Unlike many states that broadly preempt local firearms regulation, Illinois allows home-rule municipalities to enact firearms ordinances that are more restrictive than state law. This partial preemption framework is rooted in the Illinois Constitution and has been shaped by the Firearm Concealed Carry Act of 2013. The result is a patchwork of local firearms regulations that varies from one jurisdiction to the next -- particularly in the Chicago metropolitan area.[1]
Constitutional Home-Rule Authority
Article VII, Section 6 of the Illinois Constitution provides that a home-rule unit may "exercise any power and perform any function pertaining to its government and affairs, including, but not limited to, the power to regulate for the protection of the public health, safety, morals, and welfare." Any municipality with a population exceeding 25,000 is automatically a home-rule unit. Smaller municipalities may adopt home-rule status by referendum. Cook County holds home-rule authority as a county.[1]
The General Assembly may limit home-rule powers by a three-fifths vote of both chambers or by expressly preempting local regulation in a particular statute. Absent such action, home-rule units retain the authority to legislate on firearms matters.
What Is Preempted: Concealed Carry
The Firearm Concealed Carry Act (430 ILCS 66/90) includes the most significant express preemption in Illinois firearms law. Section 90 states that the regulation of the carrying of concealed firearms is an "exclusive power and function of the State" and that any ordinance or regulation enacted by a home-rule unit that purports to regulate the carrying of concealed firearms in a manner inconsistent with the Act is void. Section 90 also makes the regulation, licensing, possession, and registration of handguns and handgun ammunition exclusive powers of the State, invalidating inconsistent local ordinances, including ordinances that predated 2013.[2]
This means municipalities cannot impose additional concealed carry requirements beyond those in the state Act. They cannot require local concealed carry permits, add prohibited locations beyond the state's list, or impose additional training requirements. The concealed carry framework is uniform statewide.
Partly Preempted: Other Areas of Firearms Regulation
Outside the areas of exclusive state power, home-rule municipalities retain authority over some subjects. The status of the most commonly regulated areas is as follows:
- Assault weapons bans: Only ordinances enacted on, before, or within 10 days after July 9, 2013, survive under 430 ILCS 65/13.1(c). Municipalities cannot enact new assault weapons bans today, but the preserved ordinances may use definitions differing from the state's Protect Illinois Communities Act[3]
- Firearm registration: Municipalities may not require registration of handguns. Under 430 ILCS 66/90 handgun registration is an exclusive state power, and Chicago's decades-old registration regime did not survive the 2013 preemption law
- Firearm dealer regulation: Local governments may impose requirements beyond the state FDLC (430 ILCS 68)
- Taxation: Home-rule taxing power over firearms is contested. In Guns Save Life v. Ali (2021), the Illinois Supreme Court struck down Cook County's firearm and ammunition taxes under the state constitution's uniformity clause
- Discharge and storage: Municipalities may regulate firearm discharge and enact storage requirements stricter than the state's Safe Gun Storage Act
The 2013 Preemption Deadline
The 10-day window comes from the FOID Card Act, not the Concealed Carry Act. Under 430 ILCS 65/13.1(c), added in 2013, an ordinance regulating the possession or ownership of assault weapons survives only if it was enacted on, before, or within 10 days after July 9, 2013. Assault weapon ordinances enacted after that window are invalid, and a home-rule unit that did not act within the window may not regulate assault weapons.[2]
Assault weapons ordinances that met the deadline, such as the Cook County ordinance and various municipal bans, were preserved. Registration requirements were not part of the grandfather, and Chicago's handgun registration regime ended after 430 ILCS 66/90 made handgun registration an exclusive state power.
Practical Impact: A Patchwork of Local Laws
The lack of full preemption creates a fragmented regulatory landscape. A firearm that is legal in one municipality may be prohibited in the neighboring jurisdiction. The burden falls on the individual firearm owner to know and comply with the laws of each jurisdiction they enter. Non-home-rule municipalities -- those with populations under 25,000 that have not adopted home-rule by referendum -- do not have the authority to enact firearms regulations that conflict with state law. Residents of those smaller municipalities are generally subject only to state and federal firearms law.[1]