Firearms Sellers, CME Trader Sue Chicago Over Gun Law (Update1) July 07, 2010, 12:44 PM EDT
By Andrew M. Harris
July 7 (Bloomberg) -- A Chicago Mercantile Exchange trader and three other people have joined with the Illinois Association of Firearms Retailers to sue the city of Chicago over a restrictive gun law passed by its legislators last week.
The gun-owning plaintiffs, who include a teacher’s aide and a married couple, claim the new ordinance restricting handgun possession to inside the home and mandating firearms training and permitting is unconstitutional.
The measure imposes “new restrictions that have the purpose and effect of preventing plaintiffs and other law- abiding residents of Chicago from exercising their fundamental right to keep and carry firearms for self defense and other lawful purposes,” the plaintiffs said in a complaint filed yesterday in the city’s federal courthouse.
Ruling in a case challenging Chicago’s earlier ban on handgun possession, a divided U.S. Supreme Court on June 28 said the constitutional right to bear arms binds states and municipalities.
Chicago’s new law was passed by the city council 45-0 four days later.
Jennifer Hoyle, a spokeswoman for the city’s law department, said in an e-mailed message the office had just received a copy of the complaint today and is reviewing it. She couldn’t otherwise immediately comment.
‘Gun Violence’
The high court decision “effectively overturned” the city’s handgun ban, Mayor Richard M. Daley said in a July 2 press statement announcing the new ordinance. He is a named defendant in the lawsuit.
“Either we enact new and reasonable handgun laws in Chicago to protect our residents -- as the council has done -- or we do nothing and risk greater gun violence in our streets and in our homes,” Daley said last week.
The new law limits possession of handguns to the home and possession of long guns to places of business. It also bars the establishment of shooting ranges within the city’s limits and says people younger than 21 can’t obtain a gun permit without the written consent of a parent or guardian.
Were it not for the new law, CME trader Brett Benson, 37, of Chicago “would on occasion carry a hand gun for self-defense when outside the home,” according to the complaint.
The teacher’s aide, Raymond Sledge, 53, of Chicago, said he and his mother live in a high crime neighborhood and that the new law bars him from carrying a gun from his house to his garage.
The retailer’s association, based in Carbondale, Illinois, claims it has members who want to sell guns and operate firing ranges within the city, yet can’t due to the law.
The plaintiffs seek a court order declaring the restrictions unconstitutional.
The case is Benson v. City of Chicago, 10cv4184, in the Northern District of Illinois (Chicago).
--Editors: Mary Romano, Glenn Holdcraft.
To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew M. Harris in Chicago at aharris16@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: David E. Rovella at drovella@bloomberg.net
