Last year, the City of Chicago lost a lawsuit that was supposed to make it easier for citizens to own handguns. Chicago had had a complete ban on handgun ownership, but the U.S. Supreme Court struck that down in McDonald v. City of Chicago.
However, “In the year since the Supreme Court decision, the Chicago Police Department says it has received roughly 3,500 applications from Chicagoans who want to possess a handgun in their homes,” WLS Television reported.
“98 percent are approved.”
Yet, the Windy City is home to 100,000 people with the state’s firearm owner identification (FOID) card, the card necessary for an Illinois citizen to purchase a firearm. “There are 100,000 FOID owners in Chicago alone and there's only 3,500 people who've applied for the handgun permit,” said gun owner Colleen Lawson. “Does that strike you as a bit of a discrepancy?”
“Colleen Lawson is one of the plaintiffs in the historic Supreme Court decision overturning Chicago's handgun ban. She owns a gun, took the mandated training, and has her new Chicago firearm permit, all required by a new city code that Lawson and others contend is nothing more than a de facto handgun ban.”
“They came straight out and said in the meeting, ‘we want to make this as tough as possible,’ and they've done that,” said Lawson.
Among the hurdles to own a handgun here: “Chicagoans who want to own a handgun must go through a criminal background check, take a four-hour classroom course on firearms, and spend an hour on a shooting range. However, there are no shooting ranges in Chicago, because the city doesn't allow it.
Applications and fingerprints require a personal appearance. There is only one place where that can be done: a city office on S. Kedzie, open only on weekdays.”
Source: WLS Television
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Personally, I see no problem with requiring on hands training (makes lots of sense) as does classroom knowledge. It should be required education in our public schools. In person applications and fingerprints are normal. The worst part of the whole ordeal in Chi-Town is the lack of shooting ranges and the single location. But, in Chicago, you don’t want a whole bunch of locations. Too much corruption running rampant there. Then there will be people buying licenses under the table and next thing you know, back at square one. They should also be open on Saturday for at least 4 hours or 8 and close one week day. I had to make an appointment to get my prints done here in WA. They don’t require training and should. Utah permit requires a certified class by an approved instructor. If the states ever want to get a national reciprocity program in place, they should all require training class and on hands certification. Owning a gun is not much different than driving a motor vehicle; they are both extremely deadly in the wrong hands.