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http://media.www.dailynorthwestern.....Aldermen.Vote.To.Amend.Gun.Ban-3391932.shtml
To avoid NRA suit, aldermen vote to amend gun ban
Officials hope complying to U.S. Supreme Court ruling will allow aspects of Evanston's handgun ban to remain
Sara Suleiman
Evanston aldermen unanimously voted to amend the city's 27-year-old handgun ban last week at a special closed-door meeting in light of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down a similar ban in the District of Columbia.
The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, ruled that laws requiring handguns in homes to be disassembled and outfitted with trigger locks are incompatible with the gun rights accorded under the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment. On June 26th, the day after the ruling's release, the National Rifle Association sued numerous cities that ban the private possession of operative handguns, including Chicago, Morton Grove, Oak Park and Evanston. After weeks of consideration and consultation with the police, Evanston city council members authorized a resolution that would rewrite the ordinance to comply with the Supreme Court ruling.
"No one was particularly happy or anxious to do anything that would change the ordinance," Ald. Edmund Moran (6th) said. "But we're being confronted with this lawsuit and rather than engaging in a protracted fight and spending a lot of money, it would be a better course of action to revise our ordinance in a way that it would make it more legally sustainable."
The final version of the modified ordinance has not yet been released, but Moran said city council members discussed the changes at the closed-door meeting. He explained that although legislation regarding the private possession of handguns will be amended, certain statements in the "extremely narrow" ruling suggest that other aspects of anti-gun ordinances remain constitutional.
"We are conforming to the court's ruling," he said. "But we are also going to closely examine those statements in particular and try to fashion our amendments accordingly."
Evanston Police Department Chief Richard Eddington said law enforcement officials are waiting to see how drastically the weapons ordinance will change. Under the existing ordinance, police issued 16 handgun ordinance violations and reported 107 incidents involving handguns, according to the Evanston Police Department's 2006 Annual Report. Now with the recent handgun ban amendments, there are concerns over whether a possible increase in the number of weapons might jeopardize community safety.
"My responsibility is to make sure Evanston officers uphold the law," Eddington said. "But I think one of the issues is that the Supreme Court decision is narrowly focused on firearms in the home for self-defense, and I don't know if that narrow scope will have a huge impact on us."
Mayor Lorraine Morton, the defendant in the NRA lawsuit, attended the meeting and is concerned that the recent court ruling disregards important issues about the safety of the community.
"I just can't see how anyone could be helped by the gun ruling that the U.S. Supreme Court put out," Mayor Lorraine Morton said. "But you can't fight the Supreme Court."
The City of Evanston will seek to have the NRA lawsuit dismissed, based on its plan to bring the law into compliance with the court ruling.
The NRA said that it would consider dropping the lawsuit only after a review of the new ordinance, according to a spokeswoman. Evanston, along with San Francisco, Chicago, and three Chicago suburbs, were targeted for lawsuits because they are "areas that had the most restrictive bans," said Rachel Parsons, a spokeswoman for the NRA.
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The City of Evanston (where I happen to live) is not so much amending their handgun ordinance as they are worming their way into the minimum of legality. If handguns finally become legal to own in this town, it will no doubt have a lot of restrictions piled on top (disassembled, triggerlocked, inoperable, registered with local authorities, no possession within 5 miles of a school, etc.).
Aside from being a "handgun-free" city, Evanston is also a "nuclear-free zone". We have NO nuclear bombs or missiles here! I am SO relieved by that bit of symbolic nonsense. But that is what this town is about, so I'm not optimistic about the newly amended handgun ordinance.
BikerNut
http://media.www.dailynorthwestern.....Aldermen.Vote.To.Amend.Gun.Ban-3391932.shtml
To avoid NRA suit, aldermen vote to amend gun ban
Officials hope complying to U.S. Supreme Court ruling will allow aspects of Evanston's handgun ban to remain
Sara Suleiman
Evanston aldermen unanimously voted to amend the city's 27-year-old handgun ban last week at a special closed-door meeting in light of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down a similar ban in the District of Columbia.
The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, ruled that laws requiring handguns in homes to be disassembled and outfitted with trigger locks are incompatible with the gun rights accorded under the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment. On June 26th, the day after the ruling's release, the National Rifle Association sued numerous cities that ban the private possession of operative handguns, including Chicago, Morton Grove, Oak Park and Evanston. After weeks of consideration and consultation with the police, Evanston city council members authorized a resolution that would rewrite the ordinance to comply with the Supreme Court ruling.
"No one was particularly happy or anxious to do anything that would change the ordinance," Ald. Edmund Moran (6th) said. "But we're being confronted with this lawsuit and rather than engaging in a protracted fight and spending a lot of money, it would be a better course of action to revise our ordinance in a way that it would make it more legally sustainable."
The final version of the modified ordinance has not yet been released, but Moran said city council members discussed the changes at the closed-door meeting. He explained that although legislation regarding the private possession of handguns will be amended, certain statements in the "extremely narrow" ruling suggest that other aspects of anti-gun ordinances remain constitutional.
"We are conforming to the court's ruling," he said. "But we are also going to closely examine those statements in particular and try to fashion our amendments accordingly."
Evanston Police Department Chief Richard Eddington said law enforcement officials are waiting to see how drastically the weapons ordinance will change. Under the existing ordinance, police issued 16 handgun ordinance violations and reported 107 incidents involving handguns, according to the Evanston Police Department's 2006 Annual Report. Now with the recent handgun ban amendments, there are concerns over whether a possible increase in the number of weapons might jeopardize community safety.
"My responsibility is to make sure Evanston officers uphold the law," Eddington said. "But I think one of the issues is that the Supreme Court decision is narrowly focused on firearms in the home for self-defense, and I don't know if that narrow scope will have a huge impact on us."
Mayor Lorraine Morton, the defendant in the NRA lawsuit, attended the meeting and is concerned that the recent court ruling disregards important issues about the safety of the community.
"I just can't see how anyone could be helped by the gun ruling that the U.S. Supreme Court put out," Mayor Lorraine Morton said. "But you can't fight the Supreme Court."
The City of Evanston will seek to have the NRA lawsuit dismissed, based on its plan to bring the law into compliance with the court ruling.
The NRA said that it would consider dropping the lawsuit only after a review of the new ordinance, according to a spokeswoman. Evanston, along with San Francisco, Chicago, and three Chicago suburbs, were targeted for lawsuits because they are "areas that had the most restrictive bans," said Rachel Parsons, a spokeswoman for the NRA.
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The City of Evanston (where I happen to live) is not so much amending their handgun ordinance as they are worming their way into the minimum of legality. If handguns finally become legal to own in this town, it will no doubt have a lot of restrictions piled on top (disassembled, triggerlocked, inoperable, registered with local authorities, no possession within 5 miles of a school, etc.).
Aside from being a "handgun-free" city, Evanston is also a "nuclear-free zone". We have NO nuclear bombs or missiles here! I am SO relieved by that bit of symbolic nonsense. But that is what this town is about, so I'm not optimistic about the newly amended handgun ordinance.
BikerNut
