Evanston members of the National Rifle Association are still waiting on a final decision in their lawsuit against the City of Evanston regarding the ban on handguns.
Three local NRA members filed the complaint in June after the Supreme Court’s District of Columbia v. Heller decision, which found Washington’s D.C.’s handgun ban unconstitutional. After the decision, the city amended the handgun code to allow for firearm possessions within a residence, according to a memo from the district judge on April 27. This was met with an amended complaint from the NRA members, who cited problems with not being able to transport handguns.
Stephen Halbrook, an attorney who represents the NRA and specializes in firearms law, said the proposed change to the ban was not satisfactory.
“That doesn’t go far enough; there’s no practical way to get (a handgun) to there or from there,” he said. “We have NRA members who pass through. They cannot do that legally. They would have to divert where the transport firearms lawfully.”
The city is not enforcing the handgun ban while the case is proceeding, and local NRA members are probably not exercising any new rights because of the standing restrictions, Halbrook said.
“The problem is (the plaintiffs) are law-abiding people, so they don’t have any guns in their homes,” he said. “You couldn’t have it for any motive other than self-defense, you couldn’t use it for hunting or take it from the home to get it repaired or to go to a shooting range.”
The case, brought by Jonathan Garber, Alan Miller and Kevin Stanton, immediately followed Heller. The City of Evanston initially made a motion to dismiss the complaint and a district judge rendered an order denying the motion.
Ald. Steven Bernstein (4th) said the lawsuit is ongoing.
“We modified the ordinance. We thought we would be out of a lawsuit and we’re not,” he said. Bernstein declined further comment.
While members of the NRA are not organized into chapters by city, they form an active community, said Todd Vandermyde, an NRA lobbyist. Events and issues bring members of the nonprofit organization together on occasion, such as the lawsuit against the City of Evanston.
“Usually if there’s something going at a local level we will contact members and set up a meeting saying ‘Here’s what’s happening in the community, how do you want to take action on it?'” he said. Otherwise they host frequent fundraisers, dinners and firearm safety training events and might belong to gun clubs.
The plaintiffs in the case against Evanston are longtime members of the NRA, Vandermyde said.
Halbrook said the case against Evanston was a matter of exercising the Second Amendment right to bear arms.
“The result would be very tangible,” he said. “The members could legally keep handguns in their home, but the case is more about the legal issues and not practical issues.”
Related:City considers options after NRA gun ban lawsuit 9/23/08City council delays vote on amended gun law 7/31/08To avoid NRA suit, aldermen vote to amend gun ban 7/17/08
