The Chicago City Council moved Sept. 11 to both comply with—and undermine Illinois’ new concealed carry law, the city’s Sun-Times reported.
The city council voted to end the gun registry in place since 1968 to comply with court rulings against Chicago and Illinois gun control laws, and to bring the city into line with a new state concealed carry law.
“We’re glad the Chicago firearm registration is gone,” said Richard Pearson, executive director of the Illinois State Rifle Association.
However, the end-run around concealed carry came when aldermen imposed a requirement that Chicago restaurants that serve liquor ban firearms or lose their city licenses.
The ordinance championed by Finance Chairman Edward M. Burke and downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly would exempt stores that sell packaged liquor. But all other establishments that serve alcohol—not just bars that generate more than half their revenue from liquor—would be required to prohibit firearms on the premises.
Those that refuse and fail to post signs near their entrances declaring their establishments gun-free zones could be stripped of their licenses to do business in Chicago.
Reilly said his downtown ward includes 1,100 liquor license holders who have “legitimate concerns” about allowing their patrons to bring loaded firearms into their establishments.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel said it “doesn’t take a masters or PhD” to know that guns and booze don’t mix. He’s not concerned that the Second Amendment Foundation which filed both the McDonald suit and the Moore suit that ended Illinois’ ban on concealed carry or the National Rifle Association that opposed the Brady Bill and the assault weapons ban would be threatening to sue—again.
The contradictory move to comply with the concealed carry law came when the City Council lifted the decades-old requirement for Chicago gunowners to register their weapons and secure permits.
City aldermen also relaxed the requirement that guns in every Chicago home be secured — either in safes or with trigger locks. The new law imposes that requirement only in homes where minors under 18 are present.
The relaxation moves have drawn rare praise from an NRA more accustomed to doing battle with City Hall.
But the NRA’s legislative liaison, Todd Vandermyde, is pushing for further changes to lift the Chicago ban on laser sights and some ammunition and require trigger-locks, only in homes in which residents under 14 are present.
“Do you think a 75-year-old woman should be forced to carry her .38 around on her hip in her home every minute she’s in her home because the grandkids are there?” Vandermyde has said.
Also at the Sept. 11 meeting, the City Council approved Emanuel’s plan imposing stiffer penalties for gun crimes committed within 100 feet of the city’s transit stations and bus shelters.
Ironically, the city with the strictest gun laws in the nations is faced with a wave of gang-related violence that pushed its murder rate to a five-year high in 2012. While the number of homicides is down this year, police have complained that the city is awash in guns, almost all of which are in illegal possession.
