Groundbreaking for a new sporting goods store in Northbrook is months off, but a movement already is under way to block the sale of guns there.
A coalition of handgun opponents, religious leaders and educators are petitioning the Village Board to prohibit the store from selling guns, and to ban the sale of all firearms in the community.
In Schaumburg, no gun shop exists and, so far, no one has expressed interest in opening one. Yet village leaders are talking about adopting stricter guidelines for firearms dealers.
Stopping short of an outright ban, village leaders are considering new regulations that would make it tougher to sell firearms and would give the village more power to determine where gun shops would be located.
Similar pushes for local gun laws are being made in a number of other suburbs, including Buffalo Grove, Des Plaines, Elk Grove Village, Naperville and Tinley Park.
Gun opponents say momentum has been increased in the gun-control movement by recent passage of the federal Brady handgun bill and a Cook County law regulating gun dealers, outrage over the number of violent crimes involving firearms and growing concern about the availability of guns to children.
Suburban gun opponents had a new sense of urgency added to their struggle with the unsuccessful attempt recently to close or move the Strictly Shooting gun shop operating across the street from Hersey High School in Arlington Heights.
Gun-control activists say they learned a valuable lesson from the Strictly Shooting controversy: Take action before a gun shop opens its doors.
“The community saw what happened (with the Hersey protest) and learned that they couldn’t wait too late to protest,” said Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Aurelia Pucinski, who offered her political muscle to the Northbrook battle.
Pucinski, a candidate for Cook County Board president, added: “You have to be aggressive, you can’t wait until after the fact. If you wait and the gun shop opens, you can’t put the guy out of business.”
Since Strictly Shooting opened in Prospect Heights in August, a number of politicians have proposed gun-control laws.
State Rep. Carolyn Krause (R-Mt. Prospect) has introduced legislation that would prohibit gun shops from opening near schools or parks, while Cook County Board President Richard Phelan spearheaded passage of a similar law on the county level.
And on Wednesday, Phelan, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor, proposed state legislation that would license all Illinois gun dealers. Gun dealers in the state are now only federally licensed.
But some suburbs aren’t waiting for county and state politicians to take action. They are literally taking the law into their own hands by proposing local ordinances governing the sale or possession of firearms.
Meanwhile, the Northwest Municipal Conference, a coalition of 35 north and northwest suburbs, is trying to develop a model gun control ordinance that could be adopted by communities.
“State laws and federal laws have had a terribly tough time getting through. We can’t wait for that in Northbrook,” said Shirlee Goldman-Herzog, president of Concerned Citizens of Northbrook, which is leading the petition drive to block the sale of guns in the Sports Authority sporting goods store.
Group members hope their petition drive will persuade the Village Board to deny the shop permission to sell firearms and vote for a villagewide ban on gun sales. A public meeting on the issue is scheduled for January.
“One community acting (alone) isn’t going to do much,” Goldman-Herzog said. “But every piece of the puzzle can add up to changing the climate we’re under right now.”
And at least one trustee plans to back the ban. “I think the ban would help send a signal that guns are not desired in this area,” said Village President Mark W. Damisch. “If we approve the ban, perhaps other communities will follow suit.”
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Schaumburg officials insist they aren’t attempting to make any moral judgment on guns, saying they would continue to allow firearms possession. Still, they are considering adopting an ordinance that would restrict gun shops to business districts.
“We don’t address gun shops anywhere in our zoning code and we ought to,” Village President Al Larson said. “We are not banning gun shops, we just think there ought to be a better way to make decisions on where they should be located.”
In a unanimous vote Wednesday, the village’s Zoning Board of Appeals referred a proposal to the Village Board for consideration Jan. 11 that would require anyone selling guns to obtain a special use permit.
A public hearing would be required of anyone applying for the permit, a review that would give village officials an opportunity to judge applicants on a case-by-case basis.
Zoning board Chairman Fred Dietrich said the permit process could “prevent us from having a situation where we have a gun shop across from a high school or a grade school.”
Several other Chicago-area communities are also taking steps to avert such situations:
– Naperville residents last year tried to shut down a sporting goods store, where guns are sold, because it is located about 150 feet from Steeple Run Elementary School. But they were unsuccessful because J. R. Shooting Sports met Du Page County’s zoning laws.
Subsequently, Du Page County passed a resolution banning the sale of guns within 1,000 feet of schools located in unincorporated areas of the county. Under the new law, gun sellers wishing to locate that close to schools would have to apply for a conditional use permit.
– Officials in south suburban Tinley Park are discussing a proposal that would prevent the sale of handguns from homes. The issue was spurred by an incident in which two brothers, whom police say were intoxicated and well armed, barricaded themselves in their home.
– Park Forest officials recently voted down a proposal to ban assault weapons in the Will County portion of the village; the weapons are already banned in the Cook County portion.
– Village leaders in Buffalo Grove plan to start discussions next month on a comprehensive ordinance that would ban the sale of all guns and prohibit the possession of semiautomatic and automatic weapons.
– Elk Grove Village plans to consider banning retail sale of handguns and BB guns. Currently, there are no gunshops in the village, although 26 people hold licenses from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to sell guns from either a business address or from their home.
Within the last 15 years, Morton Grove, Oak Park, Winnetka, Wilmette, Highland Park and Evanston have all banned the sale and possession of handguns within their communities.
According to the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence, firearms can be found in about half of U.S. homes; gunshots are the second leading cause of death for 15- to 19-year-olds; and guns purchased for protection are 43 times more likely to kill a family member or acquaintance than a burglar.
“Basically, we’re very excited about” the local efforts, said Phil Andrew, director of the Illinois Citizens for Handgun Control. “The tradition has been a logjam at the state and federal level. Any time the fight has been at the local level, we’ve won.”
But advocates for the right to bear arms tell a different story.
“We are making a web of laws that almost makes it impossible to weed your way through,” said Paul Peterson, operator of Strictly Shooting in Prospect Heights.
Pat Valentino, president of the Illinois State Rifle Association, adds that local laws will cause “a mass of confusion. People will be legal on one side of the street but not on the other side of the street.”
Gun shop owners threaten to fight the local ordinances in court, just as they have challenged the validity of the Cook County law in a federal suit.
The suit, filed in Chicago two weeks ago, asserts that the ban prohibiting gun stores from operating within a half-mile of schools will drive legitimate dealers out of business. The law, which contains no grandfather clause, requires any gun shop not located in an owner-occupied building to move or close when its lease expires.
“If you had a thriving business, I don’t see that you’d have any other course of action than to challenge it,” said John Riggio, a Riverdale gun shop owner who organized the group suing the county.
But village leaders, touting the benefits of local control, say they are not intimidated by the prospect of lawsuits.
“People can threaten and litigate all they want,” said Larson, Schaumburg’s village president. “That should not be the guiding principle by which we operate local government.”