I’ve always wondered about the people who own gun stores in anti-gun states. It’s bad enough to have the ATF hovering over you, ready to put potentially put you in prison for a paperwork mistake, but to also live in a state that seems dedicated to destroying your livelihood? It definitely takes a special kind of person to do that.

In Illinois, one of the more anti-gun states out there, they recently threw a bunch of new regulations at gun stores. Those are currently being fought in the courts, of course.

However, it also seems the state isn’t quite done telling them what they have to do in order to keep their businesses.

Those proposed new regulations were published in the Illinois Register on Friday, opening a 45-day public comment period. After that, ISP may amend the proposed rules based on the feedback it receives. It then must publish a second notice and forward the proposals to the General Assembly’s Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, or JCAR. That opens another 45-day comment period, after which JCAR can either approve the rules for adoption or request additional changes.

Under the proposed new rules, starting Jan. 2, 2020, all licensed and certified gun dealers who maintain an inventory will be required to have electronic security alarms that notify local law enforcement of any unauthorized intrusion into areas where firearms are kept and maintained.

Also beginning in 2020, all licensed and certified dealers operating retail locations must implement electronic record systems to track their changing inventory. That means recording all sales and purchases within 24 hours of the transaction and recording shipments from manufacturers or wholesalers within 24 hours of unpacking the shipment.

Now, these regulations are basically enforcement of the law signed in January. What this means, though, is that the state is basically going to jack with gun stores as much as they want under this new law, driving up the costs of doing business until all but chain retailers will be able to comply. Bass Pro Shops may be able to sell guns in the state as will Walmart, but Joe’s Gun Shop? Not so much.

Make no mistake, though, while this is being presented as anti-theft measures, there’s at least some who are wringing their hands at the idea of driving mom-and-pop gun stores out of business. After all, why worry about the Second Amendment if there aren’t any guns for people to buy?

Now it seems the fate of these gun stores are in the hands of bureaucrats who can and will create new regulations whenever they feel like they need to justify their salaries or lick the boots of anti-gun lawmakers who vote on their budgets.

Don’t get me wrong, no one likes the idea of gun stores being broken into. I don’t want these firearms on the black market and neither does anyone else.

However, I know how hard it is to operate a small business. The last thing they need are mandates for expensive alarms they can’t afford or any of the other nonsense we’ve seen out of Illinois so far. The only reason I’m not going to ask what’s next is that I’m afraid they’ll answer.