Just 1% of Illinois Gun Owners Register Assault Weapons Ahead of Ban | The Reload

Only a tiny fraction of Illinois gun owners registered their AR-15s and similar firearms before the state s ban officially took effect.

Fewer than 30,000 of the state s Firearms Owner Identification (FOID) card holders registered firearms recently classified as assault weapons by the end of the December 31 registration deadline, according to updated data the Illinois State Police (ISP) released on Tuesday. That means only 1.2 percent of the state s 2.4 million documented gun owners complied with the state s terms for allowing continued ownership of AR-15s despite enforcement of the ban beginning on Monday.

The final year-end numbers paint a picture of mass non-compliance with the efforts of Illinois officials to crack down on the supply of AR-15s, the most popular rifle in America, and similar firearms in civilian hands despite facing the threat of criminal penalties. Starting Monday, possession of an unregistered assault weapon became a misdemeanor, while the manufacture and sale of one became a felony. It adds to a recent trend of gun owners being reluctant to go along with similar gun bans and registration requirements in states like New York and California.

At the same time, because the state requires all gun owners to be licensed under the FOID card system, presumably not all gun owners who didn t register own banned firearms. That leaves the extent of the civil disobedience among Illinois gun owners somewhat murky.

via thereload.com

H/t Glenn Reynolds, instapundit.

The reason why this law and others like it are bad is that as massively ignored laws increase on the books authorities will have more discretion as to whether to enforce them. This makes law less predictable and ultimately even tyrannical. Besides, there are lots of places in Illinois where I would sure as heck want an AR=15.