Chicago isn’t short on violent criminals — everyone knows that. What it is short on is common sense from its government. Instead of cracking down on the gangs that make the city unlivable, authorities are spending their time arresting and charging vetted, licensed, law-abiding gun owners for paperwork “offenses” that aren’t even real.
A new report from CBS Chicago shows exactly how backwards the system is: Black gun owners with valid FOID and concealed-carry permits are being slapped with felony gun charges over routine traffic stops — even when they immediately disclose the gun and hand over their license.
The example they led with says it all
46-year-old Louis McWilliams was stopped for a missing front plate. Bodycam shows he immediately told police he had a firearm and handed them his FOID/CCL. They arrested him anyway — claiming they “couldn’t verify” it in the system.
He spent a night in jail, had his vehicle seized, fought felony charges for months, and still doesn’t have his legally-owned firearm back — even after the court threw the case out.
Neither Chicago PD nor the prosecutor will explain themselves. Illinois State Police even confirmed that FOID/CCL status is available in real time to officers through LEADS and that officers are not supposed to take action if they “cannot verify” status. Yet Chicago did it anyway.
How many more have been falsely charged?
No one knows. Neither CPD nor the State’s Attorney even tracks it.
The National African American Gun Association and the Illinois State Rifle Association both blasted the arrests as discriminatory, unconstitutional, and chilling to legal gun ownership. And they’re right: when people who do everything “the right way” are cuffed like criminals, it’s not about safety anymore — it’s about control.
“No matter how much you follow a system they create, they can still deem you wrong.” — McWilliams
This is exactly how gun control works in the real world: the criminals ignore it; the government enforces it against the people who obey it.
With DOJ claiming it will defend Second Amendment rights, this Chicago pattern is a test case. If the federal government won’t step in to stop a city from criminalizing lawful carry — then the “right to keep and bear arms” is only a slogan, not a right.
