SPRINGFIELD – Poor follow-through by the Illinois State Police, inadequate reporting of mental health records, and understaffing mean the state’s oversight of gun ownership is “limited” in its ability to safeguard the public, an audit Thursday reported.

The state police program for issuing and monitoring Firearm Owners Identification cards falls woefully short in collecting court records on mentally ill gun owners, retrieves only 30 percent of the FOID cards that police revoke, and doesn’t report critical information to federal authorities required by a criminal background database, the report found.

Lawmakers ordered Auditor General William Holland’s assessment last spring after the uproar caused by a The Associated Press request for names of the state’s FOID-card holders. It prompted legislators to ban the release of the information, but they called for a study to ensure the program was working correctly.