After the mass shooting in Aurora, a state lawmaker wants to require fingerprinting for residents of Illinois to own a gun and increase the fees for getting a Firearm Owners Identification card, but gun rights groups say new regulations aren’t the answer.

Illinois State Police said mass shooter Gary Martin bought a gun in 2014 with a valid Firearm Owners Identification card. ISP said it only did a background check for Martin in Illinois after he lied on his application and said he had not been convicted of a crime.

The ISP revoked Martin’s FOID card only after fingerprints he provided to apply for a concealed carry license alerted officials to a criminal record in Mississippi, ISP officials said.

“Unlike the FOID application, [Firearm Concealed Carry License] applicants may choose to submit fingerprints as a component of their application,” ISP said in a statement. “If fingerprints are submitted, statutory processing time is reduced to 90 days from 120 days. Martin submitted fingerprints with his application. A fingerprint background check produced an FBI number.”

State Rep. Kathleen Willis, D-Addison, said there are obvious gaps in the existing law “where the system failed.”

“It would probably be in our best interest to do fingerprinting for all FOID cards so that we can actually have a more comprehensive search,” Willis said.

Federal Firearms Licensees of Illinois Executive Director Todd Vandermyde said that’s not the answer.

“They don’t require fingerprints when we issue driver’s’ licenses to illegal aliens,” Vandermyde said. “We were told a couple of years ago that just having an ID to vote was disenfranchisement and a hardship on the poor and indigent.”

Vandermyde said the cost of the FOID card application and fingerprints could be around $100, making it out of reach for some who still have a right to keep and bear arms.

As to Martin, ISP said it sent him a FOID card revocation notice in April 2014 “notifying him of his FCCL application denial as well as indicating he was no longer eligible for a FOID card. Martin was notified he was responsible for surrendering his FOID card and any weapons in his possession.”

Willis said the FOID card revocation notice should have teeth and law enforcement agencies must follow up to enforce the law. But there’s a funding issue. She said that could be made up with a FOID fee increase.

“Gun owners, they have no problem putting down $500, $600 for a gun and they cry over $10 for a FOID card. Maybe we take that up to $30 to make it more reasonable,” Willis said.

That could raise enough money to fund some sort of law enforcement effort – be it state, county or local – to follow up with people who have a revoked FOID card to make sure the law is followed, she said.

Vandermyde said he considers raising the FOIA fee a tax on someone’s rights and equated it to a poll tax that would require people to pay a fee to vote. He said more regulations on rights is not the answer.

“They demand all of these governmental intrusions and laws in order to prevent crime and the very system that they put in place didn’t work,” Vandermyde said.

Instead, Vandermyde said there needs to be better communication between Illinois’ background checks and federal criminal record systems.

“I don’t think the answer is sitting there and taxing and penalizing and dragging out the FOID card process for otherwise law-abiding citizens,” Vandermyde said.

While Willis said some local law enforcement agencies follow up on FOID card revocations, especially in cases where there have been incidents of domestic violence already known to local law enforcement, ISP said it is reviewing its records to determine how many outstanding Firearm Disposition Records remain for 2018.

There were 10,818 revocations sent to FOID card holders in 2018 alone.

“In most instances, the Firearm Disposition Record does not get returned to the Department,” ISP said.