SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WJPF) — Illinois State Police Director Brenden Kelly is asking lawmakers to make changes in state law to help reduce the backlog of FOID and concealed carry cards needing to be processed.

Recently, there’s been a 167% increase in the number of FOID card applications.

Director Kelly says ISP has hired more staff and dedicated more resources to handling the influx of gun permit requests, but it’s not been enough. He’s now asking the General Assembly to streamline the system.

“For example, consolidating the FOID card and the [concealed carry] card into a single card. If you have a commercial driver’s license, you have CDL that allows you to drive a car and allows you to drive a big rig, but you don’t need a separate card for that. Those things should be integrated into one single card.”

Kelly also said he’d like to move gun permits into the 21st century.

“We’d like to have an electronic card. There’s no reason we can’t move this to an electronic system instead of this paper card. For example, you can get on a plane with an image from your phone. We should be able to make that process a digital process so that card is something that can be verified digitally rather than this old fashioned paper document.”

Kelly said he’d also like to see the renewal process better in sync, so that when you renew a concealed carry license, you’re also automatically renewing your FOID card at the same time.

Illinoisans have reported months-long delays in applying for and renewing FOID cards and concealed carry licenses.