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Gun ban ruling has Chicago thinking it's next |
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By DON BABWIN,
Associated Press Writer
CHICAGO - As news
spread of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to strike down
the handgun ban in Washington, D.C., one thing was clear in
Chicago: The city's own ban now faces a challenge as serious
as any in its 26-year history.
From a visibly angry Mayor Richard Daley to a federal
lawsuit filed within hours that challenges Chicago's ban
as unconstitutional, there was no mistaking that the
high court's opinion Thursday puts the city's law
squarely in the middle of a long legal fight.
While swift, the lawsuit wasn't a surprise given that
Justice Stephen Breyer, in his dissenting opinion, noted
"Chicago has a law very similar to the District's."
"In the sense the Supreme Court has found this is an
individual right to bear arms, we recognize (the ruling)
is a significant threat," said Jennifer Hoyle,
spokeswoman for the city's law department. "It gives
people an opening to challenge the ordinance in a way it
hasn't been challenged in many years."
Hoyle said the high court's ruling that Americans can
keep guns at home for self-defense does not invalidate
Chicago's law, and attorneys are confident they can
successfully fight any challenge to the 1982 ordinance
that makes it illegal to possess or sell handguns in the
city.
"We have very strong legal arguments to make at every
level of the courts," she said, pointing out that the
law establishes reasonable restrictions for densely
populated urban areas.
Still, Hoyle fully expects legal challenges.
In fact, even as Richard Pearson, executive director of
the Illinois State Rifle Association, was saying his
organization may give Chicago and other Illinois
municipalities time to change their laws, his group and
others were filing a lawsuit against the city and Daley.
"By banning handguns, Defendants currently maintain and
actively enforce a set of laws, customs, practices, and
policies under color of state law which deprives
individuals ... of their right to keep and bear arms,"
reads the lawsuit filed by the ISRA, the Second
Amendment Foundation and four individuals.
The National Rifle Association planned to file a similar
complaint against San Francisco, which bars people from
carrying handguns on county property, including in
parks, schools and community centers.
The quick action is welcome news to gun enthusiasts, who
say such laws have chipped away at their rights.
"The justices just ruled today to uphold the
Constitution," said Deb Gales, who owns Deb's Gun Range
in Hammond, Ind., just across the state line from
Chicago. "We all know that these anti-gun laws have been
passed to the detriment of law-abiding citizens."
But all the talk about greater freedoms for gun owners
doesn't begin to explain what the ruling means in
Chicago, which has seen a recent spate of gun violence.
Nine people were killed in 36 shootings during one
weekend this spring. The next week, five people were
found shot to death inside a South Side home.
Chicago Public Schools officials say 27 students have
been killed by gunfire since September.
Pamela Bosley lost her 18-year-old son two years ago,
when a bullet struck him as he helped a fellow student
unload instruments outside a South Side Church.
"If you didn't have the guns, we'd still have our
children," she said.
Annette Nance-Holt, whose 16-year-old son was killed on
a city bus last spring when someone sprayed bullets
inside it, was livid with the court's decision.
"I'm still trying to figure out who we are more in love
with, our children or our guns," she said. "It's crazy.
I'm safer being a deer knowing people are hunting you."
Daley was also troubled by the ruling.
He predicted more violence and higher taxes to pay for
extra police if his city's gun restrictions are lost.
"It's a very frightening decision," said the mayor, who
routinely speaks out against guns, as he did after the
fatal mass shootings at Northern Illinois University and
a suburban women's clothing store. "We believe every
mayor will be outraged by this."
District of Columbia Mayor Adrian Fenty responded with a
plan to require residents of the nation's capital to
register their handguns. "More handguns in the District
of Columbia will only lead to more handgun violence,"
Fenty said.
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said the ruling "just
flies in the face of reality. You just wish the Supreme
Court could spend a week in public housing and then come
out with this decision. It's very easy and comfortable
to stand there with security guards and metal detectors
and make these decisions."
Back in Chicago, Nance-Holt agreed.
"They live in safe neighborhoods," she said. "They don't
have this. Until it's their family member, they're going
to keep voting that way."
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