Waukegan repeals gun laws; defers to state

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Updated: August 7, 2011 12:17AM

WAUKEGAN — Past efforts to draft an ordinance requiring background checks for resold firearms came to an end Monday with the City Council instead voting 6-3 to repeal all municipal ordinances regulating firearms.

“Why does Waukegan need (firearm ordinances)? Let’s quit paying the lawyers all this money. Just follow the state laws,” said 6th Ward Ald. Larry TenPas, supporting 2nd Ward Ald. Thomas Koncan Jr.’s motion to eliminate local measures.

“This is crazy,” TenPas added. “You don’t need it. Get it off the books.”

Monday’s action came more than a year after the council first started studying the possibility of requiring firearm vendors to submit weapons for resale to a background check by Waukegan police.

The concept was spurred by a 2009 incident in which a local resident was cited for possessing a gun that was determined to be stolen, but only after he purchased it legally from a Grand Avenue retailer as a used item.

Koncan delayed movement on the issue last year while awaiting the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in McDonald v. Chicago, which centered on Chicago’s handgun ban. The court voted 5-4 vote to overturn the ban, while stating that municipalities could impose “conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.”

This April, the council’s judiciary committee unanimously recommended a measure stating that the re-transfer of a firearm was subject to a 30-day waiting period, which would allow Waukegan police to screen it through databases of stolen weapons.

When the measure came up for final adoption on Monday, Koncan requested an amendment to eliminate city gun ordinances and follow state and federal laws. After TenPas seconded the motion, aldermen weighed in with various opinions.

“Less government is the best government,” said 4th Ward Ald. Harold Beadling, supporting Koncan and TenPas.

But 5th Ward Ald. Edith Newsome said she would vote against the idea, saying “I don’t even know what state (law) is” regarding the regulation of firearms. First Ward Ald. Sam Cunningham also voiced opposition, saying he thought the proposed waiting period was “well-compromised.”

“When these handguns happen to be in the wrong hands, it’s typically more so in my neighborhood, where my kids are,” Cunningham said. “I have seen the destruction of what handguns have done in my community, and it’s not pretty.”

Along with Newsome and Cunningham, 7th Ward Ald. Lisa May voted against eliminating local ordinances. Among the measures that were already on the books were requirements that local dealers provide monthly reports of all sales to police, and that business licenses for gun vendors and gunsmiths are subject to approval by the chief of police.