City's gun ordinance ruled unconstitutional by federal judge
Pictured is a variety of smaller, conceal and carry style weapons taken Tuesday, July 9, 2013 at Gat Guns in East Dundee, Ill. (Anthony Souffle, Chicago Tribune / July 9, 2013)



By Jason MeisnerTribune reporter
5:14 p.m. CST, January 6, 2014

A federal judge today declared Chicago’s ordinance banning the sale of firearms in the city unconstitutional.

In his 35-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Edmond Chang wrote that the city failed to persuade him that banning the sale of guns by licensed dealers was necessary to reduce gun violence that has plagued the city.

“Chicago’s ordinance goes too far in outright banning legal buyers and legal dealers from engaging in lawful acquisitions and lawful sales of firearms, and at the same time the evidence does not support that the complete ban sufficiently furthers the purposes the ordinance tries to serve,” Chang wrote.

The ruling is the latest legal blow to the city, which has lost a series of court challenges by the National Rifle Association since the Supreme Court forced the city to rewrite its blanket ban on handguns three years ago.

Chang delayed his ruling from taking effect to allow the city time to appeal.

A city Law Department spokesman did not immediately return calls for comment.

The ruling stems from a 2010 lawsuit filed by three residents and an association of Illinois firearms dealers.

The suit alleged the city’s revamped ordinance violates the right of Chicago residents to keep and bear arms under the 2nd and 14th Amendments and challenged the ordinance's provision allowing residents to have guns inside their houses but not in their garages, back porches or outside steps.
jmeisner@tribune.com

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