Evanston aldermen tonight are scheduled to consider revisions to the city’s gun control ordinance designed to bring it into line with last month’s Supreme Court decision throwing out a gun ban in Washington, D.C.
The revised ordinance prepared by the city’s legal staff would let most residents keep guns in their homes, provided they have a Firearm Owner’s Identification card issued by the State of Illinois.
The ordinance would ban possession of handguns that can be concealed upon the person by anyone under 18 years of age.
It would also ban possesson of any handgun by:
- Persons under 21 years of age who’ve been convicted of a misdemeanor other than a traffic offense or have been adjudged delinquent.
- Persons who are narcotics addicts.
- Persons who’ve been a patient in a mental hospital within the past five years.
- Persons who are mentally retarded.
The ordinance would only permit transportation of handguns by state-licensed gun collectors, theater and film production companies and persons using “starter” guns at school-sponsored athletic events — and only if those persons were registered with the city police department.
To be transported legally the guns would have to be unloaded and broken down in a nonfunctioning state or unloaded and not immediately accessible.