Here's the thing about Illinois.
Let's first talk about the people in the state outside of the Chicago area, and it's suburbs. They're mostly reasonable. Okay, that's out of the way.
As for Chicago, it has big city problems that no one has really addressed. No one will address them until the adults grow up and realize that guns aren't committing the crimes, thugs are...and someone deals with the gang culture and tries to really make a difference.
I really believe the folks in the suburbs generally are anti-gun because there are few places to shoot, and many people simply never owned guns or knew anyone who owned guns and shot them with any regularity. I grew up in the 'burbs and the only gun I ever saw was my Dad's shotgun that he used to hunt with - before he moved to the suburbs and started a family. I never saw my Dad go hunting. There just isn't the same gun culture in the suburbs as there is outside of Chicago and the suburbs. Ignorance about guns leads to people fearing them, and deciding that "no one needs them." It's easier to blame guns than the idiots running around in the streets of Chicago. If they didn't have guns, they couldn't kill and be gang thugs right? Yeah, right...
Understand that population density in the Chicago area means that the area dictates state-wide laws and elections. Take a look at the 2010 gubernatorial election results:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois_gubernatorial_election,_2010
The blue is Quinn. And he won. But it was by a narrow margin.
What is sad is that Illinois started the FOID program in 1968 as a means of doing background checks when there was nothing on a federal level to do that. I'm actually proud that Illinois started to try to make sure that people who shouldn't own a gun don't just go in a store and buy one. The problem was that it continued to be arrogant enough to leave that structure in place after the government got with the program and did federal checks.
The FOID system is mostly a revenue stream and a hassle to law-abiding Illinois gun owners. The one thing I do like about it is that at LEAST you know in a private sale that if someone shows you their FOID, they went through a state police background check. If you commit a felony you have to surrender your FOID. Sorry but just seeing a driver's license to sell a gun was never something that made me feel comfortable - just because someone can drive doesn't mean they should be able to buy a gun.
Corruption has always been a problem in this state, and I can only hope that we see an end to that nonsense in this or the next generation. At least now it's being uncovered and people are being held accountable.
I know it's easy to pick on Illinois and laugh. As a lifelong resident I must say that I've determined to do what I can to reform this state's ways - but then again, I'm not in Chicago. And Chicago dictates what happens in Illinois. I will be supporting the next Republican candidate for governor of Illinois because i'm tired of the nonsense in this state.