The Illinois State Rifle Association sent out the following alert concerning a change in zoning in West Chicago, Illinois. The city is a small municipality located in DuPage County which is west (go figure) of Chicago.
URGENT ALERT - YOUR ACTION NEEDED ON OCTOBER 4TH
YOUR RIGHTS UNDER ATTACK IN THE WEST SUBURBS
WEST CHICAGO TO CONSIDER BANNING FIREARM RETAILERS AND RANGES
IT'S TIME FOR YOU TO STAND UP AND DEFEND YOUR RIGHTS!
The gun grabbers' plan is to inflict "death by a thousand cuts" on your right to keep and bear arms. The West Chicago zoning proposal plays right into that overall plan. Bit by bit, the gun control movement plans to diminish exercise of your 2nd Amendment rights. They'll sit and smile while telling you they "...won't take your guns" while, all the time, working to make firearm ownership too impractical and too expensive for the average citizen.
WHAT YOU CAN DO TO PRESERVE AND PROTECT YOUR RIGHTS:
1. Attend the West Chicago Zoning Board of Appeals/Planning Commission Meeting to be held at 7 pm Tuesday, October 4, in the Council Chambers of West Chicago City Hall. City Hall is located at 475 Main Street, West Chicago, Illinois. We recommend that you get there by 6:30 PM to ensure that you get a seat.
2. Be prepared to vigorously defend your right to keep and bear arms. You may have the opportunity to address the Zoning Commission so know your facts about your nation's heritage of safe, lawful and responsible firearms ownership.
3. If you see members of the media at the meeting, approach them and tell them you are a law-abiding firearm owner who is sick and tired of baseless attempts to curtail your rights.
4. Pass this alert along to your gun-owning friends and family.
5. Please post this alert to any social media sites or Internet blogs to which you may belong.
REMEMBER - GUN CONTROL IS A DISEASE AND YOU ARE THE CURE
The text of the proposed zoning change is archived here.
Reading over the proposed zoning change to the B-2 and B-3 zoning districts, gun stores and gun ranges (which can be only located indoors and as an ancillary use to a gun store) cannot be located within 1,000 feet of one another, of a residential housing zone in West Chicago or another municipality, and of "any educational institution that serves minors; daycare center; cemetary, public park; forest preserve; historic district; public library; dwelling used for residential purposes; or place of religious worship."
If you look at the 2016 zoning map for West Chicago, a 1,000 feet is approximately 3/4 inch. Using that measurement, I can find only two tiny locations located in a B-2 zoning district that might even qualify as they aren't next to a residential housing zone or forest preserve. Not knowing the locations of schools, daycare centers, etc., I can't even be sure of that.
The zoning code of West Chicago only permits listed uses within the manufacturing and office, research, and light industrial districts. No retail establishments are permitted within the manufacturing district unless ancillary to a manufacturing business. Thus, a gun maker could have a gun store within that district. I see no normal retail stores listed as a permitted use within the office, research, and light industrial district.
What the city of West Chicago is trying to do is called redlining. That is, to deny services to certain users based upon their characteristics. Traditionally, it was used to deny financial and business services to racial or ethic groups based upon where they lived. This redlining is at the heart of the dispute in the 9th Circuit in the case of Teixeira v. Alameda County. The 9th Circuit found that the right to bear arms includes the right to purchase them.
If you live in the Chicagoland area, I would urge you to attend this meeting. I would remind the council of the 9th Circuit's ruling in Teixeira and the 7th Circuit's ruling in Ezell which found that the City of Chicago couldn't prohibit gun ranges.
I will forward this to my family in Illinois. I wish I was surprised, but sadly I'm not.
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