 After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that the District of Columbia ban on handgun possession in the home violated the Second Amendment protection of individual gun rights, the Board of Supervisors of Morton Grove, Illinois voted 5-1 to repeal the village ban on handgun possession, although it let stand its ban on handgun sales. The action is significant since Morton Grove was the first political municipality outside the federal city of Washington, D.C. to ban private handgun possession, which it did in 1981. The District’s ban came six years earlier. Officials in Wilmette, Illinois also voted out that locality’s handgun ban. “In my mind, we had to repeal,” said Wilmette Village President Chris Canning, who also is a lawyer. “I knew that our ordinance would not survive constitutional scrutiny.” Gun rights advocates are working to overturn gun bans in other Chicago suburbs, such as Evanston and Oak Park.
In Chicago, anti-gun Mayor Richard Daley reportedly may not fight 100 percent against a legal move to overturn the Windy City’s handgun freeze. Until recently, Daley had been saying he would defend the Chicago ordinance all the way up to the Supreme Court despite what he referred to as the Court’s dangerous precedent in the District of Columbia v. Heller case. Newspaper editorials urged Daley to throw in the towel rather than spend millions on legal costs in a fight he can not win. The mayor was asked at a press conference last month if he would continue the legal fight to keep the ban. He said, “We don’t know yet. We’re not going to run away. We’re going to try to figure this out.” He said city attorneys would simultaneously contest the law and work on a possible replacement. He said also that Chicagoans with guns in their homes might be required to have insurance to protect taxpayers from frivolous lawsuits. “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,” he said. “We have to be able to fashion a law that truly protects first-responders and protects the citizens.”
In Washington, D.C., anti-gun Rep. Carolyn McCarthy of New York, with over a half-dozen gun grabbing cosponsors, introduced a bill, H.R. 6676, to require background checks for employees authorized to possess or transfer firearms or ammunition in the course of a licensed firearms business. It was referred to the House Judiciary Committee, under the chairmanship of anti-gun Congressman John Conyers of Michigan.
In Crawfordville, Tennessee last month, two men tried to rob the owner of a business, but the owner pulled out his gun and scared the would-be robbers away. The incident occurred on a Saturday evening at the Premier Motorcar Gallery, according to the Wakulla County Sheriff’s Office. The business owner was exiting the front door of his business carrying a small bank bag and had turned around to lock it when one of the men ran up and hit him in the head with a 2-by-6 board. The owner fell to the ground but was able to get a handgun out of his rear waistband and point it at the robber. Another man was running toward them, but the two turned around and ran to a waiting car when they saw the owner was armed.
Anti-gun Reps. Mark S. Kirk of Illinois and Carolyn McCarthy of New York introduced H.R. 6664, to prohibit anyone who has been notified by the Attorney General that the license issued to the person to deal in firearms has been revoked, or that the application of the person to renew such a license has been denied, to transfer a firearm from the business inventory into a personal collection of that person, an individual described in law with respect to the person, or an employee of the person. It was referred to the House Judiciary Committee.