A pleasant surprise from the Illinois State Police
Days ago, the Illinois State Police opened the online Illinois Concealed Carry application to the state’s approved firearm instructors. It’s over at the new ISP CCW website.
It didn’t take long for non-instructors to discover that they too could complete the 90% of the application, right up to the point of submitting the $153.xx application fee ($150 + a “convenience” fee for residents).
We haven’t confirmed it ourselves with the State Police, but others have written that the State Police have no problems with non-instructors filling out the online application using their “Digital Identification” information and saving the information. (Click here to get your digital ID.)
Theoretically, the ISP’s servers will save your information and on January 5th, you will log back in and page through the already entered information and then submit your credit card or checking account information to electronically pay the fee.
We’re not guaranteeing that this will indeed be the case, but if you want to go ahead and give it a trial run, have at it!
For the technologically challenged
Guns Save Life is working on coordinating a series of times and locations to help Guns Save Life members without internet access or the computer equipment or savvy to electronically apply for their license after January 5th.
Here’s what you will need:
- Your driver’s license (for your Digital ID)
- Your FOID card (for the application)
- Your TCN number from when you got your LiveScan fingerprints (allegedly, according to the leadership at Illinois Carry, fingerprints aren’t required, but at the very least, the processing of your application will be delayed without submitting fingerprints)
- A list of your physical addresses from the past 10 years (for the application)
- Your training completion certificates (we’ll scan them in as we’ll need to submit the information on the form)
- A credit card, checking account information or $153 and change to pay the application fee.
We are working on finalizing the process and will seek to encourage other gun rights groups and organizations to do the same as a public service to Illinois gun owners.
A warning from the Illinois State Police
We are working on confirming the following post at AR15.com by “Bobapunk”:
The ISP are aware of individuals who have been holding non-approved Concealed Carry Classes in Illinois all year. A supervisor in the Firearms Bureau told me on Friday that they will deny any CCL application that is submitted with training “certificates” issued by certain “instructors”. I was also told that the $150 application fee is non-refundable and that being denied for incomplete/improper training would probably not be appealable, because, in their view, it is the applicant’s responsibility to have read the law and ensure that the training they took was compliant.
Did your instructor dismiss your class hours early?
There’s more than a little chance that he or she may be revoked in the coming days or weeks and you’re going to be out your tuition – AND your Illinois $150 application fee.
Act now to ask for your tuition fees back from your trainer if they issued you a certificate for a course that was grossly non-compliant.
If they refuse to refund your money, head on over and file a complaint form at the Illinois State Police.
Read our story announcing our “Ask for your money back” story on dealing with unethical or unscrupulous instructors. “Teaching to the class” by ending class hours early *is* unethical when the instructor signs off on the form attesting that he gave the class eight or sixteen hours of training.
Corner cutting trainers? Ask for your money back. Or lose it forever.
The information above is correct. I filled out all information and saved it. I received a response that I can complete the application on 1/5.
Also, I took the 16 hour training in October. You will not be let out early and you will get more than you pay for if you take training from John and his trainers. After the class I was confident about when to draw, when to fire, what to expect if I do but most importantly, I learned how to avoid situations where I would need protection and how to articulate the three necessary statement to justify drawing and firing. These trainers are the best. The best.
I also was able to save all my information, however, I encountered a problem. My fingerprints were taken back in early November by one of the approved facilities, and at that time I received a TCN (Transaction Control Number). The ISP site, however, says my TCN is “invalid or not yet entered in their system due to a backlog.” I find it hard to believe that it would take them two months to get an electronic file into their system — but then again, Illinois is as bumbling a bureaucracy as you can find…
I was able to complete the process yesterday without issue. I submitted my fingerprints via Securitas in Ofallon, very easy, $55.00. I received my 16 hours of training from GunLovingJohn.com, very imformative class, did not get out early. The process was straight forward but redundant, 2nd Amendment should be all we need.