NRA, Chicago Prepare To Dig In On Gun Ban Fight
CHICAGO (AP) -- The National Rifle Association and Chicago long have been the biggest and toughest guys on the block in the fight over handguns.
After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the District of Columbia's handgun ban last year, communities around the country revoked their handgun bans - but not Chicago. When a federal appellate court this week upheld Chicago's ban, saying Second Amendment protections for gun owners apply only to federal laws, the NRA immediately appealed to the Supreme Court.
"I've always thought that the one that would fight the longest and hardest and the one that would be the candidate for the Supreme Court would be Chicago," said Todd Vandermyde, a lobbyist with the National Rifle Association in Illinois.
In 1982, when Chicago enacted its ban, the number of homicides routinely topped 800 every year and the mayor at the time, Jane Byrne, called it a "first step in a nationwide campaign" for stricter gun laws.
When Mayor Richard M. Daley was elected in 1989, he continued to push for tighter gun laws, and has become one of the nation's most vocal gun-control proponents. And under Daley, the city has been willing to spend money to keep its ban in place.
"Chicago's got the deep pockets and think they can squander all kinds of taxpayer money," Vandermyde said.
After the Washington, D.C. ban was struck down last year, Chicago assured neighboring Oak Park - which enacted its own handgun ban in 1985 - that if it kept its ban, officials there could count on Chicago for help.
"All of the issues in the Oak Park complaint are (covered in) the Chicago complaint and Chicago indicated that if we lost and there were attorneys fees on these issues that they would not seek a contribution from the village," said Ray Heise, Oak Park's village attorney who wrote the suburb's ordinance.
Chicago leaders, including police Superintendent Jody Weis, say the issue is a battle for control of city streets.
They point to the more than 10,000 guns the department takes off the street a year. And they fear that repealing the law might drive up the number of homicides, which police say have been lower over the last five years than at any time since the mid-1960s.
"Anything that can turn that statistic in the wrong direction is something that we would not be in favor of," said Roderick Drew, a spokesman for the department.
Last January, an appeals court panel in New York that included Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor upheld a handgun ban on the grounds that the Second Amendment applied to federal laws. And judges in New York and Chicago said only the Supreme Court could decide whether to extend last year's ruling throughout the country.
Vandermyde said the NRA overcame its biggest hurdle when the Washington, D.C. ban was overturned last year.
"The court has already said this type of ban is unconstitutional," he said, adding that Chicago's ban is "almost the twin brother" of the D.C. ban.
Many of the constitutional protections of the Bill of Rights have been applied to cities and states, and Vandermyde said he's optimistic that the court will do that in this case as well.
But Jennifer Hoyle, spokeswoman for the Chicago law department, said the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled clearly in the past that Second Amendment protections do not apply to cities and states.
"The court expressly did not address that," she said. "The reason they ruled on the Washington D.C. ordinance is that Washington D.C. is a federal district," she said.
It's not even certain that the high court will take the NRA v. Chicago case. If it does, Vandermyde said arguments could come as early as fall.
That's fine with gun owners who have for more than two decades bristled at Chicago's law.
"I get it all the time, somebody coming in and they say their neighbor just got robbed and I need to finally step up and buy a firearm," said Mike Diaz, manager of Mike Schrank's Smoke'N Gun in the Chicago suburb of Waukegan. "And I see they are in Chicago and tell them 'you can't have a gun.'"
But even if the NRA prevails, Diaz doesn't think that will end anything.
"Will this be the final nail in the coffin?" he asked. "No, because someone will look at another reason to write another gun law."
-ASSOCIATED PRESS
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First Posted: 06- 5-09 06:52 PM | Updated: 07- 6-09 05:12 AM