Repeat Offender Firearm/ Armed Habitual Criminal Defense in Illinois

A repeat offender firearm case begins the way most gun cases do, with a stop and a search, and then changes when the State runs the person’s record. Two prior convictions of the right kind turn a possession charge into unlawful possession of a firearm by a repeat felony offender, the offense Illinois called armed habitual criminal until 2025: a Class X felony, 6 to 30 years, with no probation, and at least 85 percent of the sentence must be served.

The record raises the stakes, but it does not change what the State has to prove. The stop and the search still have to be lawful, the possession still has to be proved, and each prior conviction has to be the kind the statute names.

Bedi & Singer defends people charged with repeat offender firearm offenses at the Leighton Criminal Court Building at 26th and California, in Cook County’s suburban courthouses, in the collar counties, and in courts across Illinois.

A person commits unlawful possession of a firearm by a repeat felony offender by receiving, selling, possessing, or transferring any firearm after two or more convictions, in any combination, of a forcible felony; unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon, aggravated unlawful possession of a weapon, aggravated discharge of a firearm, aggravated battery with a firearm, vehicular hijacking, home invasion, intimidation, or gunrunning, among others; or a Class 3 or higher felony under the Illinois Controlled Substances Act or the Cannabis Control Act (720 ILCS 5/24-1.7). It is a Class X felony, 6 to 30 years, with no probation, and at least 85 percent of the sentence must be served. The name changed on January 1, 2025; the elements did not.

Below it sit the charges one prior conviction supports. Unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon is a Class 3 felony, 2 to 10 years, on any prior felony, and a Class 2 felony, 3 to 14 years, where the prior was a forcible felony, a felony weapons offense, stalking, or a Class 2 or greater drug felony, where the person was on parole or mandatory supervised release, or on a second felon-in-possession offense. Aggravated unlawful possession of a weapon with a prior felony is a Class 2 felony, 3 to 7 years. None of these allows probation.

The prior convictions are an element of the offense, and the State proves them from certified court records. The defense reads those records: whether each conviction was for a listed offense or for something pleaded down to a lesser charge, and whether an out-of-state conviction matches an Illinois offense. If fewer than two qualifying convictions remain, the Class X charge comes off the table.

The record also shapes the trial: a jury will learn that the person has two qualifying convictions, because the State has to prove them, though a stipulation can keep out what they were for. That bears on whether the case is better tried to a judge.

Nearly every repeat offender firearm case begins with a police encounter the defense can challenge: a stop, a search, a pat-down, a warrant. A motion to quash the arrest and suppress the evidence asks whether the officer had a lawful reason for each step. If the motion is granted, the firearm cannot be used, and without it the State usually has no case. Bedi & Singer litigates that motion in every one of these cases. Where the stop holds, the State still has to prove possession: that the person knew the gun was there and controlled the place it was found, a contested fact in a car or a home shared with others.

Unlawful possession of a firearm by a repeat felony offender is named among the charges on which the State can petition to deny pretrial release, as are the non-probationable felon-in-possession charges. The hearing is held at the first appearance, or within 48 hours if a continuance is granted. To hold the person as a danger to others, the State must prove by clear and convincing evidence that the case against the person is strong, that the person poses a real and present threat, and that no release conditions can address it. The same conduct can be charged federally as felon in possession of a firearm, where three prior convictions for a violent felony or a serious drug offense, committed on separate occasions, carry a 15-year mandatory minimum; that is a different case in a different court, handled in Bedi & Singer’s federal practice and described on its Firearm Offenses and Felon in Possession page.

Jonathan Bedi and Dena Singer work on Bedi & Singer’s repeat offender firearm cases together. Every case is prepared as one that may be tried, and in a Class X case with no probation the motion to suppress and the trial are usually the only ways out.