Daley may abandon fight to uphold gun ban
Mayor Daley today cracked the door open to abandoning the costly fight to uphold Chicago’s 1982 handgun freeze—if he can fashion a replacement ordinance that protects the safety of first-responders.
Until now, Daley had emphatically promised to defend Chicago’s ordinance—all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, if need be—despite what he called the dangerous precedent set by the nation’s highest court.
(Brian Jackson/Sun-Times)
On June 26, the Supreme Court overturned a Washington D.C. handgun ban on grounds that the 2nd Amendment guarantees the right to possess a handgun in your home for self-defense. Daley called it a “frightening” ruling that harkens “back to the Old West.”
Hours later, the National Rifle Association put Chicago, Morton Grove, Evanston and Oak Park directly in the crosshairs. The NRA filed lawsuits seeking to overturn handgun bans in all four places.
Wilmette pre-emptively repealed its handgun ban last week. Morton Grove did the same this week.
Now that both suburbs have thrown in the towel—and newspaper editorials have urged Daley to do the same to save millions in legal costs on a fight he cannot win—the mayor appears to be having second thoughts.
At a news conference called to tout the 6,848 guns collected at last week’s Gun Turn-In program, Daley was asked point-blank whether he would continue the legal fight to keep Chicago’s handgun ban.
“We don’t know yet. Let’s first work at one thing at a time…..They’re telling me to raise the white flag and run away. We’re not gonna run away. We’re gonna try to figure this out,” the mayor said.
Under further questioning, the mayor said city attorneys would simultaneously contest the law and work on a possible replacement.
“We think our law can be upheld. If not, so what?” he said.
Daley made no bones about it: It won’t be easy to craft a replacement ordinance that can pass legal muster and still protect first-responders.
Chicagoans who insist on having guns in their homes might even be required to have insurance to protect taxpayers from frivolous lawsuits, he said.
“We’re talking about putting first-responders in a very, very delicate position of people being armed without being notified how many guns they have in their homes…What is a handgun? Can you have unlimited handguns, unlimited ammunition?…What is a home? Is it the front porch. Is it the back porch? Is it the attached garage? Is it the garage in back? Is it their front and back yard?” Daley said.
“A lot of questions are gonna be asked in this legislation that we look at…We have to be able to fashion a law that truly protects first-responders and protects the citizens,” he said.
As for the fourth-annual gun turn-in, the lure of a $100 pre-paid Master Card was enough to draw 6,848 guns, 109 of them assault weapons. More than 1,100 of them were BB guns and replicas.
“This is a wonderful day, but it’s a tragic day for America,” Daley told a news conference at the Chicago Police Department’s Homan Square Facility, where the bought-back weapons were on display.
Denise Reed’s 14-year-old daughter, Starkesia, was shot and killed by a stray bullet from an AK-47 in March 2006 while looking out the window of her Englewood home.
On Friday, Reed urged Chicagoans to maintain the momentum generated by the gun turn-in program—without the $100 bounty.
“If you see a gun---parents, family, friends, community—it’s time for you to snitch…Think about our children. Think about…our babies that we lost innocently,” Reed said.
