On Gun ban ruling has Chicago thinking it's next

Posted on June 27 at 9:19 a.m. ( Suggest removal )

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.