The Supreme Court's Monday ruling invalidated Chicago's 28-year-old ban on handguns for all practical purposes, and while people like South Side grandfather Otis McDonald celebrate, others are not as excited.
McDonald, who filed the lawsuit that led to the court's decision, has been making the media rounds and saying that he is happy he can finally buy a gun--to protect himself from the thugs in his neighborhood.
"If you have the right to have a handgun in your house, even if you don't have a gun, that will give criminals a second thought, a third thought about breaking into your house," McDonald told the Chicago Sun-Times.
As expected, Mayor Daley expressed his disappointment in the ruling--and said that Chicago will do everything it can to have strict gun laws in place.
"As a city we must continue to stand up ..and fight for a ban on assault weapons .. as well as a crackdown on gun shops," Daley said, according to NBC Chicago. He held a press conference surrounded by family members of those killed in gun violence. "We are a country of laws not a nation of guns."
The city plans on moving forward with new gun restrictions in light of the ruling--as soon as this week. He told the AP he planned to move quickly to get proposals in front of the City Council, saying that it is possible a special session will be called to address the issue.
He said he's considering creating a registry of the names and addresses of everyone in the city who legally owns a handgun, which would be made available to police officers, firefighters and other "first responders" before they arrive at the scene of emergencies.
Daley also said Chicago might follow the District of Columbia's lead in requiring prospective gun owners to take training courses that include several hours of classroom learning about gun safety and passing a 20-question test. He has also suggested that owners may be required to buy insurance for those guns.
Even with Chicago's gun ban in place, handgun crime has been rampant--a point the court made sure to mention in their decision:
Chicago Police Department statistics, we are told, reveal that the City's handgun murder rate has actually increased since the ban was enacted and that Chicago residents now face one of the highest murder rates in the country and rates of other violent crimes that exceed the average in comparable cities.
Colleen Lawson, McDonald's co-plaintiff in the case, said that the ruling would actually help decrease crime. The "Chicago crime buffet is over," she said, according to the Sun-Times.
Others already living in neighborhood plagued by gun violence disagree.
"Every other week there's a shooting," one Little Village resident told NPR. "There's so many guns on the streets already, we don't need more."
Other residents agreed, including Annette Nance-Holt. Holt's 16-year-old son Blair was killed on a CTA bus trying to shield a classmate from gunfire.
"More guns equals to me more problems, more deaths, more funerals, more parents like me," Holt said. "So who will answer for all the parents and citizens killed by guns and those injured by them? Will the the Supreme Court? The Seventh Circuit? Or the gun manufacturers?"
WATCH Daley respond to the ruling here: