CHICAGO GUN CASE

According to the Second Amendment of the constitution of the United States, every capable adult has the right to bear arms. It is true that neither the constitution itself nor subsequent lawsuits related to it have ever declared this right as absolute – citizens looking to bear arms still need to have them registered with the government, and not everyone can be deemed eligible to bear arms. But at the end of the day, when all’s said and done and a US citizen has been authorized by the government to own a weapon, you’d expect that that’d be the end of it, right? Well, in most of the United States that would be the case. While different states have different regulations when it comes to the conditions one must abide to in order to carry a firearm (with some having tougher laws against guns, such as New Jersey, while others are being more flexible, like Texas), at the end of the day once you jump through all the hoops you’re free to own your weapon and not worry about it… Unless you live in Chicago.

How Are Chicago Laws Different?

One of the worst ways in which Chicago’s gun registration laws differ from those in the rest of the United States involves something called re-registration – and yes, it’s just as bad as it sounds. Every year, each gun must be registered again, requiring its owner to pay a tax, fill out a form and submit photographs, which costs both time and money that are more or less wasted. This is hard enough for people who only own a single gun, but when one considers the fact that some people own multiple guns that makes the situation even more complicated, as each gun has to be registered every year and a separate tax needs to be paid out to the state, in addition to the already high costs of the weapon, maintenance and ammunition. There is literally no reason for this law to exist other than to harass gun owners in Chicago and make them ineligible to own these specific weapons when they inevitably fail to re-register them.

Another ridiculous law requires gun to be registered before they’re legally acquired, but after the process leading up to their purchase has began, resulting in a ridiculously small time span during which the gun can be legally registered. If you fail to do it within the few days that constitute the opening, you will be stuck having paid for a gun that you can not use nor sell. So if you want to actually have a gun that’s more than a decoration, you’re going to have to purchase another one and hope that you have better luck with the registration process. The law also makes it illegal to bring in guns to Chicago that have been obtained elsewhere, as they haven’t been registered in the city before their acquisition. It has gone to the point where even City Council has recognized just what a terrible idea this is and has offered a brief window during which non-registered guns can be registered legally. It truly says something about your laws when the people in charge of them basically say “Yeah, let’s just ignore them for a little bit”. It is similar with the ban of online gambling in the US, the United Kingdom has great success with their liberal gambling laws. If the people want Slots, Roulette or Blackjack give it to them. The same is true for gun laws.

What Is Being Done

Currently, four Chicago citizens are in the middle of a trial against the city in an attempt to change the laws. Otis McDonald is an activist and an Army veteran who is not allowed to bring his pistol within Chicago due to the ban on guns that haven’t been registered prior to their acquisition; Adam Orlov is a former police officer currently running a trading business who calls the ban on guns “onerous”; and Colleen and David Lawson are a couple who have been married for 25 years who have been subjected to three burglary attempts, one of which brought the defenseless Colleen face to face with three men. The four of them are being backed by the Second Amendment Foundation – the country’s oldest legal action groups, with over 600, 000 members. Alongside them are the Illinois State Rifle Association, an organization formed in 1903 in order to train civilians in marksmanship skills, finding it difficult to do so in the Chicago area due to the absurd gun control laws. The legal team is led by Alan Gura – a Washington DC lawyer who already successfully argued similar rulings in his home city, so cases like that are his bread and butter. With so many plaintiffs represented by multiple skilled lawyers with decades of experience, there’s a pretty good chance that we may see the law altered for the better. One thing’s for sure though – we’re going to have to go a long way before we achieve that.