SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) – Honoring the second anniversary of the Henry Pratt warehouse deadly shooting in Aurora, the Illinois State Police, along with the Division of Criminal Investigation and the Division of Justice Services, announces the continuation of wide-ranging efforts to improve operations, information sharing and enforcement of firearms safety laws.

"There are no words for the kind of evil that robs members of our communities of their hopes, their dreams, their futures. Today we honor the lives of the victims who were lost in this act of senseless violence and remember the bravery of the first responders whose actions saved countless lives," said Gov. JB Pritzker. "Over the last two years, my administration has taken concrete steps towards bolstering public safety by strengthening the FOID program and implementing policies and practices aimed at preventing guns from landing in the hands of those with criminal intent."

"It has been two years since that awful day, but the Illinois State Police (have) not forgotten. The victims and survivors are at the heart of our continued fight to strengthen public safety," said ISP Director Kelly. "While progress has been made, the Henry Pratt shooting revealed clearly the need to use less of our resources on an outdated, inefficient renewal process that's similar to that of a fishing license and more on enforcement against real threats to public safety. We will need authority from the legislature to untangle and integrate this decades-old patchwork of FOID, concealed carry, firearms transactions, and records checks if we are going to strengthen our ability to protect the public."

Since the shooting, ISP has made several strides in firearm safety awareness.

As part of that effort already: 

  • The ISP created a web portal for local law enforcement, prosecutors, and other justice stakeholders to access so agencies could identify individuals within their jurisdictions who were and were not in compliance with the FOID Act. Since February 2019, the portal has been accessed more than 39,000 times by those agencies.
  • ISP has conducted over 480 firearms enforcement details since April of 2019. The ISP created these special details after the Henry Pratt shooting in Aurora in February 2019.
  • Submissions of mandatory firearms disposal reports of firearms possessed from an individual after FOID revocation has increased to 4,799 in 2020 – a 70% increase from 2019.
  • In 2020, 11,742 FOIDs were revoked – an 8% increase of revocations over 2019.
  • 5,527 attempts to purchase firearms illegally were stopped by the ISP background check process in 2020 – a 77% increase from 2019.
  • 11,512 attempts to unlawfully obtain a FOID card were stopped by the ISP background check process in 2020 – over a 290% increase from 2019.