By Jeremy Gorner | jgorner@chicagotribune.com | Chicago Tribune

On the final day of the spring legislative session, the Democrat-led Illinois General Assembly passed a measure intended to make it easier for people who have been arrested for carrying guns illegally to obtain a state firearm permit so they would be allowed to own firearms.

The bipartisan bill marked a rare instance in which Democrats and Republicans largely agreed on a measure involving guns. Democrats have been criticized by the GOP for promoting measures that restrict the flow of guns to the point where they negatively affect law-abiding gun owners.

But Democrats say this legislation, which awaits Gov. JB Pritzker’s signature, encourages the legal ownership of firearms while still emphasizing accountability.

“Getting guns off the streets, yes, absolutely, to me that means stopping the flow of illegal weapons into our streets. That means keeping weapons out of the hands of people who wish to do harm,” said state Rep. Kelly Cassidy, a Chicago Democrat who supports the bill. “That doesn’t mean preventing people from owning a tool that is used for both personal protection and sport.”

The legislation applies to participants in diversion programs that serve as alternatives to prosecution. Cook County’s Democratic state’s attorney, Eileen O’Neill Burke, pushed legislators to expand the programs to include a more streamlined opportunity for their participants to obtain a firearm owner’s identification, or FOID, card — the form required by the Illinois State Police for state residents to be allowed to legally own guns.

The legislation would apply to people eligible for placement in the diversion programs and charged with gun crimes designated as Class 4 felonies, offenses that can carry one-to-three-year prison sentences but are the least severe level of felonies.

Under the measure, a person charged with those low-level gun felonies would be able to apply for a FOID card once receiving a court order attesting to their completion of a diversion program, enabling the state police to perform a background check as part of the process of granting them the card. Once the felony case is officially dropped, the state police would grant that individual a FOID card if they pass the background check, the measure would allow.

As it stands now, state police can’t start the process for someone requesting a FOID card until their felony case is dropped, which may not be until well after the applicant completes the diversion program.

The legislation is aimed at helping people like Shamyia Phillips, who was arrested in November 2023 on a felony gun charge. When police stopped her in a car that she said had been reported stolen, she had a handgun in her purse that she said she purchased legally in Texas, an open-carry state where she lived for a time. Unaware of Illinois’ gun laws, she didn’t have a FOID card or concealed carry license.

“It was just to protect me and my daughter,” said Phillips, a  26-year-old single mother. “I wasn’t using it to harm anyone or anything.”

Unemployed at the time, Phillips said she entered a diversion program that helped her get a job and led to the charges being dropped. Seeking work in the security field, she plans to apply for a FOID card and concealed carry license.

During a visit to the Tribune Editorial Board earlier this month, O’Neill Burke said one factor motivating the legislation was that during the COVID-19 pandemic, there were major delays for people applying for FOID cards through the state police. At the same time a lot of people acquired guns illegally because of fears stoked by a nationwide rise in violent crime.

“So, we were putting people in a catch-22,” said O’Neill Burke, who took office at the end of last year. “Suddenly we had this large population of otherwise law-abiding people who are now charged with a Class 4 felony.”

The solution, she said, is part of her office’s balanced approach toward gun prosecutions: Prioritizing gun cases that involve the use of “switches,” rapid-fire devices that can convert semiautomatic guns to fully automatic use,  while at the same time ensuring that others entitled to have firearms are following the law.

“It’s two very different approaches to gun crimes because they’re treated very differently under the law,” O’Neill Burke said. “The goal is to get as many people into compliance with the regulation as possible, while at the same time addressing the very real threat that automatic weapons pose.”

More than 2.4 million Illinoisans have FOID cards. The state police has 20 employees processing FOID applications while additional employees handle applications for concealed carry licenses, which allow for a gun owner to carry a firearm outdoors. The state police said the same participants in diversion programming who may be eligible for a FOID may also acquire a CCL, though the qualifications are different.

The state police said system improvements over the years have brought down processing times for new FOID applications to an average of about 12 days. During the pandemic, staffing ranged between 17 and 28 employees dedicated to FOID card application processing, in addition to temporary contractors, the state police said.

In 2020, the first year of the pandemic, the state police processed 190,693 new FOID applications with an average processing time of 83 days, the state police said. The following year, 292,523 new FOID applications were processed.

The final amendment of the diversion program legislation passed through the Senate by a 55-0 vote on May 31, the final scheduled day of session. The bill was approved in the House on May 23 by a vote of 97-11.

When state Sen. Elgie Sims presented the final amendment on the Senate floor on May 31, he said there was a  “unique set of proponents to the bill.” In addition to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office, those proponents included the Cook County public defender’s office, Illinois State’s Attorneys Association, Illinois State Rifle Association and Gun Violence Prevention PAC.

Sims, the bill’s main Senate sponsor, said in an interview that the legislation is meant to help people caught up in the criminal justice system for nonviolent gun infractions so they don’t get arrested again.

“We’re trying to make sure that for somebody who might have a firearm in their possession, but they’ve gone through the process, they’ve taken the steps to atone for the mistake (so) that they are able to get their FOID card,” the Chicago Democrat said. “It was to encourage people to be law-abiding gun owners.”

Among other supporters of the bill was the Gun Violence Prevention PAC, which works to stem gun violence and illegal gun access. John Schmidt, an executive board member of the group, said there’s room for a balanced approach within firearm policies to respect the rights of people wanting to own a gun legally.

“G-PAC works to keep illegal guns out of the hands of unqualified owners. But we have no trouble making common ground to support laws that enable people who successfully complete diversion programs to resume their right like other citizens to own lawful guns,” said Schmidt, a former U.S. associate attorney general.

Republican legislators have long accused the Democratic majority of infringing on the Second Amendment right to bear arms through laws such as the 2023 assault weapons ban, which remains under court challenge. In the new gun bill, many GOP lawmakers supported the Democrats’ legislative fix around diversion programming and FOID cards.

Senate Republican leader John Curran, a former assistant Cook County state’s attorney, agreed with Sims’ rationale behind it.

“Ultimately, if someone’s going to possess a gun again down the road, they should have a FOID in Illinois. It’s the law of the land. So, we should encourage that behavior. This bill does,” said Curran, of Downers Grove.

State Rep. John Cabello of Machesney Park was one of 11 House members to vote against the new legislation. A Republican who has worked as a police detective, he said he’s been supportive of diversion programs but was skeptical of the Democrats’ motivation for this legislation.

“What they’re doing in Springfield, is they take baby steps to what their final goal is. What is their final goal? Is their final goal to make sure that we can’t charge felons with possession of a (gun) any longer?” Cabello said.

The legislation would apply to various diversion programs for people arrested on Class 4 felony gun charges, including Cook County prosecutors’ first-time weapon offense program. People charged with such crimes are eligible for the diversion program only if they’ve gotten permission from a judge, with the consent of the state’s attorney.

O’Neill Burke’s office said Cook County had roughly 2,800 Class 4 felony gun cases last year of which defendants in some 1,200 were put in gun diversion programs, most of them in the first-time weapon offense program.

The program was initially established by the General Assembly in 2018 as a pilot and limited to defendants under 21, while also being part of a law allowing for penalty enhancements for certain people convicted of repeatedly carrying illegal firearms. But in the last several years, especially with the makeup of the General Assembly becoming more progressive, lawmakers let the penalty enhancement provisions expire, made the diversion program permanent and removed its age restriction.

Participation in the program could last from six months to two years, according to the law, and to stay in the program, the defendant must not break any laws or use any guns or other weapons.

The law doesn’t allow someone in the program if they’ve been arrested for a felony gun crime that was committed during the commission of a violent offense; if they’ve been previously convicted or placed on probation or conditional discharge for any violent crime; if they’ve completed the program in the past; or if they have an existing order of protection issued against them.

Cook County Public Defender Sharone R. Mitchell Jr. said the legislation’s emphasis on obtaining FOID cards is an acknowledgement by the government that the people who often get in trouble for illegal gun possession are not dangerous criminals. But if they have a blemish on their record like a Class 4 felony, that could hurt their chances to get a job and potentially be deprived of other opportunities.

But Mitchell says many people might not acquire FOID cards or CCLs for a host of reasons, including ignorance of the law or a criminal conviction from decades ago preventing them from owning a gun.

“People’s baseline need is to keep themselves safe and some individuals have made the decision in our community that carrying a gun is their only path toward that safety,” he said. “People are making really tough decisions based upon safety.”

Mitchell couldn’t say whether the new legislation would increase awareness for the public to obtain FOID cards but said his office is hopeful the law helps change how illegal gun possession offenses are treated in the criminal justice system.

“Our hope is that this law is a first step, but that we take a more informed and measured approach to all gun possession cases,” he said.

Originally Published: June 14, 2025 at 5:00 AM CDT