Handguns and the High Court

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by Lesley R. ChinnIf the Supreme Court decides to overturn a 28-year-old gun ban in Chicago after hearing McDonald v. Chicago, Morgan Park resident Otis McDonald said he thinks it would lead to a decrease in homicides because people would think before they act.

McDonald, whose life was previously threatened with violence, is the lead plaintiff in the McDonald case. According to him, the hand gun ban is not working. If law-abiding citizens could have handguns, a robber in the streets will have something to think about when he gets ready to [kill someone], McDonald stated.

Petitioners in this case want the Supreme Court to extend federal protections of the Bill of Rights---including the Second Amendment---to all 50 states. McDonald v. Chicago is a follow-up to the 2008 Supreme Court ruling of District of Columbia v. Heller, which reversed a handgun ban in Washington, D.C., which allowed individuals to keep and bear arms. Before the Supreme Court heard the gun rights case McDonald v. last Tuesday, the city recorded 458 murders last year, in which 81 percent involved firearms, according to the Chicago Police Department Research and Development Division.

The city included stats from the 4th Police District, which includes Calumet Heights with a total of 41 murders. The 6th District Police, which includes Auburn Gresham, reported 35 murders while the 7th Police District, which includes Englewood and West Englewood, had 45 murders. Twenty-one murders were reported in the 5th Police District, which includes Roseland, Pullman, West Pullman and a Chicago suburb of Riverdale. Nineteen murders were reported in the 22nd Police District, which includes Morgan Park and Washington Heights.

The South side has already experienced its fair share of gun violence cutting short the lives of 18-year-old Terrell Bosley; 16-year-old Blair Holt, and two Englewood youth Starkesia Reed and Siretha White.

Mayor Richard M. Daley warned that overturning the citys gun ban could result in jeopardizing the publics safety. How many more of our children, our brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers must needlessly die because guns are too easily available in our society today? he stated.

When asked about the impact of McDonald v. City of Chicago on crime-ridden communities in the Chicagoland area, Atty. Elizabeth Wydra, chief counsel to the Washington, D.C.-based Constitutional Accountability Center, said that would be an answer for the courts to decide. Right now, she said she doesnt believe the case gives a definite answer to which gun regulations would be permissible if the Second Amendment is enacted against the states. Wydra noted that after the D.C. ruling, the D.C. Council replaced its ban with regulations that require gun owners to receive five hours of safety training, register their firearms every three years and face criminal background checks every six years. Cities would have to go through a process of enacting permissible regulations that will still be constitutional, she contends.

Although a decision is not expected until June, Adam Samaha, a professor of law at the University of Chicago, predicted the possibility of the courts using the due process clause of the 14th Amendment. Any rights used in the privileges and immunities clause will only apply to U.S. citizens and not immigrants, he explained. Opening up the privileges and immunities clause would open up a host of additional issues and lead to fundamental changes in constitutional law.

Richard Pearson, executive director of the Illinois Rifle Association, said the courts are mostly likely to favor overturning the ban. Chicagos gun ban has been illegal for years. It discriminates against law-abiding citizens and lets criminals run free, he stated. Law abiding citizens cant defend themselves in their own home.

Jennifer Hoyle, a spokesman for the citys law department, disagreed. Individuals can still legally possess long-barreled rifles and shotguns as long as those guns are properly registered with the Chicago Police Department. For that reason, its not impossible for law-abiding citizens to own guns to protect their families. Its simply illegal for them to own handguns, Hoyle said.

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