to data released through a Sun-Times Freedom of Information Act request. Among other categories for which Dart filed objections were arrests for drugs, theft, robbery, unlawful use of a weapon, gangs, sex crimes, murder, false impersonation, stalking and threatening.
Clearly, those objections show many applicants do not have the kind of upstanding backgrounds people envisioned would be required for people to obtain concealed-carry permits.
On average, the Cook County sheriff’s office submitted about 1,400 objections every year between 2014 and 2023. (That includes only suburban Cook County, not Chicago.) Yet consider this for comparison’s sake: From Jan. 1 to Sept. 1, the review board reported 487 application denials for the entire state.
Records show 60 instances between 2017 and 2023 when an applicant who was awarded a concealed carry license was booked into Cook County Jail within 180 days of the time when Dart filed an objection for a charge of domestic battery or violation of an order of protection. Although someone booked into a jail has not been convicted, it’s not exactly a testament to that person’s likelihood of handling firearms in a responsible manner.
Concealed carry is a serious issue. Nationwide, according to data maintained by the Violence Policy Center, people carrying concealed guns have killed 2,512 people. People carrying concealed weapons have been responsible for 37 mass shootings, the center’s data show.
Listen to the concerns of sheriffs
The issue is all the more important now that Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul is leading a group of 19 state attorneys general in a fight to preserve a Minnesota law barring individuals under the age of 21 from carrying concealed handguns in public. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit recently invalidated the law, and the attorneys general are asking the court to reconsider. Illinois requires conceal-carry permit holders to hold Firearm Owner’s Identification cards and be at least 21 years old, but if the courts eliminate the age requirement, more people will be eligible for permits.
Moreover, sheriffs around the state will have new gun-safety responsibilities placed on them if a bill nicknamed Karina’s Law is passed. The law, which advocates are hoping to pass in the veto or lame-duck session, would allow law enforcement officers with a search warrant to temporarily remove firearms from those under domestic violence-related restraining orders. If the state starts putting pressure on law enforcement to take the weapons out of homes, it seems inconsistent not to listen to sheriffs if they voice concerns about who has concealed-carry permits.
It isn’t easy for the sheriffs to review all applications for concealed carry permits because the 2013 law provided no money for background checks. As of Friday, there were 511,087 active concealed carry licenses in Illinois, according to state police.
Gun violence is a multifaceted problem, and no single step will make every street and community instantly safe. But the path to saving lives and reducing injuries is to keep identifying ways to keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them.
Concealed carry is unlikely to go away anytime soon in Illinois because it essentially was imposed by a federal court. But the least the system could do to protect the public is to ensure that those who have the permits aren’t likely to engage in criminal or other behavior that puts themselves or others at risk.
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