FPC Action Foundation and FPC File Brief in Lawsuit Challenging Illinois FOID Card Requirement

SPRINGFIELD, IL (December 6, 2021) — The FPC Action Foundation and Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) filed an important brief with the Illinois Supreme Court in support of Vivian Brown, a lifelong peaceable citizen who has been criminalized for exercising her Second Amendment rights because she did not possess a Firearm Owner’s Identification (FOID) card. The brief in People v. Brown can be found at FPCLegal.org.

At issue is the fact that the State of Illinois has charged a life-long law abiding woman for keeping a single-shot .22 caliber bolt-action rifle in her home for self-defense because she did not possess a FOID card. Under current law, gun owners must obtain a State-issued FOID card and maintain possession of it for as long as they possess firearms. The State has also previously acknowledged that Brown was not a prohibited person, nor ever misused the weapon in any way.

“No peaceable person should be prosecuted for possessing a single-shot .22 caliber rifle in her home,” said FPC’s director of constitutional studies, Joseph Greenlee. “While courts are often asked to answer complicated questions about what activities fall within the scope of a constitutional right, this case is remarkably straightforward: the Second Amendment expressly protects the right to ‘keep’ arms, and all Ms. Brown did was keep a protected arm at home. Any law that forbids such activity violates the Second Amendment and the Illinois Supreme Court should say as much in its decision.”

FPC and FPF previously filed a brief in this case in 2019, before the Illinois Supreme Court remanded the case back to the trial court.