8/30/2010

Former Chi. Alderman: weapons are so much easier to obtain illegally that the gun laws only make it more cumbersome for citizens to register firearms.

The new Chicago rules make it a time consuming process for even retired police officers to register their handguns.

The city ordinance has also been used to keep guns from citizens who try to register them legally. Gun owners rejected for registration violations have the right to appeal the decision and have an administrative hearing.

In 2009, Niles Sherman’s effort to register a handgun was denied, even though he had been allowed to register the weapon and four others since before the handgun ban went into effect. Mr. Sherman, 81, an alderman of the 21st Ward from 1979 to 1987, is supposed to be exempt from the handgun ban because he had been a Chicago police officer. But last year he was told that the city had no evidence that he was collecting a police pension.

Mr. Sherman said that was because his police pension was wrapped into the pension he got from his time on the City Council. Presented with further documentation, a hearing officer reversed the police department’s decision.

“The whole thing was so much you-know-what,” Mr. Sherman said. “I earned the right to have those guns, I bought them and, last but not least, if need be, I can use them.”

Mr. Sherman said he recently tried to register under the new ordinance, along with 255 others as of mid-August, a police spokesman said, adding that 156 applications have been approved. Mr. Sherman’s was not one of them; he was told he had to undergo a new round of training on a shooting range.

The original intent of the handgun ban was to make it more difficult to get a firearm in Chicago. Now, Mr. Sherman said, weapons are so much easier to obtain illegally that the gun laws only make it more cumbersome for citizens to register firearms.

“Why don’t I just do like these punks on the street have done,” he said, “and put my guns away and pull them out and use them when I want?”

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3 Comments:

Blogger TooMuchTime said...

Gee, ya think?

What I can't wait for is Chicago's crime rate to start dropping as more citizens arm themselves. I know the gun control zealots will ignore it, but it will still be pretty hard to ignore.

8/30/2010 10:15 PM  
Blogger Suburban said...

I thought the "Chi." stood for Chinese at first. I figured that it made sense. Then I read on, to find it was Chicago. Sadly, it still makes sense.

9/01/2010 1:12 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

This is a great story. It's also a great example of how we, as a people have become conditioned or de-sensitized to one of the KEY ELEMENTS of our Founder's ideas. Mr. Sherman states that he "earned the right to have those guns..." when in fact the right to arm one's self and to protect one's life, home, and family is one of the most basic "rights" bestowed upon us by the laws of nature.
Mr. Sherman didn't "earn" the right to own and carry his firearm to protect himself and his family. He was "ENDOWED BY HIS CREATOR" with these rights.
In a world that is more and more often sanitizing our history and erasing the UNDENIABLE references and presence of God from our founding, it's IMPERITIVE that we make this distinction. For if the government grants us these rights, then they are NOT inalienable and can be taken away by the government...

9/04/2010 11:03 AM  

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