- J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/AP
- A 2008 opinion on the Second Amendment by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has reshaped gun policies in Chicago and beyond.
Just a couple years ago it was against the law for a private citizen in Chicago to keep a handgun disassembled in a closet at home. By later this year it will be legal to carry a loaded one on the way to the gun store.
Here’s a brief review of how the courts have taken aim at the gun laws in Chicago and Illinois.
In his majority opinion, Justice Samuel Alito took a swipe at then-mayor Richard M. Daley and defenders of the gun ban. “Chicago Police Department statistics, we are told, reveal that the City’s handgun murder rate has actually increased since the ban was enacted and that Chicago residents now face one of the highest murder rates in the country. . . .
“Both Heller and McDonald do say that ‘the need for defense of self, family, and property is most acute’ in the home, but that doesn’t mean it is not acute outside the home,” Judge Richard Posner wrote. “A Chicagoan is a good deal more likely to be attacked on a sidewalk in a rough neighborhood than in his apartment on the 35th floor of the Park Tower.”
In other words, the court battles will continue.
