Illinois’ Oppressive New Laws Putting Gun Shops Out of Business
Russ Chastain 02.08.19
In a move designed to please gun-grabbers and other criminals, newly-elected Democratic governor of Illinois J.B. Pritzker — a billionaire conveniently forgiven for his wealth by a party which publicly bashes money while constantly gathering more of it — signed into law a new anti-gun bill last month, reportedly triggering more than one Illinois gun shop to close its doors forever.
As you should expect, the new law does nothing to make people safer, but instead adds numerous expenses and other burdens to already-heavily-regulated gun shops. Among the requirements:
- Expensive security camera systems
- Alarm monitoring systems “that will notify local law enforcement of an unauthorized intrusion into the premises”
- Additional licensing fees on a sliding scale from $300 to $40,000
- Annual staff training
- Instituting a gun storage plan (every dealer stores guns safely or they’d soon be out of business)
- Allowing inspections by local law enforcement
At least two gun sellers have already decided to shut down, less than one month after this onerous government overreach was instituted.
‘I’m just going to retire, I guess,’ Jim Barnard, 69, told local media about his decision to shutter his shop, Fishman’s Sporting Goods in Girard, after four decades. ‘I hope that I can live off of what I’ve saved over the years.’
And in a post on his shop’s Facebook page, Walnut Creek Shooters Supply owner Mick Moore informed customers of his decision to liquidate his firearms and ammo, sell off his remaining inventory, and “go hunting and fishing and enjoy… retirement.”
I’ve worked 8 to 12 hrs a day for the last 8 years building my business as an honest and legal gun shop and put all the money back into inventory so i could provide what my loyal customers want. Never drawn a paycheck for my time. I send a nice check to the state of Illinois for sales tax every month. Now they want to add more hardships on all of the small local gun shops. There’s no way we can comply and stay in business…
I will be selling off my inventory of firearms and ammo and not replace them and discontinue those sales. Then I won’t need their firearm license to sell all the rest of the accessories and supplies I have in stock. Time to go hunting and fishing and enjoy my retirement. A very heart felt thank you to all my loyal customers and friends. Mick at Walnut Creek Shooters Supply.
It would appear their plan is working. The goal, of course, is to put gun sellers out of business in order to further restrict public availability of firearms by the law-abiding, and it’s working. The article explains that similar local laws have caused San Francisco to be gun-shop-less since 2015, and Seattle’s “sin taxes” on guns and ammo have pushed shop owners to either shut down or move to the suburbs.
No matter how you slice it, this sucks for everybody except the criminals on the street and the criminals elected to public office.
