Progress Illinois

In what will certainly become a controversial decision, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Washington D.C.'s ban on handguns this morning, declaring for the first time that the Constitution protects an individual’s right to possess a gun, not just the right of the states to maintain militias:

Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority in the landmark 5-to-4 decision, said the Constitution does not allow “the absolute prohibition of handguns held and used for self-defense in the home.” In so declaring, the majority found that a gun-control law in the nation’s capital went too far in making it nearly impossible to own a handgun.

But the court held that the individual right to possess a gun “for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home” is not unlimited. “It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose,” Justice Scalia wrote.

The decision is the first since 1939 to deal with the scope of the Second Amendment. In his dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote that the majority “would have us believe that over 200 years ago, the framers made a choice to limit the tools available to elected officials wishing to regulate civilian uses of weapons.”

So how will this affect Chicago's gun-control laws, which were similar to DC's and have been in place since 1982?

Continue reading »

Amidst Chicago's recent spike in gun violence, citizens are doing their best to protect students as they travel to school. Today, The New York Times profiles Operation Safe Passage, a joint venture between students, parents, the police, public officials, and neighborhood advocates on the city's West Side:

Ever since one of their classmates was shot down just a block from school last month, a group of sleepy-eyed teenagers here has been meeting in the early morning at a community center southwest of downtown to walk to class together, hoping there is safety in numbers.

Parent volunteers, part of a program call Operation Safe Passage, guide the trip to Richard T. Crane Tech Prep high school in brightly colored vests and ponchos, shepherding the students onto a city bus, through a transfer, then to the school gates. But that is not all — the police come, too, trailing the walking procession and the buses in a squad car.

In many ways, the article is bittersweet. For one, it's a small program, only serving a few dozen young people. There's also not enough financial or political support yet to ensure the safe passage of every CPS student. And fear is a difficult feeling to erase, especially among the young and vulnerable. But it's certainly an effort worth applauding:

It is a joyless parade and the most comprehensive effort to date in Chicago and perhaps the country intended to secure a safe passage to school. Every morning, the same routine, repeated in reverse after the dismissal bell. And yet there is still fear.

“We could be standing here talking and somebody over there could start shooting right now,” said Anthony Robinson, 16, waiting with the escorts at a bus stop. “You just don’t know.

As Wonkish.com noted, the General Assembly will vote on two important pieces of gun control legislation today. House Bill 4393, the "One Gun per Month" law, does basically what its title says: restricts Illinoisans to one firearm purchase per month. The second measure, House Bill 758, would require background checks for all gun purchases in the state. Currently, if a gun is being sold by a private owner to a private citizen there is no required background check on the purchase.

Taken separately, each law would be an effective deterrent to the proliferation of guns on our streets. Put together, the measures go even further in ending the black market sale of firearms in Illinois.

The votes come on the heels of emotional rallies in Chicago, where students drew attention to the wave of gun violence that has recently hit city high schools. To date, 23 students have been killed by gun violence in Chicago this school year.

But as Wonkish's JohnR noted, the "gun lobby has strong teeth in the Illinois House," so expect a serious battle before these bills pass.

UPDATE: As Capitol Fax just noted, HB 4393 was rejected in the House, garnering only 53 of the 60 votes needed to pass. The AP reports that the bill's sponsor -- Rep. Luis Arroyo (D-Chicago) -- "could bring it back for another vote later."

Image used under a Creative Commons license by Flickr user Swanksalot.