We already know that in Chicago, it’s nearly impossible to legally own a handgun. Now, the move is on to ban most gun ownership in the entire of Cook County. The Illinois State Rifle Association has pointed to this legislation — still in the proposal stage — and everyone should be alarmed. First, a whole new arduous registration for all firearms is required. Second, even if your firearms are already registered, they must be “reregistered.” Third, a whole class of “assault weapons” is banned from registration. Lastly, any handgun that fails for the following would be banned even if currently registered:
Sec. 58-132.5. Unregisterable firearms.
No registration certificate shall be issued for any of the following types of firearms:
(a) Sawed-off shotgun, machine gun, or short-barreled rifle;
(b) Firearms other than handguns, owned or possessed by any person in the County prior to the effective date of this Ordinance which are not validly registered prior to the effective date of this Ordinance;
(c) Handguns, except:
(1) Those validly registered to a current owner in the County prior to the effective date of this Ordinance, and which contain each of the following:
(i) A safety mechanism to hinder the use of the handgun by unauthorized users. Such devices shall include, but shall not be limited to, trigger locks, combination handle locks, and solenoid use-limitation devices; and,
(ii) A load indicator device that provides reasonable warning to potential users such that even users unfamiliar with the weapon would be forewarned and would understand the nature of the warning;
So, if your handgun does not contain a loaded chamber indicator, you’re screwed and have to turn your gun in to the sheriff. That’s almost all handguns manufactured more than a few years ago.
I’m sure this will make Barack Obama happy since it’s his district and he’s on record as favoring a ban on all semi-automatic firearms.
In a separate proposal, all gun shows in Cook County would be banned and also most gun stores. That last is accomplished by the following zoning requirements:
Sec. 54-154. Limitation on concentration.
(a) No deadly weapons dealer license may be issued to any person seeking a license to operate a gun shop in the County which will be located within ten miles of any other gun shop within or outside of the County as measured from the property lines of the respective properties.
(b) No deadly weapons dealer license may be issued to any person seeking a license to operate a gun shop in the County which will be located within one mile of any public or private school or public park as measured from the property lines of the respective properties.
Is it even possible to find a suitable property for a shop — commercially zoned — that isn’t within a mile of a school or park?
19 Responses to “No Slippery Slope, Eh?”
on 07 Jan 2008 at 9:20 am # Mike Gallo
My father in law (a Chicago-style Democrat from a South Side Irish police family) has my wife’s grandfather’s old service revolver (a Model 60 I believe) and will not be able to register it because it does not have a loaded chamber indicator. They live in Cook County, but outside of the Chicago city limits. I called him to tell him to watch this legislation, and he had been under the impression that it was only an “assault weapons” ban (a topic on which I’m still working with him, but we haven’t had a big breakthrough). Anyways, I doubt he will oppose the legislation, in fact, he was asking how one can get a firearm “deactivated” so they may keep it as an heirloom (a useless one?) but not as a gun. I told him to contact the Illinois State Rifle Association, as they could probably tell him who could perform the work, what needs to be done, and more than anything, that contacting them won’t result in the $1000-1500 fine and up to 6 months jail time that contacting the police might. They say there will be an “immunity period” where people can turn their unregisterable guns in for summary destruction, but I don’t think I trust the cops down there one bit.
My wife says if we have kids she wants to move closer to her parents. I told her I won’t move to Cuba, I won’t move to Venezuela or Iran, and I sure as hell won’t move to Illinois!
on 07 Jan 2008 at 10:34 am # Keith
That slippery slope has no flat place at the bottom, just a big drop called an complete ban.
It is interesting that any gun which was not previously registered cannot now be registered, i.e. it MUST REMAIN ILLEGAL!
“Deadly Weapon Dealers”; that would mean tool & hardwear shops (screw drivers, stilsons etc), kitchen shops (kitchen knives, skewers, rolling pins, heavy pots & pans), Builders merchants (bricks, hammers, pick handles), Sports shops (pool ques, baseball bats), The corner shop (glass bottles, electric leads, anything someone could conceivably strangle someone else or themselves with), nead I go on?
Take a hint from someone who now lives outside Britain, Registration and the bans which inevitably follow from it have not cured violence in that fourth world Bannana republic or anywhere else.
Britain had registration of handguns and Rifles from 1920-21, and since the handgun bans in ‘97-’98, the CRIMMINAL MISSUSE of handguns has doubled.
Actually, thinking about it, this might be good for the rest of the Country, the crimminals might be attracted to this safer (for them) feeding ground.
Keith
on 07 Jan 2008 at 10:39 am # Tom
The question I have is: Will anyone die over this issue? Is there anyone out there in Cook County who will say ‘Come and take it’, or will everyone roll over and (re)insult the sacrifices our countrymen have made are continue to make to provide us with the freedom to be stupid?
BTW, I’m not hoping for violence or anything like that. I would be much happier if this could be solved at the ballot box. The problem is that once the government has your guns it’s already too late.
on 07 Jan 2008 at 10:58 am # Keith
I’m sure that the boys and girls living in the parts of town where the problems are will be standing in orderly lines to hand their toys over?
No one wants the plaster knocking off the walls, the floor ripping up and the insulation throwing out of the loft in their own house, but if it is a rooming house or a tennament, what the hell, I bet some of those boys and girls will say:
“go ahead, look for it if you think i have one”
whatever the policing budget is, I don’t for one second think it will extend to repairing every rental property in the county.
The Result:
The law abiding and honest will be deprived of their constitutionally recognized right to the means to self defence and business will continue safer than ever for the law breakers.
and as Tom Says, when your gun is already gone, its too late.
Keith
on 07 Jan 2008 at 11:04 am # Keith
Sorry Jeff,
I left one off my list of dealers in deadly weaponry:
Car dealerships
Howzitt feel to be a merchant of doom?
Keith
on 07 Jan 2008 at 11:18 am # Jeff Soyer
Well, Keith, as a “deadly weapon dealer” in that cars cause, — Wait! Make that bad drivers cause, — 45 thousand deaths every year in this country, I think we should be licensed and registered.
Don’t laugh — that’s what California does! Car salesman have to be fingerprinted and licensed.
Mike: I was born in the old Cook County Hospital in Chicago and while in my younger years I’ve visited Chicago, I haven’t in 20 years and never will again. I will not set foot in a state that does not recognize my constitutional AND God given right to protect and defend myself. And that’s ashame because besides that, Chicago is a wonderful city, has some of the best restaurants in the world, and the Chicago Museum of Science and Technology is — at least as I remember it from many years ago — one of the coolest places to visit. But, I won’t go home.
on 07 Jan 2008 at 12:41 pm # DëMöN
Have there been any lawsuits filed on these yet? You can sue to prevent the issue from being put to a vote, if the law would violate rights. Is cook county full of idiots? Maybe 10,000 of us gun owners should move there, start petitions to revoke the registration laws, and make it a better county by voting those retard commissioners out of office.
on 07 Jan 2008 at 1:17 pm # Turk Turon
Welcome to Chicago! Where the compulsory is forbidden.
on 07 Jan 2008 at 4:50 pm # Mike Gallo
Jeff, that’s unfortunate. If you ever do go back, I also highly suggest the Art Institute. They have the best Impressionist collection in the country, IMHO. They also have some other pieces I really like - a few Pop Art gems, and such. The Shedd Aquarium is also wonderful. Funny thing is - pepper spray is also completely banned in the City of Chicago, so I routinely break that law when I’m patronizing any of the aforementioned landmarks . . .
One thing I did notice was that there are exemptions for anyone “on their way to or from” anywhere that the registration is not required (kind of a parroting of the federal transportation immunity law). So I will continue to keep my firearm with me on trips to the in-law’s, even if it is only unloaded and locked in the trunk of my car, it is piece of mind.
on 07 Jan 2008 at 6:15 pm # Mister_V
Not just a mile from a school or park. Can’t have a gun shop within ten miles of another gun shop? Assuming a gun shop is defined as “a place that sells guns,” is there any place in this country anymore that’s more than ten miles from a Wal-Mart?
on 07 Jan 2008 at 7:52 pm # Dave
Illinois politicians should be moved to another galaxy. Talk about nut jobs.
on 07 Jan 2008 at 8:55 pm # Daniel
I wonder if, optimistically, the upcoming SCOTUS ruling on the DC case will cause Illinois/Chicago/Cook County to be found as breaking federal laws (retroactively).
Considering what the state and local levels are doing - it is tantamount to denying rights to their populace.
On another note, I can see where if someone calls a state/local representative to ask questions about what kind of gun(s) can they keep - will get a “visit” from der Polizei.
If I were such an individual, I’d keep my mouth shut about what I own.
on 08 Jan 2008 at 1:38 am # wrangler5
I saw on another site that the legislation as drafted (distance-from-school combined with distance-from-another-gun-shop) will ban ALL gun shops from Cook County, and that this is the intended purpose.
The loaded chamber indicator section sounds like it was copied from the California rule (which, I have read elsewhere, NO gun manufacturer has yet been able to satisfy) but in CA it only applies to autoloaders, not revolvers, and (I believe) only to newly designed guns that are not already on the approved list. Again, if the result was that no handgun could be registered in Cook County it is safe to assume that this is the intention of the politicians
Note that, as an intellectual matter, it is a REAL challenge to be told to design something that can be understood by someone who doesn’t understand what he’s looking at. Gives some concrete meaning to the concept of someone being “too stupid to be allowed to live.”
As to the possibility of petitioning to have gun laws revoked, the impression I have of the politics of Cook County is that any signer of such a petition would face a serious risk of the police seeking them out and killing them under some pretext. Not all signers, of course, but enough to make it a serious risk of life to sign. And yes, I DO believe that the politics of the Chicago area are indeed that corrupt.
on 08 Jan 2008 at 2:47 am # straightarrow
Wrangler 5, you are absolutely correct. The ruling elite in Chicago are nothing more than an organized crime syndicate. and nothing less, either.
on 08 Jan 2008 at 12:00 pm # Kurt "45superman" Hofmann
There’s a great deal of competition for “worst part” of this abomination, but if I had to choose a “worst part,” it would be the fact that except in Chicago itself, the vast majority of Cook County has no gun registry, meaning that there’s no way for guns to be previously registered, meaning in turn, that all guns are impossible to register, and would thus be illegal.
on 08 Jan 2008 at 1:17 pm # SteVe
Daniel, if DC’s gun ban is found unconstitutional, the Chicago area ban’s won’t be instantly nullified. It will offer a solid platform for somebody to file a suit against the state/county/city. That goes for any other draconian laws in the country as well.
on 08 Jan 2008 at 2:04 pm # Drew458
How do you make a loaded chamber indicator for a revolver? Is that called “use your eyes stupid”? Unless this bill has a grandfather clause big enough to drive a truck through, it’s really stupid legislation.
This goes hand in hand with NJ’s latest effort to ban ammunition, and make owners liable if their guns are stolen.
Alcohol and tobacco are both poisons. So is actual poison! Using the same “deadly” concept, there should be no bars, liquor shops, or stores selling cigarettes anywhere in the county, nor any hardware store selling rat poison or roach spray. It’s for the children after all.
on 08 Jan 2008 at 8:13 pm # teqjack
“(ii) A load indicator device that provides reasonable warning to potential users such that even users unfamiliar with the weapon would be forewarned and would understand the nature of the warning; …”
OK, a [removable] tag on the trigger guard stating “this weapon is loaded for firing” takes care of that - whether or not actually loaded, since firearms should be regarded as loaded until personally verified as being unloaded.
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“(i) A safety mechanism to hinder the use of the handgun by unauthorized users….”
See above. To hinder is not to prevent… Ask any IT worker about hackng: can be made difficult, but not impossible (short of cutting off any potential power source).
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“(b) No deadly weapons dealer license may be issued to any person seeking a license to operate a gun shop in the County which will be located within one mile of any public or private school or public park as measured from the property lines of the respective properties.”
Hmm… Hire the Goodyear Blimp, assuming it can maintain altitude (I’m sure it can)? Otherwise, yes, this is tantamount to a complete ban - certainly within any city/town/village/hamlet.
As to the WalMart question: are any two of the stores within ten miles of each other? Within one mile of a school of some description? Are gun-training courses considered as “schools, private”?
And while automobiles may not be classed as “deadly weapons” how about the supermarket’s offer of various over-3-inch-blade knives?
on 09 Jan 2008 at 5:40 pm # Chris in AZ
Went from my home in Kentucky to Chicago for a job in ‘99, left in ‘03! And that wasn’t soon enough! What can you say where even the nominal Repub politicians support gun control? Add to that the onerous tax burden, the traffic and the horrible winter weather and I am SO glad I left. Oh, I didn’t mention to anyone but trusted friends about my collection hidden in the closet. And NONE of them could be registered under this scheme (even if I were inclined to, which I would not have been!) because they weren’t previously known to Evanston/ Chicago/ Cook Co.