To the Editor: Releasing FOID owners’ names imperils citizens’ safety

Recently, my office has received calls and e-mails from my constituents who are concerned about two recent issues related to the Second Amendment and firearm ownership.

Foremost, the recent news concerning the ruling from the Illinois Attorney General instructing the state police to release the names of individuals who have been issued Firearm Ownership Identification cards to the public troubles me.

I’ve co-sponsored Senate Bill 27, which will keep the names of all FOID card holders private.

While the Attorney General has stated addresses should not be released alongside the names of FOID card holders, I still believe the release of such information will harm public safety. A complete list of names could be checked against other publicly-available databases to associate names with an address. Criminals could then either target homes without FOID holders or homes with FOID cards in hopes of stealing firearms.

As we’ve witnessed criminals get more technologically sophisticated, this isn’t some paranoid fantasy, but an almost-certain reality.

Additionally, I’ve been contacted about the topic of concealed carry in Illinois. As many know, Illinois is just one of two states in the nation to universally deny such rights to its citizens. I am a firm believer in the right to self-defense and fully support legislation to allow concealed carry.

Several bills addressing this issue are in the legislature right now, and I continue to work to support concealed carry rights.

Currently, legislation on both of these issues enjoys bipartisan support, and it is my hope that Illinois citizens will soon have greater privacy and more rights on these crucial Second Amendment issues.

If anyone has questions or comments, I encourage them to contact my office at senatorchristine@frontier.com or call my office at (815) 895-6318.

Christine J. Johnson
State Senator, 35th District
Shabbona, Ill.

Print This Article