In the McDonald decision, the United States Supreme Court struck down Chicago’s handgun ban. Within days, Mayor Daley’s City Council passed gun registration regulations subverting both the intent and the letter of the law. The Second Amendment Foundation picked-off the most obvious contravention: a gun range ban in a city that requires its citizens to qualify at a gun range to exercise their Supreme Court-affirmed right to keep and bear arms. As that lawsuit headed to its inevitable conclusion (“What are you, meshugga?), the post-Daley City Council weaseled. They loosened the ban on gun ranges just enough to avoid legal censure, but not enough so that anyone would actually open a range. Yesterday, they played Catch-22 . . .

The Chicago City Council isn’t done tinkering with gun-control measures it hastily approved last summer after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a decades-old handgun ban.

The council’s Public Safety Committee on Tuesday recommended approval of a tweak that would cut in half the licensing fee to open up a shooting range. The cost would be $2,000 for two years.

The city also would reduce the minimum distance a gun range would have to be located from homes, parks and houses of worship to 500 feet from 1,000 feet.

The changes would make it easier to put a gun range in Chicago, but another provision of the ordinance would complicate record keeping at such facilities.

It would require gun range owners keep records of everyone who used their facilities after ensuring each patron has a state firearm owner’s identification card and city firearm permit.

Did you catch that? According to the chicagotribune.com, to train at the [theoretical] Chicago gun range, you need an FOID cars AND a Chicago Firearms Permit (CFP). Now check this from the Chicago Police website:

Residents must possess the following information in order to complete the CPF application:

• A valid Firearm Owner’s Identification (FOID) Card issued by the State of Illinois

• Two identical passport-size photos taken in the last 30 days showing the person’s full face, head and shoulders

• A valid Driver’s License, or if the resident doesn’t possess one, a letter from a licensed optometrist or ophthalmologist attesting that the applicant meets the minimum vision requirements to obtain an Illinois driver’s license

• A signed affidavit from a firearms instructor approved in the State of Illinois stating that the applicant has completed a firearms safety and training course.

• A $100 application fee

So you can’t get a Chicago firearms permit without training and you can’t train at a [theoretical] Chicago gun range without a permit.

But wait! There’s more!

If you want to shoot your own gun (to save money, ensure safety and gain operational familiarity with your own handgun), you’ll have to register your firearm. Checking the Chicago police website we discover that firearms registration requires . . .

• A valid Firearm Owner’s Identification (FOID) Card issued by the State of Illinois

• Two identical passport-size photos taken in the last 30 days showing the person’s full face, head and shoulders

• A valid Driver’s License, or if the resident doesn’t possess one, a letter from a licensed optometrist or ophthalmologist attesting that the applicant meets the minimum vision requirements to obtain an Illinois driver’s license

• A signed affidavit from a firearms instructor approved in the State of Illinois stating that the applicant has completed a firearms safety and training course.

• A $100 application fee

Not to mention . . .

After obtaining a Chicago Firearms Permit, residents can purchase a firearm. Residents must then register their firearm within 5 days with the Chicago Police Department.

Only one handgun can be registered in any 30-day period. The cost is a one-time $15 fee per firearm, and the person will be required to file an annual report.

To register a firearm the owner must provide information on the type of weapon, the manufacturer, the serial number, where it was obtained or purchased and where the weapon will be located.

Are you beginning to get the idea that Chicago doesn’t want anyone to own a handgun for self-defense? The fact that there isn’t a single Google image of a single Chicago Firearms Permit tells you all you need to know on that score. Or not . . .

Can you say disenfranchisement? Imagine if African-Americans had to go through all this rigmarole and expense to vote. Clearly, Chicago’s gun control regulations were born in racism and live there to this day. Chicago’s African-American politicians, including those on the City Council, ought to be ashamed of themselves.

But they;re not. Which means that the fight against gun control is far from over. Until all Americans of all races, colors, creeds and economic circumstances can exercise their right to armed self-defense without bureaucratic blockades, the gun rights movement has its work cut out for it. And maybe even then.

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35 COMMENTS

  1. Moving vans still operate out of Chicago at least.

    Lost in the regulation is the possibility that training could be done elsewhere, like another state, but we know the Daley machine would not accept any training which isn’t done by a certified Chicagoan, or something like that.

    The criminal element doesn’t seem to have any problem arming up so these restrictions won’t hamper their abilities.

    • I imagine they’d recognize training from outside the City, but that’s not really the point. The City is doing whatever it can to block its citizens’ 2A rights. ‘Cause gun control has worked so well for them so far. /sarcasm.

      • we can train at ranges that are outside of the city limits with just a FOID card. Since there is no Chicago range yet i doubt most of the prospective gun owners have even realized that they will have to leave the city to get training.

  2. Gun control got its start as race control, and it continues to this day. Those who live in the most dangerous areas have the hardest time defending themselves in a legal manner. Even if guns are banned outright for citizens, the rich will still be able to afford bodyguards. I wonder how many the Brady Campaign has on staff…

  3. Chicago has so much spare money that it can afford to “defend the indefensible” in the court system again. I suspect that the next lawsuit against the city council will ask for punitive damages. The last decision in the 7th circuit court of appeals pointedly noted that the court was quite aware that the city was trying to do an end run around the Constitution.

    So, the city will just raise taxes again. Or get a cash infusion from Bloomberg or some other mobster type.

  6. Why in the HELL don’t the VOTERS fire these criminals???
    Any genuine answer would be appreciated.
    +1 on the National Carry Permit.
    I for one can’t wait to see Chicago rescued.

    • Because, as the late, great Mayor Daley said, “It’s not how the votes go in that counts. It’s how they come out.”

      The cemetery occupants who comprise a major voting bloc in Chicago don’t care much about life-or-death issues such as self-defense.

    • “I for one can’t wait to see Chicago rescued.”

      Meh, I’d rather just see a really large meteor shower level it.

    • Because they don’t have guns. Gun control beem very, very good to the Daley family.

      Heck, if they had guns, they might revolt, and get a new city government or something…

  7. Robert, I have a Chicago Firearms Permit and registered firearms. Here is a link to the forms. Chicago PD keeps the Section A(top part), and gives you the Section C (bottom part) back. Same thing with the firearms registration.

    CFP:
    https://portal.chicagopolice.org/portal/page/portal/ClearPath/About%20CPD/Firearm%20Registration/CPD-31.577%5B1%5D.pdf

    Gun Registration:
    https://portal.chicagopolice.org/portal/page/portal/ClearPath/About%20CPD/Firearm%20Registration/CPD-31.562%5B1%5D.pdf

    • Please send a pic of the permit (with your details redacted) to [email protected] for this article. If you’d like to write-up the experience of obtaining the CFP and dealing with the system generally, I’d love to publish it.

  8. Any Chicago law abiding resident that follows these regulations is a moron. Yes, moron. Register a gun with the CPD? Please.

    • All your doing by registering, is guaranteeing they’ll send a SWAT team to shoot your dog if they so much as get a noise compliant from your residence. The sole reason they had for registration, was to let first responders know there was someone armed at a residence.

  9. Call me nutty, and definitely call me a federalist, but the bill of rights were laid out as protections of the states from the federal government, not protection of the people from state government. The 2nd amendment is in place to restrict the federal government from infringing on states and those states’ citizens from owning firearms. The US constitution is an outline of FEDERAL government authority.

    Truthfully, I don’t think the supreme court should have any jurisdiction in state law. I am not familiar with the Illinois constitution, but I am familiar with Alabama’s. We have a specific section granting citizens the right to keep and bear arms. If Illinois does not, then they may have authority to do what they’re doing.

    That being said, I think these laws are unbelievably authoritative, misguided and morally reprehensible. People have the right to defend themselves and no government should restrict the rights of their upstanding citizens to do that.

    • So you believe the state has the right to infringe on all the of rights in the Bill of Rights? The state can infringe on the right of free speech without limit? The state can outlaw a religion? The state can have its law enforment agencies search any house without a warrant? Yes, I call you nutty and definitely not a federalist.

    • Sam, you’d be correct except for the 14th Amendment. That amendment, enacted during Reconstruction, made many Constitutional protections binding upon the states and not just the Federal government. McDonald v. Chicago, a case that we celebrate, found that the Second Amendment bound the states by operation of the 14th Amendment, a process called “incorporation.” While not every Constitutional protection has been incorporated, most of the Bill of Rights are now incorporated.

      • Ralph’s right on the 14th, and the US fought a civil war over federal power. I’m not saying the states shouldn’t have their own bill of rights, I’m saying the federal government oversteps its power when it rules on state issues.

        The federal government has an unbelievable amount of power and control over our daily lives and it all started in the 1860s. I understand the idea behind the 14th amendment, but we really need to work towards shifting the power back to the states and us, the citizens, and we wouldn’t be in 90% of the mess we’re in.

        • It was the McDonald decision that finally led to the “incorportion” of the 2nd ammendment. Thats what all the hoopla is about.

    • You’re incorrect. The Bill of Rights says things that the government (regardless of level) cannot do to you. If your view were correct, then all city / state governments could implement all the censorship of the press that they want.

      I suggest you read the Constitution again.

  10. Watching Chicago’s legal gymnastics is causing me to laught my ass off. Yes, I now have no ass. And why am I laughing? Because it’s fun watching legal authorities intentionally do illegal things, thereby exposing government for what it really is.

    All those who think that this is a “free country,” please raise your hands. I would like to sell you a treasure map. Or maybe a nice bridge.

  11. I’m a Chicago resident and have been my whole life. I can tell you that almost all gun owners here do not bother with this crap. FOID cards, yes, because you need those to buy ammo or even handle a firearm at a dealer. But the CFP is a joke and everyone knows it is.

    Just this morning a local politician says his constituents want conceal carry ASAP. And the kicker is his district is mostly black and they’re sick and tired of not being able to legally defend themselves from the neighborhood thugs. No link to be found though. Thanks Trib/Sun Times.

    • “And the kicker is his district is mostly black and they’re sick and tired of not being able to legally defend themselves from the neighborhood thugs their children.”

      Fixed that for you.

    • “I’m a Chicago resident and have been my whole life. ”

      But WHY? I mean, I get not having a say in it as a child, but once you hit 18 you could’ve moved to a better place that respects your rights and isn’t riddled with corruption.

      • I was traveling recently through Chicago and took my son so we could visit some museums. While there, a worker commented on my sons “faux” hawk that was colored blue. She asked where we were from because she said she knew we weren’t from Chicago. Her son had recently been threatened with expulsion from school for something similar. My response was “We come from where individual freedoms are still the norm.” Then I clarified we were from Alaska.

        She started asking about our firearms laws and if I carried concealed at home. As we talked, she revealed her boyfriend had finally gotten all the legalities squared away and it took something like 9 months. They are both low wage workers and part of that time was getting money saved up for a gun – an inexpensive Charter Arms .357.

        She told me that in the last 18 months their apartment had been burglarized 4 times. She had been mugged twice coming home from work. The last time the muggers discussed whether they should rape her before deciding to let her go.

        I asked why she didn’t leave Chicago, but it’s the only life she and her boyfriend know. I encouraged her to start saving to move to a better place – somewhere they could be free.

        My son was really confused. He only knows rural Alaska. He didn’t really believe people had to lock their houses, let alone scrape, bow and beg before exercising a fundamental human right. He swore to never live like that. I hope he never has to.

  12. “Imagine if African-Americans had to go through all this rigmarole and expense to vote.”

    Considering people have to die in chicago to vote, this would be an improvement.

  13. So I’ve just went through the training (at Fidelity on Belmont in Chicago – they do 4h class there and then 1h range in the suburbs) got all the paperwork together and waiting to find some time and go to 4770 South Kedzie. And that’s where the problem begins. It’s open Monday – Friday 8:30 am to 3:30 pm and closed on every possible holiday!!! How can anyone with a regular job ever make it ?! This is a type of insanity that you would expect from a country in the developing nation, but not here. On top of that they make you pay $100 practically for NOTHING as their costs are minimal. This is called EXTORSION. How can we keep taking this abuse from those who are there to SERVE and PROTECT?!

  14. these chicago rules are retarted they make no sense they say they do this to decrease the violence on the streets that makes no sense. they take away the only defense somebody has against bad people. criminals dont get their guns legally, i grew up in a place where i saw a lot of things you could get a gun on the streets real cheap some even for $50. people trying to get a gun to defend their homes, family, property, etc. gotta put up with all these ridiculous laws,

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