Illinois
State Police say they’re trying to determine whether an apparent crack in a
system to catch felons before they obtain licenses to buy and possess guns was an isolated
case or a bigger issue.
State
police in 2014 issued Gary Martin a Firearms Owner and Identification Card,
which is required to purchase and own guns in Illinois, even though Martin was
convicted of felony assault in Mississippi in 1995 and sentenced to prison.
Martin died in a shootout with police on Friday after killing five coworkers at
Pratt and Co., the plant where he worked in Aurora, authorities. According to police and
media reports, the same pistol Martin bought legally from a dealer after
obtaining a FOID card was used in Friday’s killings.
As
a felon, Martin wasn’t eligible for a FOID card. Nonetheless, he got one. As of
Monday, state police say, standard background checks used to determine whether
applicants are eligible for FOID cards still showed Martin has a clean record.
“If
you run him today, it’s still not coming up,” said Lt. Joseph Hutchins, state
police spokesman. “We’re trying to figure out why it’s not coming up.
Obviously, that’s a concern.”
Hutchins
said police don’t yet know whether the problem was isolated or whether criminal
records from states other than Mississippi also aren’t showing up in FOID
background checks. “That is a very good question, and that is a question we are
trying to answer,” Hutchins said. “We’re working on that. We’re looking into
all of them outside Illinois to see what the issue is. …What other states
actually put into their systems, we can’t control that. That’s the thing we’ve
got to remember.”
According
to media reports, Martin bought his gun from a dealer. When dealers sell guns,
they’re supposed to screen buyers through a federal database commonly called an
instant-background check. Martin, apparently, came up clean in the federal
system, Hutchins said.
“For
it to miss both databases, if that’s what you want to call it, that’s a
concern,” the lieutenant said. “That’s something we’re working on with the
feds.”
Martin
was flagged as a felon when he applied for a concealed carry permit after
purchasing his pistol. Unlike applicants for FOID cards, people who apply for
concealed carry permits are fingerprinted, and that’s when the Mississippi
conviction was discovered. Police revoked his FOID card, Martin he didn’t
surrender it, and police didn’t take it back.
Contact
Bruce Rushton at brushton@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Feb 14-20, 2019.
