Activists sue three suburbs to keep guns out of city
On the heels of another bloody holiday weekend, an anti-violence group filed a lawsuit Tuesday against three suburban communities to keep guns out of Chicago.
The suit alleges Riverdale, Lyons and Lincolnwood did not provide enough oversight over gun shops in their communities.
The villages have “lax or insufficient methods of administration in licensing or regulating gun dealers,” the suit said.
The suit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court, also alleges the communities violated the Illinois Civil Rights Act and caused a hardship for African Americans.
“I’m here this morning and part of this lawsuit because I’m tired of seeing the bloodbath taking place in our city streets while gun shops . . . are running to the bank, and villages like Riverdale, Lyons and Lincolnwood close their eyes and receive tax income,” said Father Michael Pfleger at a news conference held at First United Methodist Church at the Chicago Temple downtown.
“The violence in America and Chicago is a civil rights issue. Our families and our children have a right to safety, a right to live, a right to walk to school, play in the park and sit on the porch and not be afraid. Although the solution to violence is comprehensive, part of the problem is the proliferation of guns.”
The suit, by the Coalition for Safe Chicago Communities, is based on a city report that shows 20 percent of the guns found at city crime scenes from 2009-2013 were from gun stores in the three villages and also Gary.
The suit is targeting weapons at Chuck’s Gun Shop in Riverdale, Shore Galleries in Lincolnwood and Midwest Guns in Lyons.
To help with alleged problems at the stores, the group wants background checks on store employees, as well as employees identifying straw purchasers who buy guns for people barred from owning them.
Lyons Mayor Christopher Getty said in a statement that his village has met several times with Chicago Police and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s staff to discuss concerns over gun sales.
“We have recommended the Chicago Police place an officer at the gun store to monitor gun sales, but they have repeatedly declined that recommendation,” Getty said.
He added he couldn’t comment on the specifics of the suit because he hadn’t yet seen it.
But Getty added, “it is obvious the city is looking to pass the blame onto outside communities and businesses for crimes and short-comings in dealing with the crimes in neighborhoods within the City of Chicago.
Officials from the other two communities couldn’t be reached for comment by Chicago Citizen Newspaper press time.
Suits to crackdown on gun shops have come up short in the past.
The city of Chicago was unsuccessful in a $433 million lawsuit filed in 1998 against suburban shops and others.
Lawyers for the anti-violence group, however, said that efforts by regions like New York have been successful in regulating gun stores.
Aside from Pfleger, the plaintiffs of the suit include the Rev. Robin Hood, and the parents of Blair Holt and Terrell Bosley, whose teen children were killed in gun violence in the past.
“There is no way a teenager should have a gun in his hands,” said Annette Nance-Holt, whose son, Blair, a Juilian High School honors student, died after being shot in a CTA bus by a teen.
At least nine people were killed and about 50 others were injured in shootings in Chicago during the Fourth of July holiday weekend.
The shooting victims included Amari Brown, 7, who was killed while celebrating the holiday with family members.
According to news reports, police said his father, Antonio Brown, was a “ranking gang member” and possibly the intended target of the attack before midnight on the 1100 block of North Harding Avenue in the Humboldt Park neighborhood.
Police have claimed that they confiscated, on average, an illegal gun every hour during this holiday weekend.
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