by DCG
How about politicians and law enforcement actually ENFORCE current laws instead of demanding more “gun control” laws?
From MyFoxChicago: Chicago’s inspector general says police are failing on a requirement to tell the state when people are mentally unfit to carry a gun.
Inspector General Joe Ferguson said in a report released Wednesday that the state Firearm Owners Identification Card Act requires the Chicago Police Department to notify Illinois State Police within 24 hours of determining a person poses “a clear and present danger.” The ISP can revoke a permit to carry if the holder has been admitted to a mental health facility within five years.
The report says Chicago police reported only one of 37 incidents over 3 1/2 years when officers confiscated a gun from a person whom they had taken to a mental health facility.
Ferguson recommended Chicago police undergo more training on reporting requirements. Spokesman Anthony Guglielmi says the department has adopted the recommendations.
More from the report:
“The subset of 37 incidents identified by OIG does not represent the universe of all possible situations (nor can OIG calculate the total number of situations) in which CPD members interacted with an individual posing a clear and present danger. However, given the Act’s sweeping definition of “clear and present danger” (including physical and/or verbal behavior, whether suicidal or directed at another, and with no requirement that a weapon of any kind be involved) and complete lack of exceptions to law enforcement “clear and present danger” reporting requirements, OIG holds that the number of “clear and present danger” situations likely far exceeds the two reported incidents.
As a result of CPD’s noncompliance with the Act, individuals who should not be entitled to possess a firearm under federal or state law continue to exercise that legal right due to CPD’s inaction.Furthermore, without CPD reports of clear and present danger to ISP following the recovery and subsequent inventorying of a firearm, CPD may be returning firearms to individuals whose FOID Cards ISP would otherwise have revoked. In a time of tragically high gun violence in Chicago, and as part of a comprehensive crime strategy, full compliance with the Act’s reporting requirement provides CPD a key mechanism by which to prevent unnecessary gun violence and keep firearms away from those who are not legally entitled to their possession. Given the nature of its officers’ duties, specifically their interaction and engagement with individuals in active crisis and/or hostile situations, CPD holds the unique and essential position in the scheme of preventative gun violence as the assessor of clear and present danger and prompt for investigations by ISP into whether an individual should be entitled to possess a firearm. Anything less than full compliance with the Act’s law enforcement reporting requirement creates cracks through which individuals, likely to harm themselves or others with firearms, may fall.”
Read the whole report here.
DCG