As Nick detailed recently, a number of Illinois cities are racing to enact their own individual gun control measures to get in under the wire before a state-wide law with preemption is either signed into law or enacted after a legislative veto override. The prosperous north shore town of Highland Park managed to get in on the grandfathering last night with what suntimes.com reports was a 6-1 vote for an “assault weapons” ban. And it’s about as bad as you’d expect . . .
You can read the new ordinance, including the list of prohibited weapons here, but most of the fun is to be found in the law’s New York-style treatment of scary black rifles and “high capacity” magazines.
If you’re a Highland Parker and own one of the prohibited firearms, you now have ninety days to decide whether to 1) get your gun the hell out of the city, 2) make it inoperable or modify it so that it doesn’t have one of the law’s long list of offending features, or 3) surrender it to the Chief of Police who will cheerfully destroy it.
If you’re caught with a gun on the no-no list when the law takes effect, it’ll cost you between $500 and $1000 or six months in jail. Or both.
Is this lawsuit bait? You’d think so. But as anyone who’d followed the torturous process in the Land o’ Lincoln can attest, that’s a long and winding road. In the mean time, gun owners in Highland Park – as well as the other towns considering similar measures – have some decisions to make.
If a statewide preemption law is going into effect soon-ish (regardless of method), what difference does passing these individual laws make? Won’t they be nullified as soon as the statewide bill with preemption goes into effect?
They are “grandfathered” in, meaning that bans enacted at least 10 days prior to the preemption stand but no new bans can be passed.
Yep, which is why the Illinois AG continually delays the implementation of the new set of laws that include preemption. She’s just buying time for all of these municipalities to push through as many retarded laws as they want, which they will get to keep afterwards.
The AG’s delaying tactics are frankly bordering on criminal misconduct.
It’s Illinois all the politicians are criminals.
Then you sue each city, win, and they pay court costs.
No, that’s the point. Existing long gun restrictions will be grandfathered.
Pre-emption doesn’t count for long guns. Only on handguns.
Oh, derp. I missed the earlier story that explained that, and I didn’t click through like I normally would. I’ll be right back, have to go wipe the egg off my face. Thanks.
This is fricken ridiculous..
How many of these bans are being sponsored by Republicans?
Well Nick time to sue the liberal fascist mayor and his Nazi friends then. And for those who remain vote them out.
The stupid conceal carry bill waiting to be signed is the cause of all of this.
What a crock.
Mina, I sure hope you’re kidding. The cause of this idiocy is the deep, dark desire of some to control others. Plain and simple. Problem is, the citizens supporting this nonsense don’t recognize that they’re being played by the puppet masters trying to rule instead of trying to govern.
I used to work there back in High School.Good times working at Ravinia.
But….the gun laws have always sucked there.Legal ownership of a handgun required paying a $250 bribe,err,registration fee to the Chief of Police.Failure to comply meant automatic confiscation of the weapon.Not from the area and you got stopped with a locked handgun in route to the range? Tough sh-t.$1000 fine,make check payable to the Comintern of Highland Park.
But but the antigunners say Im crazy to think that confiscation is the final goal of gun control.
Big shock. North Shore elitest @ssholes banning something that isn’t a problem.
Illustrating Chicago’s Murders, Homicides, Violence and Idiocy at heyjackass.com
So no hipoint carbines.
tube fed .22 are ok but not ruger 10/22
sks ok but only in 10 round form
Confiscation requires compensation. Even if this law doesn’t violate the Second Amendment, it violates the Fifth.
BINGO!
They need to challenge it on those grounds.
I looked it up and the IL constitution guarantees gun rights (section 22), due process (sec 2) , and says that no ex post facto law shall be passed (sec 16). Evidently all are toothless. why does it take a federal court to tell a state court, enforce your own damn constitution.
http://www.ilga.gov/commission/lrb/con1.htm
The Illinois Supreme Court is as anti gun as it gets because they have been hand picked by anti gun politicians. Our only hope is the 7th where we won a narrow victory for concealed carry, or the SCOTUS.
Funny thing is with the way the court system governing Lake County works you may see a challenge to the Highland Park AWB resolved before Wilson V Cook County
dwb, it is not an ex post facto law. Let’s say on day one you legally own a so-called “assault weapon.” On day two possession is made illegal and you’re arrested for what you did before it was illegal. That’s ex post facto.
This law makes possession illegal after passage, not before. You’re not arrested for what you did previous to the law’s passage, only after.
Good point on the Fifth Amendment. I have always wondered why these “get the guns out of state/county/city by x date” laws are not challenged on those grounds. Maybe some have been, but I have not seen any cases on this.
not to mention due process.
If a person is arrested for violating this law they will get their due process.
Right up the wazoo. . .
There are 2nd, 4th, and 5th Amendment violations afoot here. Hope none of the gun owners are Verizon customers.
NY SAFE Act seems to sidestep the problem by allowing you to sell magazines out of State, but with no grandfather/registration provision to keep the existing ones. If that’s OK without any other compensation, presumably the same would be true for the affected rifles.
There’s the rub.
Technically, they aren’t confiscating anything. They’re passing a law that says you have to get rid of it, or face penalties. That’s not confiscation.
Legal trickery, but it’s the same none the less.
wrong about the compensation…at some point, Chicago will simply knock on the doors and take the guns…this is what is on the way. The compensation you talk about may be taken care of by a fine, for not turning in the gun, and maybe offset the fine as compensation. Welcome to Chicago politics…down and very dirty.
I used to live a couple suburbs away from Highland Park, and this action doesn’t surprise me. It really is a wonderful town, but it is very affluent, being one of Chicago’s “North Shore” suburbs, and money certainly talks there. I remember when McDonald’s wanted to open a location in Highland Park many years ago. The city zoning board required that the Golden Arches be modified to comply with local rules. While not uncommon now, it was one of the first McDonald’s locations in the country to do this.
The fact is that the North Shore is very insulated, and when it comes to perceptions of safety and crime, they consistently lean far Left.
is it me or have they defined a pistol that accepts more than 10 rd magazines as an assault weapon, which violates the law Gov Potato Head is waiting to sign ? How the hell does this fly? And a confiscation without a PRIOR registration? Even NY didn’t try something that stupid. I feel bad for the residents whose taxes will go up trying to defend this in court. . . . . . or not.
That is why the NRA is waiting for the Illinois Carry Law (HB183) to either be signed, “forced” into law by the inaction of Gov. Potatohead or forced into law through a veto override in the house and senate.
Honestly the only thing you need to do to get around that law then is to buy an AR Pistol and suddenly all those 30 rounders cannot be regulated at the local level.
You could also remove the stock off of your rifles and claim they are pistols if things came to a head. They would need to get the ATF involved to come at you with anything which is unlikly.
My boycott of IL, NY, MD, CA, CO, MA, CT, HI and NJ continues. No tourism or transit dollars for tyrants.
So what happens when you have to get from PA to RI/VT/NH/ME and you’re getting low on gas in the middle?
I fuel-up on the PA border. My car can usually make it. If it can’t, then that it what it is. But I will not purchase food, drinks, trinkets, etc barring some far-fetched survival situation. I stock up on bottled water and snacks on the border. No joke. I do everything I possibly can to prevent paying any sales taxes to those states. I also prefer to fly over NY/NJ/CT/MA directly to my destination (I go to ME often and sort of split my residency between ME and TX although I am a native Pennsylvanian/VT and NH are cool in my book too).
Furthermore, I absolutely NEVER go to one of the aforementioned states for pleasure or even to visit loved ones. It is my choice and I exercise it whenever humanly possible.
Finally, with RI about to be added to that list I have no reason to go there either. This despite that I am pretty sure it is a beautiful place with a lot to offer. I just can’t do it.
Highland Park is in Lake County, which as I understand it is covered under a different court system than Cook County, one that moves more faster and is a bit more friendly to our cause. It’s funny to think but a challenge to the Highland Park AWB might make it through the courts before the Wilson V. Cook County case does.
The thing that keeps “us” from filing a lawsuit today is that we need to wait for HB183(the Illinois Carry law) to go into effect so all provisions of this bill in regards to handguns are preempted and the lawsuit will be clean.
PS: Screw the Highland Park PD, keep your rifle cases locked, if they pull you over refuse a search of the car, refuse all firearms related questions beyond offering to show a FOID, if they come to your house refuse them entry and do not give out the code to your gun safe. Fuck’em
Damnit it ate my post!
According to our NRA lobbiest the NRA is waiting for HB183 to become law(includes preemption of handgun restrictions) before filing a lawsuit and will they look for the best plaintiff.
In the mean time keep your rifle cases locked, if you are pulled over refuse a search of your vehicle, do not answer firearms related questions beyond showing a FOID card, if they come to your home refuse entry without a warrant and do not give out your safe combo. Screw’em
But wait… All the Obama supporters I know swore that nobody wants to take my guns away!
“Weapons of war do not belong in our streets” (or in our homes) according to Obama….
They better come take my mosins and my Garand then. They are my only weapons that are weapons of war. They aren’t in the street though.
I never credited Obama supporters with much intelligence.
what part of “no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law” is unclear?
what part of “No ex post facto law shall be passed” is unclear?
Apparently all of it…
dwb, as I explained previously, it is absolutely not an ex post facto law. Further, the deprivation of property by a duly elected legislative body is due process personified. Due process does not mean a trial in every case. Sovereign bodies have the right to take many kinds of property and for different reasons.
The “liberty” part of due process will be a trial, to which any person arrested will be entitled.
they are not taking it, they are banning it, without grandfathering in what was legal to possess previously. but i see your point. sucks.
Only decision to make then is where to move? How about TN or TX. Both are friendly to gun owners and don’t have a State Income Tax.
I am jumping the border to Southern Wisconsin, they are close to the tipping point up there but that state still has hope. In the long run Illinois is lost, a slowly sinking ship.
If you are considering TN, I would recommend the Eastern 2/3rds of the state. Memphis is full of crazy people. I know, unfortunately I live there.
Evanston, Illinois, which is 15 minutes from Highland Park, is also talking about a similar ban. Evanston’s mayor is a member of MAIG, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise.
No surprise there. Evanston had a handgun ban that they abandoned after Heller when the NRA sued them along with Chicago. I’m sure they’ll happily reinstate whatever ban they think they can get away with. It’s not only full of North Shore libs, it’s a college town to boot.
Anyone who wants to transfer your weapon to me in a safe place, let me know. I will keep them company with their other banned brothers.
The thing that surprises me the most is that many of these rich northern suburbs used to be bastions of republicanism, particularly Winnetka (where Bruce Dern and Charlton Heston were raised), Kenilworth and Highland Park. I guess times have changed.
Currently writing from Kenilworth. Oddly, everyone in town just lost all of their firearms in a boating accident over the weekend.
Does anyone know what the legalities of storing some one else’s “Assault Weapon” for them if it is legal where you live but not where they live? I can’t think of a better way to help fellow citizens than to help them have boating accidents.
Seems like lot’s of folks have had ‘boating accidents’ lately. Such a shame, all those beautiful guns at the bottom of the lakes. I hope they don’t fill up.
Mine were lost in a kayaking accident.
Tragic
I grew up in Highland Park. This does not surprise me one single bit. The North Shore is full of elitist douches insulated from reality. Who needs a gun when you have private security and gated communities?
It’s not confiscation, they are just encouraging you to turn them in or otherwise dispose of them.
At least that seems to be the logic of these antigun idiots and their supporters in the media.
and that is how the Illinois supreme court will see it “Welll you can turn them in or store them elsewhere, its not confiscation”.
I really hope the SCOTUS steps in on Wilson and issues a broad ruling making AWB’s illegal once and for all.
A taking need not involve physical removal by the government. Being deprived of the economic benefit of ownership is enough.
They (Schumer and all the ones who won’t say they don’t want outright confiscation, at least Bloomberg and Cuomo will say it up front) always say they wont confiscate your guns. Instead they just try to make them illegal, and if you don’t turn them in then you become a criminal. It’s sneaky and the only way they can keep the public from realizing that they would confiscate if they could get away with it.
Looks like all Mini-14’s are out, not just the folding stock ones.
Unless it’s a mistake and they only mean Mini-14’s with at least one “evil feature”.
JS is correct, Highland Park is in Lake County which places it in the 2nd Judicial district. Which runs from lake Michigan to the Mississippi River.
http://www.state.il.us/court/AppellateCourt/DistrictMap.asp
The politics of the bench are very different there. They may have just outsmarted themselves.
Highland Park needs some Section 8 housing, it is just too white and upper class…
Ship some of the Englewood and Austin people up there and see attitudes change.
Time for the gun owners of Highland Park to load up and take a ride.
Naw … They need to load up, empty, repeat until tyrants are all gone …
Looks like lawsuit bait. Violation of due process.
Evil libtards (democrats).
Many residents of HP have more than enough wealth, savvy, and connections to comfortably bring on a lawsuit if they choose to do so.
They need to release some inmates from Lake County jail into Highland Park, that should be a good wake up call.
California has about 10,000 that the Federal Circuit has ordered the State to release by year’s end (to correct a chronic overcrowding problem that will still leave the prisons at 135% of design capacity). I’m sure Gov. Brown would even give each of them one-way bus tickets!
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