Dan Eldridge, president of the Federal Firearms Licensees of Illinois lobby group, told Fox News Digital that “one of the aspects” of the noncompliance is simply “ignorance of the law.”
Eldridge said “the confusion is that nobody can tell you what’s covered by this act.” For example, one county prosecutor posted a notice that by Jan. 1, everyone must register their assault weapon and high capacity magazines — but Eldridge noted that magazines “aren’t required to be registered.”
“Nor could they be,” Eldridge said. “They have no serial number.”
“Then more recently, you had this governor stating on camera that automatic and semi-automatic firearms and high capacity magazines must be registered,” he said. “Well, automatic is not mentioned once in the act, and as we talked about just a second ago, magazines aren’t covered, so, well, one out of three is pretty good for this governor on anything gun related.”
Eldridge also said “civil disobedience” is another factor at play with the low registration numbers.
“Almost every sheriff and most of the county state’s attorneys have stated they will not enforce this act,” he said. “So residents of those counties had very little incentive to register.”
— Houston Keene in Illinois gun groups report confusion, ‘civil disobedience’ after deadline passes to register ‘assault’ weapons