City Council Approves Emanuel's Gun Shop Plan
By Chuck Sudo in News on Jun 25, 2014 8:30PM
With a court-mandated deadline fast approaching, the Chicago City Council approved an ordinance backed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel allowing gun shops to operate within the city limits, albeit with some strict limitations.
The ordinance would restrict gun shops from operating in all but a handful of pockets of the North, South and West sides of the city through special-use zoning and not be within 500 feet of a school or park. Gun shop owners would have to pay a license fee of close to $4,000, be subject to quarterly audits of their sales, allow their records to be audited by police, and have a Police Department-approved security plan in place before they can operate.
The ordinance would also require all gun sales to be videotaped to deter “straw” purchases of firearms by people with no criminal records for others who can’t hold a Firearm Owner Identification Card (FOID). Dealers would be limited to sell one handgun per month per buyer and there would be a 72-hour waiting period for all handgun purchases and 24 hours for rifles and shotguns. Aldermen voted for the ordinance even though a few admitted it likely wouldn’t stem the tide of illegal gun purchases and trafficking.
Ald. Emma Mitts (37th) told the Sun-Times, “You don’t know where (criminals) pick `em up and who’s getting `em to who and when they throw `em away, who else get `em. Guns be used over and over again.” Ald. Deborah Graham (29th) said she voted for the ordinance because “we need every tool possible in the toolbox to help us to combat the violence in our community.”
Gun rights lobbyists aren’t happy about the restrictions in the ordinance. Illinois State Rifle Association executive director Rick Pearson said the costs to open a gun shop in Chicago are so prohibitive it may have the effect of few, if any, opening.
“It’s a right to buy a firearm. If you pass a background check, you shouldn’t have to be videotaped. People don’t want their business transactions videotaped. They’re saying this is what you have to do to open gun shops, when it’s just a bunch of restrictions designed to make sure no gun shop opens in Chicago.”
Emanuel is confident the ordinance’s restrictions will withstand a legal challenge, if a lawsuit is filed. The Emanuel administration faced a July 14 deadline from a federal judge to draft legislation allowing gun shops to operate in the city. The ordinance is expected to go into effect next year.