Illinois (ECWd) –
During the first Temporary Restraining Order hearings against the Illinois Governor’s alleged “assault weapons” ban, the attorneys representing the Governor and Attorney General made a statement that jumped out at me, as did a portion of their filed response on the matter.
“So the people in the professions that are exempted from these provisions of the legislation, they are in professions that anything else entails substantial firearm training. How to safely handle and store what the Legislature has defined as assault weapons.” (Transcript of Effingham Hearing – see pages 44-45 )
In the response filed for that same hearing, the Governor’s position is most interesting.
“the professions identified in the Act are professions that necessarily entail substantial firearms training, including on how to safely handle and store assault weapons.” (Response to Emergency TRO – see page 16)
The alleged “assault weapons” ban exempts the following.
- Peace Officers
- Qualified law enforcement officers and qualified retired law enforcement officers.
- Federal, State, or local law enforcement agencies to equip their peace officers.
- Wardens, superintendents, and keepers of prisons.
For those not familiar with Prison Wardens, Illinois refers to them as Chief Administration Officers and Superintendents as found in the law. Those people are designated by the Director of the Department of Corrections. The Director is appointed by the Governor. There are 46 prison facilities in Illinois according to the DOC website however the Directors profile points to only 27 facilities.
I submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the Department of Corrections for a “Copy of all firearms training certifications held by Wardens, superintendents, and keepers of prisons In Illinois.”
I asked for this because the claim by the Governor is these people are exempt because of their “substantial” training on firearms, including handling assault weapons.
The DOC had ZERO records pointing to any training certificates of any kind as it relates to firearms.
They did produce range score sheets where their shooting was recorded. The total number of those records reflected only 13 individuals.
We note those shooting records were for 9 mm pistols. There was nothing indicating any training or qualifications with alleged “assault weapons” in the records produced, labeled as “Active Wardens – Redacted)
Even more disturbing, the DOC released the FOID card numbers in their production for 12 wardens. Such a release violates the Freedom of Information Act. If any of those Wardens would like to take action against their employer for releasing such information, please contacts us to obtain the unredacted copy provided to us. We note one Warden’s records did not indicate any FOID card number so we do not know if they are even legally able to possess a gun. A copy of the properly redacted records produced can be viewed below or downloaded at this link.
As it stands, DOC has no records indicating any substantial training regarding alleged “assault weapons”.
active-wardens_redacted
10 Comments
Dial
Posted at 21:46h, 22 February“Keepers” includes guards right? What assault weapons do they ever work with? Does a Ruger Mini-14 count for that? Because that’s as close as they ever get. Not sure there is any actual training, just range qualification.
Frank Miller
Posted at 15:04h, 19 February“I have the ability to swear in citizens as deputy sheriffs. I have no limit on the number. I don’t have a limit to my county borders. And as I told them in Richmond, and I mean it today, I will swear in 10’s of thousands of citizens as deputy sheriffs, provided they have their own weapons and be on call and available to me for service. And they will be allowed to keep those AR-15’s, high capacity magazines, and whatever else it is generally speaking, that is being talked about through all the chatter and rhetoric.” – Sheriff Scott Jenkins, Culpeper County, Virginia
Gary L Kesti
Posted at 11:07h, 21 FebruaryFrank would deputise outside of your state? Say south dakota.?
Kathiann
Posted at 09:49h, 19 FebruaryAnd of course they misrepresented. For one, the facts aren’t that important to them, and two, they don’t expect anyone to check on them.
Kathiann
Posted at 09:47h, 19 FebruaryGood dig down into the details. This was argued at the White County TRO hearing, but without this much information.
Gerard H Schilling
Posted at 05:55h, 19 FebruarySurprise, surprise, Democrat politicians lie all the time. Republicans, especially RINOs only some of the times.
Cindy
Posted at 20:10h, 18 FebruaryNext up, classifying only “certain rocks” as assault rocks. Letting them get away with their own definitions of words is where we should have stopped them in their tracks. They are all playing games with the people.
Dave
Posted at 19:27h, 18 FebruaryIts the democrats Marxist ideological subversion, The democrats in the Illinois general assembly say: We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the Illinois public believes is false about the law
Dave
Posted at 17:10h, 18 FebruaryOf course we were lied to again by the state govt
Ken Coash
Posted at 15:23h, 18 FebruaryI’m a 20 military veteran, I’m pretty sure I have as much if not more experience with weapons yet I and many other veterans were not exempt. Please explain that. This is so against the constitution that I have sworn to uphold and defend!!