SPRINGFIELD – Officials at the Illinois State Police said Tuesday they are working to finalize rules for registering assault weapons and other items that are now tightly regulated under the state’s new assault weapons ban as a Jan. 1 compliance deadline approaches.

ISP attorney Suzanne Bond told the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, a bipartisan panel that oversees administrative rulemaking, that the agency just completed another round of public hearings this week and is now in the process of trying to answer all the questions it received from the public.

“They were well-attended by the public and various organizations,” she said of the hearings. “Those groups have committed to sending us their questions in writing. To the extent possible, if we had answers, we did provide them. We pointed them to relevant FAQs on our website, which have been updated.”

The registration requirement is part of the state’s new assault weapons ban, known as the Protect Illinois Communities Act, which lawmakers passed in January. It bans the sale, purchase, possession, and distribution of a long list of firearms defined as “assault weapons” as well as various firearm attachments, large-capacity magazines, and certain kinds of ammunition.

Read more: Assault weapon registration period remains open as Illinois State Police seeks further input

The law also states that people who owned those items before it took effect are allowed to keep them, as long as they register them with the Illinois State Police before Jan. 1.

As that deadline approaches, however, ISP is still in the process of finalizing administrative rules that will spell out exactly what items must be registered.

In September, ISP published temporary rules spelling out a registration process, and the agency began accepting online registrations Oct. 1. But many people have complained that those rules are not clear and that it’s difficult to tell what items must be registered and what items are exempt.

Read more: Assault weapon registration period remains open as Illinois State Police seeks further input

Interested parties have until Nov. 20 to submit written comments on the proposed rules. The email address for submitting those comments is ISP.Legal.PublicComments@illinois.gov.

(This story was written by Peter Hancock, Capitol News Illinois. phancock@capitolnewsillinois.com)