{"id":572637,"date":"2010-05-20T11:08:46","date_gmt":"2010-05-20T15:08:46","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c60fd53ef01348138a25a970c"},"modified":"2010-05-20T20:21:34","modified_gmt":"2010-05-21T00:21:34","slug":"daley-city-ready-to-act-if-supreme-court-overturns-gun-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/572637","title":{"rendered":"Daley: City ready to act if Supreme Court overturns gun ban"},"content":{"rendered":"

Posted by Hal Dardick and John Byrne<\/em> at 10:05 a.m.; last updated at 1:55 p.m.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mayor Richard Daley today rejected the idea that the Supreme Court is likely to overturn the city’s gun ban, but said that he will be ready to act quickly to put in place restrictions on gun ownership if it does.
<\/br>\u00a0
<\/br>It’s defeatist to prepare new gun laws ahead of the court’s ruling, which should come before the body recesses at the end of June, Daley said.
<\/br>\u00a0
<\/br>"You have to have confidence in the Supreme Court, Maybe they’ll see the light of day," Daley said at a City Hall news conference. "Maybe one of them will have an incident and they’ll change their mind overnight, going to and from work."
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<\/br>The mayor said if the court overturns the Chicago ban, as expected, he’ll quickly present new legislation to the City Council.
<\/br>\u00a0
<\/br>"Whatever the details of the court’s ruling will be, we will always find new ways to keep guns off our streets," he said.
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<\/br>Daley offered no specifics on what he will propose. But he talked about the possibility of ballistics tests for registered guns, so police can track them if they’re used in crimes.
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<\/br>He also said that if guns are allowed in Chicago, something has to be done to allow police, firefighters and other first responders know how many weapons are in a home as they respond to a call.
<\/br>\u00a0
<\/br>"If you get a call for domestic violence, or you get a call for a burglary, or you get a call that a man with a gun is outside someone’s home, and the police officer goes to the scene, goes to the door and sees a person with a gun, what decision does he have to make with regards to his safety and the safety in that home?" Daley said.
<\/br>\u00a0
<\/br>"When you think about that, you’re really placing the first responders in a much more difficult — with all the restrictions on police officers, what they can do and what they can’t do — we’ll have to give them a worksheet for them, where they’ll have to read it to you, take your FOI card out?"<\/p>\n

During the news conference, Daley reacted with the help of a prop when a reporter suggested the city’s handgun ban has been ineffective, given the number of shootings that still occur in Chicago.
<\/br>\u00a0
<\/br>"It’s been very effective," Daley said, picking up a gun from the dozens displayed on a nearby table. "If I put this up your butt, you’ll find out how effective it is. Let me put a round up your, you know."
<\/br>\u00a0
<\/br>"But that’s why you want to get them out," he continued. "You want to get these out. This gun saved many lives. It could save your life."
<\/br>
<\/br>The mayor mentioned the possibility of some kind of registry to let police know how many guns and what types are in each house, but said nothing has been finalized.<\/p>\n

In 1982, the city barred the registration of additional handguns, but allowed those residents who already had handguns to keep them. That ordinance became known as the city\u2019s handgun ban.<\/p>\n

In June 2008, the nation’s high court overturned a similar ban in
\nWashington, D.C.. and justices are now weighing a Chicago case
\nthat will determine whether that ruling should be extended beyond
\nfederal enclaves.
<\/br><\/p>\n

Supreme Court justices are expected to rule next month on McDonald vs. City of Chicago. The court heard arguments March 2 on the case. At the time, Tribune Supreme Court reporter David G. Savage reported that most of the justices who two years ago said the 2nd Amendment protects individual gun rights signaled they are ready to extend this right nationwide and to use it to strike down some state and local gun regulations. You can read the rest of that story by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the D.C. case, justices did not close the door on all gun
\nregulation, and D.C. later enacted a law requiring gun owners to go
\nthrough five hours of safety training, register their firearms every
\nthree years and undergo criminal background checks every six years.<\/p>\n

More extensive training requirements for gun owners — such as that enacted in Washington D.C. — also is a possibility, Daley said.
<\/br>\u00a0
<\/br>"We’ll work harder to make sure only responsible adults can have access to guns across the nation," Daley said. "When you think about that, you have to go through driver’s ed and you have to get a license, you have to pass a test for drivers, but you don’t have to really do anything to own a gun," he said.
<\/br>
<\/br>
\nPreserving the handgun ban has been high on Daley’s agenda during
\nhis two decades as mayor. For years, Daley also has pressed state
\nlawmakers for tighter gun control laws, including an assault weapons
\nban,but has found only limited success in a state where gun owner rights are closely guarded downstate. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Posted by Hal Dardick and John Byrne at 10:05 a.m.; last updated at 1:55 p.m. Mayor Richard Daley today rejected the idea that the Supreme Court is likely to overturn the city’s gun ban, but said that he will be ready to act quickly to put in place restrictions on gun ownership if it does.\u00a0It’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3992,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-572637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3992"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572637\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}