City officials said Mayor Richard M. Daley‘s new proposal to regulate guns will be the toughest such law in the nation, but the ordinance introduced today is not nearly as restrictive as what mayoral aides had hoped for.
Only two days ago, the administration’s top lawyer, Mara Georges, said the new law should cap handgun ownership at one firearm per household. But in the version that was unveiled today, the limit would be one handgun per adult every month.
“We simply changed our minds,” Jennifer Hoyle, spokeswoman for the city’s Law Department, said today.
By rewriting that provision, Hoyle said, the ordinance would have a better chance of withstanding the inevitable legal challenges.
The mayor also spoke this week of requiring registered handgun owners to buy insurance. But buying insurance would not be required after all.
City officials said it could become costly for gun owners to meet such a requirement, making the new law more susceptible to court challenge.
Daley also is calling for the creation of a public registry of gun offenders modeled on Internet search engines of registered sex offenders.
The mayor shrugged off questions that the courts could overturn the new ordinance, just as the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Monday effectively dismantled the city’s longstanding ban on handguns.
“Everybody has the right to sue,” the mayor said at a news conference on the South Side this morning. “I wish I could craft something perfect. Nothing is perfect in life … You could argue anything.”
Daley’s proposal won preliminary backing from a City Council committee today and will be up for a final vote at a quickly called, special meeting of the full council at 10 a.m. Friday.
Under the proposal, registered handguns would only be allowed inside homes — not on porches, not in backyards, not in garages, not in autos and not in public places, Daley aides said.
Anybody who wants to register a gun would have to undergo one hour of training in a shooting range and four hours of safety classes. But the law also would prohibit gun shops in the city, so would-be handgun owners in Chicago would likely seek the required instruction from ranges in the suburbs.