Illinois Gun Control Fails To Keep Felon Disarmed :: 11/21/2019

Illinois isn’t quite as bad as California when it comes to gun laws, but it hasn’t been for lack of trying on the part of the Land of Lincoln. They’ve passed countless gun control laws, all ostensibly designed to keep the bad guys from getting guns. Generally, that means convicted felons. After all, even federal law forbids them from having guns.

Laws in Illinois are, in theory, supposed to prevent them from getting them to a greater degree.

Yet what good did those laws do when a convicted felon has not one, but three guns?

Acting on a tip from neighbors, Lake County sheriff’s officers confiscated three firearms from the home of a felon who lives near Mundelein.

George L. Silva, 48, of the 26300 block of North Diamond Lake Road, was charged Monday with three counts of unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon, according to a statement issued by the sheriff’s office Tuesday.

One day earlier, police were notified by neighbors that he had been acting irrationally, according to the statement.

One neighbor said recently Silva had been walking around his yard with a flashlight during the evening and yelling at intruders, and police were told that he was armed with a semi-automatic firearm when he asked a neighbor to help search for a supposed intruder, the statement said.

Police executed a search warrant on the home Monday night, recovered the weapons and arrested Silva.

Now, let’s bear in mind that in order to purchase a firearm from a lawful dealer in Illinois, you first have to obtain a Firearms Owners Identification Card. That requires a background check. Then you have to undergo the NICS check after filling out the form 4473 where you have to say that you’re not a felon.

This is also a state with universal background checks, meaning you can’t buy a gun from a friend legally.

So how did Silva allegedly get his weapons? I mean, it’s like he must have obtained them via the black market or something, right?

I’m sure someone will be happy to explain all about how Indiana is responsible for Silva getting a gun, even though Indiana doesn’t have the same problem with guns and gun violence Illinois has with Chicago.

The truth is, though, criminals will do as they wish and aren’t worried about what the law says. Felons who obtain guns through illegal means are criminals, just the same as if they were robbing a bank. We can debate whether that should be the case or not, but it is what it is and Silva likely knew it. He had to know he couldn’t legally purchase a firearm, yet there he is, trotting around the neighborhood with a gun.

Where were those gun laws, huh? There were all those rules meant to prevent someone like Silva getting a gun? Those laws haven’t been repealed or anything so what good did they do?

At the end of the day, it’s time to recognize that gun control laws don’t actually stop the criminals. They stop law-abiding citizens and no one else.

Tom Knighton is a Navy veteran, a former newspaperman, a novelist, and a blogger and lifetime shooter. He lives with his family in Southwest Georgia. https://bearingarms.com/author/tomknighton/

https://bearingarms.com/tom-k/2019/11/20/illinois-gun-control-fails-keep-felon-disarmed/