Court Orders Hancock County Sheriff To Hand Over Names Of Gun Purchasers –

Hancock Co., IL. (ECWd) –

Last month, the Hancock County Circuit Court Ordered the Hancock County Sheriff to provide the names of people who purchased guns at the Sheriff’s gun sale. We asked for the records so we could determine if any Sheriff’s Department employees purchased any guns from the department (55 ILCS 5/3-6026), and because any sales by a local Sheriff or City Police Department of confiscated firearms violates state law.

This FOIA lawsuit was filed in 2019 after their refusal to provide the information pursuant to a FOIA request.

The Sheriff argued that Illinois state law prohibited him from releasing names of FOID card holders, and Iowa residents should be afforded the same protections as Illinois residents.

We argued that we did not request the names of FOID card holders, we requested the names of the people who purchased guns sold by the Sheriff’s Department.

Illinois law permits, possession of firearms by non-FOID card holders in certain circumstances; 430 ILCS 65/2(c) – which means that of the names provided, does not necessarily mean they all have FOID cards.

Attorney Josh Burday, at Loevy and Loevy, was our attorney in this case, and stated that “Forcing the release of the names of those who purchased guns from the Hancock County Sheriff will allow members of the public to see for themselves if public officials are complying with the law.”