Chicago, IL – With the city’s gun ban certain to be overturned, Mayor Richard Daley on Thursday introduced what city officials say is the strictest handgun ordinance in the United States.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
The measure, which draws from ordinances around the country, would ban gun shops in Chicago and prohibit gun owners from stepping outside their homes, even onto their porches or garages, with a handgun.
Daley announced his ordinance at a park on the city’s South Side three days after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Americans have a right to own a gun for self-defense anywhere they live. The City Council is expected to vote on it Friday.
“As long as I’m mayor, we will never give up or give in to gun violence that continues to threaten every part of our nation, including Chicago,” said Daley, who was flanked by activists, city officials and the parents of a teenager whose son was shot and killed on a city bus while shielding a friend.
The ordinance, which Daley urged the City Council to pass, also would :
— Limit the number of handguns residents can register to one per month and prohibit residents from having more than one handgun in operating order at any given time.
— Require residents in homes with children to keep them in lock boxes or equipped with trigger locks.
— Require prospective gun owners to take a four-hour class and one-hour training at a gun range. They would have to leave the city for training because Chicago prohibits new gun ranges and limits the use of existing ranges to police officers. Those restrictions were similar to those in an ordinance passed in Washington, D.C., after the high court struck down its ban two years ago.
— Prohibit people from owning a gun if they were convicted of a violent crime, domestic violence or two or more convictions for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Residents convicted of a gun offense would have to register with the police department.
— Calls for the police department to maintain a registry of every handgun owner in the city, with the names and addresses to be made available to police officers, firefighters and other emergency responders.
Those who already have handguns in the city — which has been illegal since the city’s ban was approved 28 years ago — would have 90 days to register those weapons, according to the proposed ordinance.
Residents convicted of violating the city’s ordinance can face a fine up to $5,000 and be locked up for as long as 90 days for a first offense and a fine of up to $10,000 and as long as six months behind bars for subsequent convictions.
“We’ve gone farther than anyone else ever has,” said Corporation Counsel Mara Georges.
Still, the mayor, whose office is trying to craft an ordinance that will withstand legal challenges, had to back off some provisions he’d hoped to include, including requiring gun owners to insure their weapons and restricting each resident to one handgun.
Georges said it would be expensive for homeowners to include guns on their homeowners’ and renters’ insurance policies, so such a requirement could be seen as being discriminatory to the city’s poorer residents. Limiting the number of handguns could be seen as discriminatory to people who owned weapons before the city’s ban went into effect in 1982 or before they moved into the city.
“We can limit the place in which those handguns can be located,” she said, before adding a not-so-veiled swipe at the court: “For instance, the Supreme court does not want them coming into the courthouse.”
Still, Daley indicated that no matter what was included in the ordinance, he expects legal challenges.
“Everybody has a right to sue,” he said.
This is still the United States of America, right? Right???
all these fools are just fooling themselves , its people that kill people . the crooks will always be able to get a gun by hook or by crook.
This Mayor is a sore loser, a cry-baby who can’t take “no” (no to gun rights) for an answer——-even if it is coming fro the Highest Court in the land. Wow, you citizens of Chicago should be very pleased that the mayor is OK with your having broken , junk guns, as long as they are “Not in working order”. This jerk probably is well armed, himself personally, wears a vest and has body guards.
Mayor Daley is either naive or stupid, criminals don’t obide by the law.
That’s why they shoot and kill in the first place
Duh!
Mayor Daley, you can count on my vote, what’s this old crazy attitude “it says in the constitution” as if its the holy torah, I agree that guns should be banned from the streets like every normal country in the world which the murder rates are much less…
Chicago has outlawed guns for the last 28 years, ant yet shootings are sky high there. that brings us to conclude that me and my old scared jewish grandmother would probably register the gun, but the Chicago gangsters won’t run register their guns, not within 90 days and not ever.
Gangsters in the South Side, East Side, West Side and North Side of Chicago all have pistols and use them every day without fear of the Mayor. What is his problem? I am surprised he doesn’t want them so he can tax them. Chicago is so uncompetitive in business since their tax rates have skyrocketed the past few years, I know of so many businessmen moving operations out of there due to Daily’s incompetance. What a moron….
Yes Daley, gun control works SO well, which is why Chicago has such a high violent crime rate.
He wouldn’t dare put such onerous restrictions on newspapers. So what makes him think it’s OK to do so on guns? What’s the difference between the first and second amendments? Any restriction that would be a breach of the first amendment if applied to speech must be a breach of the second if applied to arms.
OK, I’m confused.
According to the article, one clause in the new ordinance would
“prohibit gun owners from stepping outside their homes […] with a handgun”,
while another clause would
“Require prospective gun owners to take […] one-hour training at a gun range”.
So, there’s no way fulfill the training clause with one’s own handgun, since transporting it to a range requires one to take the gun out of the home (into the car and to drive to the out-of-town range and back)!
Perhaps, that’s the whole idea. 🙁
Where I live, it has always been legal to keep a handgun in one’s home for protection. No permit is required. There have been instances where criminals have broken into people’s homes, and the burglars have been shot dead. The only thing that criminal or burglars understand, is hot lead in the head.
Pop Quiz- who said the following?
“For the first time in history, our city has full gun registration. Our streets will be safer…”
umm… how about HITLER. Before killing over 11 million people.
And how was 5000 SS troops able to control all of France? Because they had full gun registration. The troops, in France and Germany, got the lists from the government and walked to each house and seized everyone’s weapons. So even if they wanted to fight back, it was nearly impossible.
No Thanks, Daley. I’ll keep my constitutional rights and protect my family.