On gun control, there's the Constitution and there's Daley's rules By John Kass
Constitutional Issues In Chicago, Daleytution is the law of the land John Kass
July 1, 2010
As Independence Day approaches, let's remember that our Founding Fathers created a marvelous document to protect individual freedoms from the aggressions of government.
We call this the Constitution.
But along The Chicago Way, there is another text, full of decrees. The dusty scroll must be buried deep in a vault at City Hall, because few, if any, have ever seen it.
Still, Chicagoans know its power. Some may call it the Edict of Shortshanks. Others call it The Mayoral Carta. But most refer to it simply by its common name:
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The Daleytution.
And a few days after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Chicago's illogical handgun ban thus rightly affirming the Second Amendment of the Constitution even here Mayor Richard Daley had different ideas.
He's now working on a new ordinance that is expected to allow only one handgun per registered "qualified" individual.
Other impediments to the Second Amendment are also being considered, including insurance, training courses, licensing fees and whatever else he can think of.
Daleytutional scholars understand the inherent conflict between the Constitution and the Daleytution. But they also know another thing: He's the boss.
I'm not advocating Chicagoans stockpile hand grenades and howitzers. These issues about where to draw the line will be debated in the courts. But the Second Amendment couldn't be clearer.
So at his news conference Wednesday, I asked: Excuse me, Mayor? Where in the Constitution does it say "one gun, one person"?
The man was prepared for my lofty legal theories.
"No, what is happening is that the Supreme Court has rendered that certain parts of the Constitution do not apply to local and state governments," said Daley.
"We understand that, and now we have to fashion in regards to an ordinance, and everybody's looking at that.
There will be hearings tomorrow and we'll present the full thing to the hearing about it, and then, for Friday."
That's the day his "full thing" will get the aldermanic rubber stamp.
The mayor is correct that the court left the door open to local governments to regulate some aspects of gun ownership. But the justices probably didn't realize that Daley will rip that door off its hinges.
The Second Amendment reads as follows: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
However, the Daleytution takes a more subtle and nuanced view: "The right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed, except when the mayor feels like it."
Gun rights and crime often get mixed in the political soup, and sometimes the politics get racial, particularly in Chicago.
Daley has run out of money, so he can't hire enough police to adequately patrol the streets. Even when the city coffers were full, he was fearful of flooding high-crime neighborhoods with cops. He has always been afraid of headlines about white cops shooting black teens.