Firearm Law &  Commentary
by Victor D. Quilici, ISRA Attorney

Chicago’s New Ordinance
(ITS ROAD TO NOWHERE)

July 15, 2010

The City of Chicago’s amended ordinance which took effect on July 12, 2010, is the latest attempt by the City Council, guided by its Mayor, to throw another obstacle in the path of our road to victory in the never-ending battle against the anti-gun lobby bent on depriving us of our fundamental right to keep and bear arms. The United States Supreme Court’s recent decision in McDonald v. City of Chicago, 561 U.S. ____ , slip op.(2010), sends a message to the citizens of our state, and throughout the country, that our founding fathers decreed that we shall not be deprived of our fundamental inalienable right of self-defense. In the words of Alexander Hamilton:

The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments and musty records. They are written as with a sunbeam in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the Divinity itself, and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power.

Chicago’s City Council obviously does not get the message, and in anticipation of the overturning of its existing ordinance banning handguns and hand-cuffing countless gun owners to an unfettered registration scheme, when the Appellate Court rules pursuant to the dictates of the U.S. Supreme Court, it hastily passed the amended version which contains a plethora of unconstitutional provisions.

A lawsuit filed on behalf of Chicago residents and another by a non-resident seeking to establish a gun shop/range within the City limits spell out many of the vague and discriminatory provisions. They include:

( a.) A firearm permit that contains requirements for instruction on firearm training and use of firearms, absent any guidelines, and banning the training within the City;
( b.) A limitation to the use of a firearm in self-defense only within the confines of the home, clearly depriving a Chicago citizen of a wider scope of self-protection under our existing state statutes;
(c.) A so-called “unsafe handgun” provision that gives unbridled discretionary power to the individual in charge of registration to make that decision;
(d.) Vague and overbroad requirements pertaining to possession of firearms by some citizens that would bar certain homes from the protection afforded by a firearm;
(e.) Banning the transportation of firearms to such a degree that a resident or non-resident is deprived of constitutional protections afforded under both state and federal statutes;
(f.) Another registration scheme that will only adversely affect law-abiding citizens, and do nothing to take away or limit the firearms in the hands of the gang-bangers who are creating havoc within the City.

Other infirmities in the new ordinance raise equal protection and more Second Amendment violation issues that some pro-gun advocates believe are tantamount to “junk-piling” the litigation. In any event, most of us believe that many of the allegations will survive technical motions to strike, and more steps will be taken to protect our rights. You can be assured that ISRA is carrying the battle flag and will continue to fight both in the Courts and on the legislative front, as always. As ISRA has often pointed out: The City could direct its $$$ toward giving its citizens more police protection, or finding other legitimate ways of assisting citizens, rather than spending big bucks defending its ludicrous ordinance on its road to nowhere.

Victor D. Quilici
ISRA Counsel

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