A community group filed a lawsuit Friday against the village of Niles in an effort to stop a gun shop and range from being built near several schools.
People for a Safer Society, an advocacy group that began in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut nearly two years ago, wants a permanent injunction to prohibit the firearms facility from being established at 6143 Howard Street in Niles.
The Niles Village Board voted 4-1 in July to approve a special-use permit to allow firearms sales, gun safety training and an indoor firing range at the site.
To be called the Sportsman’s Club and Firearms Training Academy, the facility would be located in an industrial section of the village within 1 mile of five schools, including Niles West High School in Skokie and New Hope Academy in Niles, a therapeutic school for students with emotional disabilities.
Denyse Stoneback, founder of People for a Safer Society, said the group had met with some trustees after the July vote and asked repeatedly for a motion to rescind the special-use permit. A motion to rescind was never put on the village meeting agenda, and she said the group filed the lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court as a last resort.
“Today we stand here as a community group that has exhausted all other options to stand up to the Village of Niles and say, ‘Not one more (child shot). We will hold you accountable,’ ” said Stoneback while announcing the lawsuit Friday outside of the Village of Niles Municipal Building.
Reached by email Friday afternoon, Steven Vinezeano, the Niles village manager, said Niles had not seen the lawsuit so he could not comment on it.
The city has 30 days from being served with the lawsuit to respond, and the entire process could take months or up to a year to play out, said Tony Hind, a lawyer for People for a Safer Society.
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“It’s not an anti-gun case,” said Hind, with Central Law Group in Evanston. “I view it as a pro-good-governance case. We’re trying to correct a mistake that happened.”
Hind said the group is challenging the constitutionality of the permit under the state’s due process clause with regard to public welfare.
Nancy Gurny, of Skokie, whose daughter attends Niles West, said her problem is with the location of the facility.
“I know I’m not going to fight against gun shops anywhere,” she said. “It’s not reasonable. But so close to schools — it doesn’t make sense.”
Laura Williams, who held a homemade sign reading, “No Gun Shop Near Our Schools,” said she thought some of the trustees feared repercussions and a possible lawsuit from groups like the National Rifle Association if they did not vote to approve the permit.
“I think that they’re wrong,” she said of the trustees’ decision. “To me, you don’t make the decision because of the response you’re going to get. You make the decision based on whether it’s right or wrong.”
As to why she supported the lawsuit, Williams, who has a daughter at Niles West, said emphatically, “We’re not quitters!”