Gun ban ruling has Chicago thinking it's next
Photo 
Chris Luzader, Instructor for Tactical Advantage Concepts fires a gun in Orange, Calif. on Thursday, June 24, 2008. The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Americans have a right to own guns for self-defense and hunting, the justices' first major pronouncement on gun rights in U.S. history. The ruling overturns the law adopted by Washington's city council in 1976 which bars residents from owning handguns unless they had one before the law took effect.
CHICAGO — As news spread of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the handgun ban in Washington, D.C., one thing was clear in Chicago: The city’s own ban now faces a challenge as serious as any in its 26-year history.
From a visibly angry Mayor Richard Daley to a federal lawsuit filed within hours that challenges Chicago’s ban as unconstitutional, there was no mistaking that the high court’s opinion Thursday puts the city’s law squarely in the middle of a long legal fight.
While swift, the lawsuit wasn’t a surprise given that Justice Stephen Breyer, in his dissenting opinion, noted “Chicago has a law very similar to the District’s.”
“In the sense the Supreme Court has found this is an individual right to bear arms, we recognize (the ruling) is a significant threat,” said Jennifer Hoyle, spokeswoman for the city’s law department. “It gives people an opening to challenge the ordinance in a way it hasn’t been challenged in many years.”
Hoyle said the high court’s ruling that Americans can keep guns at home for self-defense does not invalidate Chicago’s law, and attorneys are confident they can successfully fight any challenge to the 1982 ordinance that makes it illegal to possess or sell handguns in the city.
“We have very strong legal arguments to make at every level of the courts,” she said, pointing out that the law establishes reasonable restrictions for densely populated urban areas.
Still, Hoyle fully expects legal challenges.
In fact, even as Richard Pearson, executive director of the Illinois State Rifle Association, was saying his organization may give Chicago and other Illinois municipalities time to change their laws, his group and others were filing a lawsuit against the city and Daley.
“By banning handguns, Defendants currently maintain and actively enforce a set of laws, customs, practices, and policies under color of state law which deprives individuals ... of their right to keep and bear arms,” reads the lawsuit filed by the ISRA, the Second Amendment Foundation and four individuals.
The National Rifle Association planned to file a similar complaint against San Francisco, which bars people from carrying handguns on county property, including in parks, schools and community centers.
The quick action is welcome news to gun enthusiasts, who say such laws have chipped away at their rights.
“The justices just ruled today to uphold the Constitution,” said Deb Gales, who owns Deb’s Gun Range in Hammond, Ind., just across the state line from Chicago. “We all know that these anti-gun laws have been passed to the detriment of law-abiding citizens.”
But all the talk about greater freedoms for gun owners doesn’t begin to explain what the ruling means in Chicago, which has seen a recent spate of gun violence.
Nine people were killed in 36 shootings during one weekend this spring. The next week, five people were found shot to death inside a South Side home.
Chicago Public Schools officials say 27 students have been killed by gunfire since September.
Pamela Bosley lost her 18-year-old son two years ago, when a bullet struck him as he helped a fellow student unload instruments outside a South Side Church.
“If you didn’t have the guns, we’d still have our children,” she said.
Annette Nance-Holt, whose 16-year-old son was killed on a city bus last spring when someone sprayed bullets inside it, was livid with the court’s decision.
“I’m still trying to figure out who we are more in love with, our children or our guns,” she said. “It’s crazy. I’m safer being a deer knowing people are hunting you.”
Daley was also troubled by the ruling.
He predicted more violence and higher taxes to pay for extra police if his city’s gun restrictions are lost.
“It’s a very frightening decision,” said the mayor, who routinely speaks out against guns, as he did after the fatal mass shootings at Northern Illinois University and a suburban women’s clothing store. “We believe every mayor will be outraged by this.”
District of Columbia Mayor Adrian Fenty responded with a plan to require residents of the nation’s capital to register their handguns. “More handguns in the District of Columbia will only lead to more handgun violence,” Fenty said.
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said the ruling “just flies in the face of reality. You just wish the Supreme Court could spend a week in public housing and then come out with this decision. It’s very easy and comfortable to stand there with security guards and metal detectors and make these decisions.”
Back in Chicago, Nance-Holt agreed.
“They live in safe neighborhoods,” she said. “They don’t have this. Until it’s their family member, they’re going to keep voting that way.”
Associated Press writers Michael Tarm, Ashley M. Heher, Jenny Song and Carla K. Johnson in Chicago, Daniel J. Yovich in Hammond, Ind., Tracie Cone in San Francisco, and Stephen Manning, Brian Westley and Mark Sherman in Washington contributed to this report.
Jun 29, 2008 at 7:38 p.m.
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Give up your guns and you will be sorry! Let everyone know, I will die fighting before i give up my right to own a firearm!
Jun 29, 2008 at 7:36 p.m.
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AUTOMOBILE CONTROL INC.
Our goals are straightforward:
1. A national 7-day waiting period before a car may be delivered, after purchase
2. Total bans on all 'assault' sport cars.
3. Total bans on all snubnose 'Saturday Night Special' Subcompact cars.
4. Criminal background checks on all car buyers to make sure there are no car infractions in their past
5. Eventually, a total ban on all automobiles
Let me introduce our spokesperson, Sarah Brainless.
Sarah: "You may know my husband, Jim Brainless. During the attempted assassination of The President, Jim was hit in head by an out-of-control car...and..(sniff)...well, he's (sniff) never been the same since... (sniff, sniff, HONNNKK). So I dedicated the rest of my life to banning this evil object, the automobile. I know that there are a bunch of groups who will fight back against my efforts, such as the AAA. These whackos would like to see a car in every garage! ...and those Merchants of Death themselves, the Big Three carmakers... "As you know, the AAA claims that there is a constitutional right to travel. Well, I dispute that - If you read the whole amendment like WE do, it is clear that the founding fathers only intended that ORGANIZED MILITIA may be allowed to travel...it is NOT to be construed as an individual right to travel!"
If you join Automobile Control Inc, we will send you the following:
* A really neat pin that shows a car with a red line through it.
* A fact sheet that dispels the myths of those who would argue for the owning cars.
* A subscription to One Cylinder Short, the magazine that reflects the goals of ACI.
* A really boffo bumper sticker that says "This car should be banned."
Call: 1-800-BAN-CARS. Have a credit card ready.
Jun 29, 2008 at 7:35 p.m.
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- Did you know that automobiles are used in 100% of the drive-by shootings in America, according to the FBI?
- Did you know that automobile accidents and homicides claim over 28,000 lives per year? In two years this casualty total exceeds that of the ENTIRE Vietnam War.
- Did you know that there is NO state-mandated waiting period to purchase an automobile? And that you may purchase AS MANY automobiles as you wish in any month?
- Did you know that importation of 'assault' sports-cars, IS STILL LEGAL IN THIS COUNTRY? These assault-cars usually have engine capacity in excess of 6 cylinders and are capable of speeds of 120 MPH (or more) and serve no useful driving purpose.
- Did you know that there are NO restrictions on owning FULLY AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSIONS...?! These transmissions are the preferred gear-shifting method of criminals and gangsters everywhere!
- Did you know that there is NO criminal background check before purchasing a car? That you can go into any sleazy car dealers and purchase a snub-nose 'Saturday Night Special' Subcompact Economy car on nothing more than a signature, if you have the money?
THE BLOODSHED MUST STOP! WE MUST *TAKE* *BACK* OUR STREETS! No more, will we sit idly by as our young people crash into one another and kill one another with depraved indifference to human life. Not one more innocent bystander shall be mowed-down by an out-of-control driver who 'snaps'!
Jun 29, 2008 at 7:21 p.m.
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It's easier to beg forgiveness than to ask permission.
Jun 29, 2008 at 9:54 a.m.
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it continues to baffle me as to why such a fuss over hand guns when criminals will always find handguns, or in most cases tech-9's. it will be a great day for criminals when or if guns are banned or for that matter kept unloaded locked in a box on top of the closet. they come into our houses now without much fear. just think how many will be preying on us if we have no protection. if you want to save lives and injuries why not TAKE THE CAR KEYS AWAY FROM TEENAGERS!!!! they kill way more people with cars than handguns year in and year out. not to mention drunk drivers. get real on safety!
Jun 29, 2008 at 2:37 a.m.
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lets face it guns are always going to be here our polititians are well protected,us common tax payers need conceal carry.i`ll bet daley has a collection of hand guns,has a good excuse to raise taxes,we have the most violent nation in the world and it`s only going to get worse,starting with the president
Jun 27, 2008 at 11 a.m.
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Awwww, what a crying shame. Poor liberal Mayor Daley don't get his way. Maybe he should hold his breath and lay down on the floor and kick and scream. Cause that gun control has been working so well to curb violent crime in Chicago to this point. It's a real shame when folks, or "subjects", actually get to avail themselves of their Constitutional rights isn't it Richie. Maybe he needs to figure out that all his "subjects" in Chicago don't travel around with an armed security detail. But then again, like all liberals, it's do as I say, not as I do.
Jun 27, 2008 at 10:18 a.m.
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I think the gun control debate will never cease. But what it really all boils down to is accountability for one's actions. Today's society is held less and less accountable for their actions and, if this continues, crime is only going to get worse.
Anti-gun advocates claim "guns kill." The fact of the matter is, people kill. I have a handgun. As far as I know, it has never gotten up out of the drawer and killed anyone. If it ever does kill anyone, it won't be because it thought it should do that all by itself, it'll be because I made the choice to do so. Because I consider myself a law-abiding citizen, well versed in gun safety and having more than a bit of common sense, the only time that will happen will be in self defense against an intruder in my home. I will make that decision, not my .38 or .357.
Jun 27, 2008 at 9:51 a.m.
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When seconds matter, police are just minutes away!
Jun 27, 2008 at 9:19 a.m.
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Chicago does not have a handgun ban; it has a handgun freeze. In 1982, as a resident of Chicago, you could register handguns and retain legal possession. There are in fact quite a few legally registered handguns in the city.
As far as how this works from a law enforcement standpoint, it doesn't work at all. An officer was shot and killed by a legally registered handgun a few years ago; despite the killers' history of mental instability and recalcitrance, the officers involved didn't bother to check the registry to see if the man might own guns (he owned two legal handguns), and as a result did not take any precautions in the arrest.
Chicago is ringed with gun stores selling overpriced handguns to City residents, who simply transport them into the city. As a Chicago resident, it is not illegal to buy or own handguns, merely illegal to possess them inside the city limits without the firearms being 'grandfathered in' and registered prior to 1983.
And the actual level of handgun ownership in Chicago is very widespread; everyone who wants to owns handguns does. I did when I lived there, and over half of my friends did too.
With the handgun freeze, it ends up being a 'street call' as to whether an arrest is made in the case of handgun possession, and the police there have an informal sliding scale of who gets to have handguns. Contractors, women with late-night jobs, nurses, city workers, firemen, and people who work in the rougher areas are tacitly allowed to have and carry handguns without any real fear of punishment.
Basically, it's well known in Chicago that if you buy a handgun and carry it with you, and have a more or less legitimate fear for your safety due to your position or work, you can have a handgun.
Daley has been trying to shut down gun sales in Cook County, and for that matter much of the state of Illinois, due to the problems in Chicago and the ease with which City residents can buy guns in other areas in the state.
These hopeless efforts at gun control are a major factor in my now living in Wisconsin.
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