This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Politics & Government

Evanston Now Faces Assault Weapon Deadline

The City Council chambers were packed at Monday night's meeting, with emotional speakers arguing both in favor of and against a proposed ban.

Evanston residents need to wait another week to learn if there will be any limitations on the availability of assault weapons in the city, even as the General Assembly Tuesday overrode Gov. Part Quinn’s amendatory veto on the conceal carry legislation. 

The Evanston City Council – which held off on a decision on assault weapons on Monday night – is now up against the clock if the aldermen want to put any restrictions in place.   

Impassioned crowd

Find out what's happening in Evanstonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

With many controversial issues on the agenda the chambers were packed.

Alderman Ann Rainey – serving as Mayor Pro Tem for the night – as Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl was absent, limited speakers to one minute to state their case. As was the case in the previous meeting, the emotions were intense from advocates of both sides of the issue.

Find out what's happening in Evanstonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Karl Kuhrman used the fresh images of the 2012 mass shootings in Aurora, CO and Newtown, CT to illustrate his support of the ban.

“As an army officer I will tell you they are designed based on features used for close quarter combat say a dark movie theatre or a school building where firing difficult shots from behind concealment or cover is essential in giving the shooter a rate of deadly fire.”

But Michael Moran read off statistics in stating that he believes relatively few murders involve weapons that might be subject to the legislation.

“What exactly we are trying to do here is make ourselves feel good,” he said. “Because that is all that is going to happen if you ban these weapons.”

Springfield’s action

In Springfield on Tuesday, both chambers of the Illinois legislature came up with enough votes to upend Quinn’s move on the “conceal carry” bill, making Illinois the last state in the nation to have such rules in place. As a provision of the law that is now officially on the books, “home rule” communities such as Evanston have 10 days to enact legislation regarding assault weapons or permanently forfeit that right.

Click here to read about how Evanston's representatives voted.

A decision to wait an extra week

After some heated debate at Monday’s City Council meeting, aldermen held off on voting on the controversial proposal. 

As of now, the council is scheduled to take it up at the July 15 meeting. The delay was a result of Fourth Ward Alderman Donald Wilson stating he was uncomfortable with the language that was in front of the council because of a lack of specifics.

The ordinance specifically bans the possession, transfer, sale or display of assault weapons in the City of Evanston. (The entire text of the ordinance can be read here.)

But Wilson was seeking more specific phrasing so that “high capacity weapons” are banned but hunting rifles are not.

“What we have are primarily a list of cosmetic features that might make a gun look scary,” Wilson said. “What we don’t have is identification of the functional aspects of the weapon that makes it dangerous.”

Taking Wilson’s lead, the City Council directed Corporation Counsel Grant Farrar to tweak the ordinance to address some of the shortcomings as he saw it and it will take up the matter once again at the July 15 meeting.

Many other Chicago communities are taking up the matter facing that same 10-day deadline.  The City of Chicago has called a special session of its City Council for July 17.

Join Evanston Patch to stay up to date on this story and other government news, and like us on Facebook.

Editor's note: A previous version of this story included an incorrect description of what Alderman Wilson wants included in the ordinance language. It has been corrected. 

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?