Black Community News News and Commentary for Christians
Liberals lawmakers in Chicago believe taking guns from law-abiding residents so they can’t defend themselves will decrease the city’s high gun-violence rate.
Tribune News Services reported that a federal court just made it harder for Chicago to violate residents’ Second Amendment right. An excerpt (emphasis added):
The appeals court on Wednesday ruled that city ordinances restricting gun ranges to manufacturing areas in Chicago are unconstitutional. The ordinances also placed limits on the distances they can be located in relation to other gun ranges and to residential areas, schools, parks and places of worship.
A three-judge panel of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals noted the city claimed the ordinances serve important public health and safety interests, specifically that they attract gun thieves, cause airborne lead contamination and carry a risk of fire.
“The city has provided no evidentiary support for these claims, nor has it established that limiting shooting ranges to manufacturing districts and distancing them from the multiple and various uses listed in the buffer-zone rule has any connection to reducing these risks,” the court wrote in its opinion.
In addition to striking down the city’s gun-range restrictions, the court struck down Chicago’s law barring people under 18 at gun ranges but contended the city can maintain a “more closely tailored” age restriction.
Chicago impinged on residents’ right to self-defense by banning handgun ownership, handgun sales, and gun ranges. Courts struck down all attempts.
Photo credit: By Joshuashearn – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
