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An anti-violence coalition including activist priest Father Pfleger has taken the unusual step to file a lawsuit against three Chicago suburbs for weak gun store oversight, that they claim is a main source of guns ending up in Chicago crime scenes.
“These three villages are not taking the minimal steps that they need to to stop the flow of guns into Chicago,” Michael Persoon, attorney, said.
“I’m here this morning as part of this lawsuit, because I’m tired of seeing the bloodbath taking place in our city’s streets. We all understand the realities,” Father Pfleger said. “Riverdale, Lyons, and Lincolnwood; you have failed to enforce best practices on your own. We pray that this lawsuit will now force your hand, because it’s time to shut off the gun flow onto the streets of Chicago.”
The lawsuit makes the claim that African American communities in Chicago are facing disproportionate hardship and therefore are having their civil rights violated under the Illinois Civil Rights Act. This civil rights violation is occurring, the suit claims, because Riverdale, Lyons and Lincolnwood do not have enough oversight when it comes to licensing and regulating gun shops that has allowed criminals to easily keep the flow of guns streaming onto the Chicago’s gang riddled streets.
“Those illegal firearms are flowing into a pocket of communities violating the civil rights of the individuals who reside there, who are afraid to go near their windows or let their children play in the park, much less their own yards,” said Kathleen Sances, a member of the Coalition for Safe Chicago Communities, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
The daring lawsuit joins two ministers, two mothers whose children were the victims of gun violence, and the Coalition for Safe Chicago Communities activist group. The group claims basis for the suit from a Chicago Police Department study that showed that between 2009 and 2013, guns sold in the stores in Riverdale and Lyons were used in 20 percent of Chicago’s violent crimes leading to 3,000 guns being recovered at these Chicago crime scenes.
One of the plaintiffs is Annette Nance-Holt a mother whose son Blair was killed in 2007 on a Chicago bus while he was attempting to protect a friend when a gang member boarded the bus and started firing.
“Our communities are being flooded with guns,” she said. “We have to do something… to take a stand to help get these guns off the street.”
Why don't they blame the Chicago gun shops first? Oh, right- they already ran them out of town.
ReplyDeleteno background checks
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure Riverdale, Lyons, and Lincolnwood are part of the United States, and therefore the FFLs located there are required by federal law to request NICS checks on each sale.
I'm pretty sure Riverdale, Lyons, and Lincolnwood are part of the United States . . .
DeleteWell, Occupied United States, anyway.
We all know the FFLs are conducting background checks, or at least some of them. What we're referring to is the private sale loophole, which in spite of your lying pretending-to-not-get-it way, you know damn well.
Delete"What we're referring to is the private sale loophole, which in spite of your lying pretending-to-not-get-it way, you know damn well."
DeleteAnd what exactly does the "private sale loophole" have to do with this lawsuit Mike? Not a thing from what I've seen. In fact, they aren't even suing the stores themselves, but rather trying to force surrounding governments to adopt Chicago-like gun regulations by judicial decree.
I recall one of the protests by Pfleger and Jackson we discussed where both were denied entry to the store because they didn't have an FOID.
Mike, Illinois is one of the few states that has licensing for gun ownership. There is no "private sale loophole" as you like to call. Come on, you really should know this by now.
DeleteMikeB: "What we're referring to is the private sale loophole, which in spite of your lying pretending-to-not-get-it way, you know damn well."
Let me get this straight. I should “know damn well” that when the reverend is protesting in front of FFL gun dealer with signs saying “Stop Bad Apple Gun Dealers”, and calling out three specific Chicago suburbs, that he is really talking about private sales that happen in states outside of Illinois?
Mike, Illinois is one of the few states that has licensing for gun ownership. There is no "private sale loophole" as you like to call.
DeletePrecisely, and on top of that, starting last year, an additional law is in effect, requiring the prospective seller (including private sellers) to go to a state police administered website to verify that the prospective buyer's FOID (Firearm Owners ID) card is valid. Finally, the seller (and again, this includes private sellers) must keep a record of the transaction for ten years.
In short, not only is there no "private sales loophole" in Illinois, it takes quiet a stretch of the definition of "private" to argue that there are legal private sales in the state, period.
" gun flow, guns for everyone, monstrous gun rights fanatics, no background checks, no safe storage"
ReplyDeleteWhere do these tags come in Mike? The lawsuit seems designed to attempt to further restrict gun stores which do conduct background checks with every sale. And I'm pretty sure they store their firearms securely.
I wonder who's putting up the money for this lawsuit, Brady? Bloomberg? Though Brady's money is soon going to be funding various gun rights advocacy groups,
"The Brady Center predictably appealed the judge’s ruling and we are prepared to continue defending your rights and ours. While it is not yet clear when the $111,971.10 fee reimbursement will be paid, we are going to donate 100% of what is recovered to groups that support and defend the 2nd Amendment. We will fight to recover these funds from the Brady Center and to hold the Brady Center responsible for yet another frivolous lawsuit.
Please tell us where you want the recovered fees to go by voting in the form below. A number of organizations were added per shooter requests on June 23. We will end the voting on August 1, 2015. Once we have recovered the fees, we'll cut checks to each organization receiving votes on a percentage basis. In other words, if "Organization A" gets 5% of the vote, it will receive 5% of whatever is recovered.
Thank you for your continued support and interest in protecting 2nd Amendment rights. As we were very recently reminded, these rights are under constant assault and the stakes are high."
http://www.luckygunner.com/brady-v-lucky-gunner?
I wonder if Illinois has the same type of loser pays rule when it comes to suits such as this.
"And I'm pretty sure they store their firearms securely."
DeleteOh, really? Haven't these same gun shops had problems with accounting for their inventory?
"Haven't these same gun shops had problems with accounting for their inventory?"
DeleteI haven't heard that Mike. Can you point me to something that says that? If they cant account for the firearms they're supposed to have in stock, then that is something the ATF needs to address.
Normally when we discuss safe storage here and laws requiring it, it has to do with individual owners securing their firearms that they own.
When death threats don't work, try spurious lawsuits.
ReplyDeleteYou're lying again. Kurt, even after I've called you out on this one.
DeleteWhen someone tells a funny joke and the listener laughingly elbows him in the ribs and says, "You kill me," do you take that literally? Of course not.
I could provide dozens of other examples of this use of the english language, which you, as an intelligent man, understand perfectly well. But being a lying gun rights fanatic, you insist on your own self-serving unserstanding of Pfleger's "snuff-out" remark, even though you understool perfectly what he really meant.
You're lying again. Kurt . . .
DeleteApparently you've forgotten that in order for me to be "lying again," I'd have to have lied before. We haven't seen that yet, and I predict we will not, ever.
When someone tells a funny joke and the listener laughingly elbows him in the ribs and says, "You kill me," do you take that literally? Of course not.
Alright, so what did he mean--what unpleasant (but short of death) outcome for Riggio and pro-gun legislators was Pfleger intimating? And don't say that snuff in that content meant "expose"--that fiction was long ago soundly debunked.
We pray that this lawsuit will now force your hand, because it’s time to shut off the gun flow onto the streets of Chicago.
ReplyDeleteAh--good ol' "gun flow"--the term the proudly idiotic use to advertise their idiocy.
Perhaps a better solution would be to do some old fashioned police work and prosecute the straw purchasers. Of course, being that as I cited in my previous comment, Chicago PD seems to have issues with the Fourth Amendment when it comes to gun crimes. Considering the long term lack of success in Chicago in reducing violent crime, perhaps there needs to be a change in leadership. Baltimore recently did this,
ReplyDelete"Baltimore's mayor fired the troubled city's police commissioner Wednesday, saying that a recent spike in homicides in the weeks after an unarmed black man died of injuries in police custody required a change in leadership."
http://news.yahoo.com/baltimore-mayor-fires-police-commissioner-200136884.html#
In the meantime, the National Shooting Sports Foundation has in place a program retailers to recognize potential straw purchasers and prevent firearms from being acquired by prohibited persons.
"Don't Lie for the Other Guy was formed as a cooperative program between the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and NSSF more than 15 years ago to help ATF educate federal firearms licensees to be better able to identify and prevent illegal straw purchases of firearms and to raise public awareness about the seriousness of the crime of purchasing a firearm for someone who cannot legally do so."
http://www.nssf.org/retailers/dontlie/ROY.cfm
I agree, straw purchasing needs to be better addressed. But that's only part of the explanation of the tremendous gun availability in Chicago. The rest could be handled by safe storage laws and background checks on private sales.
Delete