Illinois Gun Laws: FOID, Concealed Carry, and Assault Weapons

Illinois gun laws require you to hold a Firearm Owner’s Identification (FOID) card before you can buy or possess a firearm or ammunition, wait 72 hours after any purchase before taking the gun home, and obtain a separate Concealed Carry License if you want to carry in public. The state also bans many semi-automatic weapons and magazines over a set capacity, keeps guns out of a long list of public places, and has a red-flag process for temporarily removing firearms from people a court finds dangerous.

The FOID Card Comes First

Almost every legal step involving a firearm in Illinois starts with the FOID card. You need one to buy a gun, buy ammunition, or keep either one in your home. Applications go through the Illinois State Police Firearms Services Bureau portal and cost $10, payable by credit card or electronic check.¹

You’ll need a valid Illinois driver’s license or state ID to apply. The portal asks for biographical information, a headshot taken against a plain light background with no hat or sunglasses, and answers to eligibility questions about your criminal history and mental health history. The Illinois State Police then have 30 days to approve or deny the application.²

A FOID card is valid for 10 years. If you’ve submitted fingerprints to the Illinois State Police for a FOID or concealed carry application, your card can renew automatically once you pass a Firearms Transaction Inquiry Program check, so it essentially refreshes each time you legally buy a firearm.¹

Who Cannot Get a FOID Card

Illinois disqualifies a long list of applicants. The categories most people run into:

Anyone with a felony conviction under Illinois law or any other jurisdiction.
Anyone convicted of domestic battery or aggravated domestic battery, whether the conviction came before or after January 1, 2012.
Anyone convicted within the past five years of battery, assault, aggravated assault, or violating an order of protection involving a firearm.
Anyone who has been a patient in a mental health facility within the past five years, or has been adjudicated as having a mental disability.
A person addicted to narcotics.
Applicants under 21 without written consent from a qualified parent or guardian. Anyone under 21 with a non-traffic misdemeanor conviction is also barred.
Non-residents, with narrow exceptions for law enforcement, armed security officers, and active-duty military permanently stationed in Illinois.

Lying on the application is itself a disqualifier.³ Federal firearm prohibitions apply on top of Illinois’s rules, so a person barred federally cannot get a FOID card even after clearing every state criterion.

Buying a Firearm: 72-Hour Wait and Transfer Rules

A FOID card in your wallet does not let you walk out of a store with a gun the same day. Illinois imposes a 72-hour waiting period on all firearm purchases. The clock starts when the seller submits the transfer application to the Illinois State Police, and the buyer cannot take possession until the 72 hours have passed. A seller who ignores the wait commits a Class 4 felony.⁴

Private Sales

Private sales are not exempt. If you sell or transfer a firearm to someone who is not a federally licensed dealer, you either route the transfer through a licensed dealer or contact the Illinois State Police with the buyer’s FOID number for a check through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. If the buyer clears, the State Police issue an approval number that is good for 30 days.⁵

Whoever transfers a firearm has to keep a written record of the transaction for at least 10 years, showing the date, a description and serial number of the firearm, the buyer’s FOID number, and any approval number. A peace officer can ask to see it at any time. If the buyer bought from a private seller rather than a dealer, the buyer must give a copy of that record to a federally licensed dealer within 10 days, and the dealer must hold it for 20 years. The dealer can charge up to $25 for the service. Failing to keep the required records is a Class A misdemeanor the first time and a Class 4 felony for a second offense within 10 years.⁵

Concealed Carry License

Carrying a concealed firearm in Illinois requires a Concealed Carry License (CCL) in addition to a FOID card. The requirements are significantly more involved than the FOID process.

Training

You must complete at least 16 hours of firearms training with a state-approved instructor, including range qualification. The instructor issues a training certificate at the end.⁶ Course prices vary, generally landing between roughly $150 and $300. A high-resolution copy of the certificate is uploaded through the State Police portal as part of the application.

Fees and Processing Time

The CCL application uses the same Firearms Services Bureau portal as the FOID. You’ll need your existing FOID number, and the State Police will review your addresses going back 10 years as part of the background investigation.⁷ The resident application fee is $150.

Fingerprinting is optional but changes the timeline. With fingerprints on file, the State Police must issue or deny the license within 90 days of receiving a completed application; without fingerprints, processing can take up to 120 days.⁷ Live-scan prints run around $60.

Non-Residents

Illinois issues CCLs to some non-residents, but only to residents of states whose firearm laws the Illinois State Police consider “substantially similar” to Illinois’s. Non-resident applicants must meet every qualification a resident meets, submit a notarized statement confirming eligibility under federal and home-state law, and provide documentation equivalent to a FOID card from their home state.⁸

Assault Weapon and Magazine Limits

The Protect Illinois Communities Act bans the sale, delivery, and purchase of firearms classified as assault weapons. The definition is broad. It reaches semi-automatic rifles with features such as folding stocks, flash suppressors, or barrel shrouds; semi-automatic pistols and shotguns with comparable features; and .50 caliber rifles and cartridges.⁹

The same statutory scheme caps magazine capacity at 10 rounds for long guns and 15 rounds for handguns. Any magazine over those limits, or one that can be readily converted past them, is a large-capacity ammunition feeding device and falls under the same restrictions.¹⁰

If you legally owned a covered firearm or magazine before the law took effect, you can keep it, but only if you register it through an endorsement affidavit filed via the Illinois State Police portal. The affidavit is your formal declaration that you had the item before the ban.¹¹ Missing that filing carries real criminal exposure.

Where You Cannot Carry

Even a valid CCL doesn’t cover everywhere. Illinois lists 23 categories of prohibited locations. The ones most likely to affect ordinary movement:

Schools and childcare facilities, including grounds and parking areas.
Buildings controlled by a unit of local or state government, including courthouses.
Hospitals, nursing homes, and mental health facilities, public or private.
Buses, trains, and any transit facility that receives public money.
Bars and taverns where more than 50% of gross receipts come from alcohol.
Parks, playgrounds, and athletic facilities controlled by a municipality or park district.
Colleges and universities, public or private, including buildings and parking areas.
Libraries, museums, zoos, and amusement parks.
Airports, stadiums, arenas, and gaming facilities.
Nuclear facilities regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Private property owners other than residences can also ban firearms by posting a standardized sign at the entrance: a 4-inch by 6-inch white sign with a black handgun graphic crossed by a red circle and slash.¹² A larger sign is allowed as long as the graphic itself is at least 4 by 6 inches.¹³

Storing a Firearm in Your Vehicle

You can drive into the parking area of a prohibited location while carrying, but you have to stow the firearm before leaving the vehicle. It must be unloaded and concealed in a case inside a locked vehicle, or in a locked container out of plain view. A “case” for this purpose includes a glove compartment, a fully enclosing console, the trunk, or a dedicated carrying box. You may briefly handle the firearm in the immediate area of the vehicle only to place it in or take it out of the trunk.¹⁴

Self-Defense and the Castle Doctrine

Illinois is not a stand-your-ground state. The law allows you to use force when you reasonably believe it’s necessary to defend yourself or another person against an imminent threat of unlawful force. Deadly force is justified only when you reasonably believe it’s the only way to prevent death, great bodily harm, or the commission of a forcible felony.¹⁵

The rules ease somewhat inside your own home. Under Illinois’s castle doctrine, you can use force to prevent or stop someone’s unlawful entry into your dwelling. Deadly force in defense of the dwelling is justified in two situations: when the entry is violent or forcible and you reasonably believe deadly force is needed to prevent an assault on someone inside, or when you reasonably believe deadly force is necessary to prevent a felony from being committed in the home.¹⁶ The castle doctrine is not a blanket permission to shoot anyone who enters uninvited. The “reasonably believes” standard still applies, and prosecutors will look closely at whether the level of force matched the actual threat.

Firearm Restraining Orders

Illinois has a red-flag law that lets family members, household members, and law enforcement petition a court for a Firearm Restraining Order against someone who poses a significant danger to themselves or others. The petitioner files an affidavit describing the threat. If the court finds the danger immediate, it can issue an emergency order the same day, authorizing law enforcement to seize the person’s firearms, ammunition, FOID card, and concealed carry license. If the court finds probable cause that the person has firearms, it can issue a search warrant along with the order.¹⁷

The emergency order is short-term. A full hearing must be scheduled within 14 days to decide whether to extend it to a six-month restraining order. If the order expires and the person is legally eligible to possess firearms, the seized items go back. If the person can’t be found, doesn’t respond, or remains ineligible, the court can eventually order the firearms destroyed or turned over to law enforcement for other uses.

1
Illinois State Police. Firearm Owner’s Identification (FOID)
2
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Illinois State Laws and Published Ordinances
3
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Compiled Statutes 430 ILCS 65/8 – Grounds for Denial and Revocation
4
Illinois State Police. Frequently Asked Questions
5
Justia Law. Illinois Compiled Statutes 430 ILCS 65 – Firearm Owners Identification Card Act
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Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Compiled Statutes 430 ILCS 66/75 – Applicant Firearm Training
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Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Compiled Statutes 430 ILCS 66/10 – Issuance of License
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Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Compiled Statutes 430 ILCS 66/40 – Non-Resident License Applications
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Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Compiled Statutes 720 ILCS 5/24-1.9 – Manufacture, Possession, Delivery, Sale, and Purchase of Assault Weapons
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Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Compiled Statutes 720 ILCS 5/24-1.10 – Manufacture, Delivery, Sale, and Possession of Large Capacity Ammunition Feeding Devices
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Illinois State Police. Assault Weapons
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Illinois State Police Firearms Services. Requirements for Concealed Carry Signage
13
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Administrative Code 20.1231.150 – Prohibited Areas
14
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Compiled Statutes 430 ILCS 66/65 – Prohibited Areas
15
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Compiled Statutes 720 ILCS 5/7-1 – Use of Force in Defense of Person
16
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Compiled Statutes 720 ILCS 5/7-2 – Use of Force in Defense of Dwelling
17
FindLaw. Illinois Compiled Statutes 430 ILCS 67/35 – Emergency Firearms Restraining Order