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Bang / Guns Title: Mayor Daley backs off plan to limit residents to one gun Mayor Daley backs off plan to limit residents to one gun Comments July 1, 2010 By FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter Mayor Daley today backed off his plan to limit Chicagoans to one handgun — and dropped the idea of requiring liability insurance — in a watered-down replacement to Chicago’s “unenforceable” handgun ban. The mayor’s ordinance — approved by the City Council’s Police Committee and poised for approval by the full council at a special meeting on Friday — was considerably weaker than Daley and top mayoral aides had initially described. » Click to enlarge image Mayor Daley backed off the plan to limit residents to one gun. (Sun-Time Media) Instead of limiting possession to one handgun for every qualified person living in a home, it allows those persons to each register “one handgun-per-month.” It prohibits possession of those handguns outside the home. The home is specifically defined as the inside portion “traditionally used for living purposes” — not the garage, yard, porch, deck or walkway. No more than one firearm in the home could be “assembled and operable.” The rest must be secured by a trigger lock or locked box or “broken down in a non-functioning state. The liability insurance component was absent entirely amid concern it would establish a financial barrier. “Currently on the marketplace, there is no stand-alone kind of policy that one can procure. And to cover it under homeowners or renters insurance can be exceptionally expensive,” said Corporation Counsel Mara Georges. Instead, Daley plans to seek state and federal legislation that would shield taxpayers from lawsuits tied to shootings by first responders of armed residents. The ordinance requires Chicagoans to register their weapons, but only after obtaining firearms safety training comprised of at least four hours in the classroom and one hour on a firing range. The Chicago Firearms Permit would cost $100 and have to be renewed every three years. In addition, gun owners would have to pay an application fee of $15 for each firearm registered and an annual reporting fee of $10-per-firearm. Chicagoans would be prohibited from obtaining firearms permits if they are: under 18; over 18 but under 21 without parent’s permission; been convicted of a violent crime, two or more drug or drunk driving offenses; lack vision sufficient for a driver’s license or lack a valid Firearm Owners Identification Card (FOID). Gun shops would be prohibited. Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis would develop a “roster of safe handguns” that would be posted on the Police Department’s website. Only those handguns listed would be “permissible.” Daley argued that the ordinance “responsibly and reasonably balances” Supreme Court rulings overturning handgun bans in Chicago and Washington D.C. “with our determination to protect our residents from violence and keep them safe.” “As a father and a grandfather, nothing effects me more deeply and personally than violence in Chicago,” the mayor told a news conference at Hamilton Park, 513 W. 72nd. “I lost a son because of an illness — an illness and it still stays with me. Just think when you lose a child because of gun violence. He or she has done nothing wrong at such earlier ages in life. That stays with them forever.” But the new law still would allow residents to amass a virtual arsenal. If there are two qualified adults in a home, for example, the one-gun-a-month limit would allow 24 handguns to be registered during the course of a year. Explained Police Superintendent Jody Weis said, “People are saying, ‘You’re infringing upon my rights. How can you limit [my] Second Amendment right?’ So, what we tried to do is find common ground that’s been legally defensible in our municipalities throughout the United States. That’s what we were able to come up with with that change to one gun-per-month.’’ He added, “It’s fair. Those people [who] want to have a lot of weapons can have a fair number of weapons. In some ways, the cost alone of weapons will be somewhat prohibitive. They’re not cheap. And they have to get ’em through legal means.’’ But the National Rifle Association (NRA) still took immediate aim at the watered-down ordinance. Todd Vandermyde, the NRA’s legislative liaison in Illinois, said mandatory classroom training, parental permission for those over 18 and under 21, and the limit of one-handgun-per-month for every responsible adult are all “patently unconstitutional.” And he denounced the requirement for a $100 city permit and annual application and reporting fees as a “triple tax.” “The mayor has got to understand that, no matter how much he stamps his feet and has a tantrum, the Supreme Court found there is a fundamental individual right to keep and own a firearm,” Vandermyde said. “He wants a gun ban. He wants to blame law-abiding gun owners for his failure to get violent crime under control. But until he abides by the letter and spirit [of Supreme Court rulings] he’s going to find himself in litigation that’s going to cost Chicago taxpayers millions and millions of dollars.” On Monday, the Supreme Court signed the death warrant for Chicago’s strictest-in-the-nation handgun ban. Two years after shooting down Washington D.C.’s handgun ban, the high court’s five-member conservative majority ruled that the Second Amendment right to own a gun for self defense extends to all Americans, no matter where they live. With no guidance on what kinds of gun regulations might pass legal muster, the Daley administration was on its own to find the middle ground against the almost certain threat of more litigation from gun control opponents. Although the so-called “Responsible Gun Ownership’’ ordinance is in the NRA’s crosshairs, Georges maintained that the restrictions are “very reasonable and will be deemed reasonable by a court.’’ “The Supreme Court has not said this is an unlimited right. Even the Supreme Court has said reasonable restrictions can be imposed. And that is all we’re doing here,’’ she said. “Look at what it takes to drive a car in the state of Illinois, what you have to go through to get a license, take a course, pass a test and pay a fee. Yet, we’re going to say you can own a gun without doing anything? That’s absurd.’’
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