by Joseph P. Tartaro
Executive Editor

The early 1980s were bad years for gunowners and the right to keep and bear arms. In 1981, the Village of Morton Grove enacted an ordinance banning private possession of all handguns within the village limits. The law was even more restrictive than the 1976 gun laws enacted by Washington, DC, and the Morton Grove ban quickly inspired similar bans in some neighboring Chicago suburban communities. The Morton Grove ban was challenged all the way up to the Supreme Court in the early 1980s after being upheld by the Illinois Supreme Court, but the highest court refused to hear the case.

Now, Morton Grove’s landmark handgun ban, imposed 27 years ago, is dead, having died quietly on the night of July 28, as the Chicago suburb’s Village Board bowed to a new legal reality and the high cost of litigation and repealed the ordinance. (See Page 2 for related stories about repeal of handgun bans in Wilmette and Evanston, IL.)

The Morton Grove board’s 5-1 vote came in response to the June 26 U.S. Supreme Court 5-4 ruling that struck down a similar ban in the District of Columbia. The high court ruled that the Second Amendment protects a person’s right to own a firearm for self-defense.

Morton Grove had been named in a suit against Chicago and some of its suburbs which was filed by the National Rifle Association on behalf of several area plaintiffs the day after the high court ruling in District of Columbia vs. Heller. The previous day, within minutes of the Heller decision’s announcement, the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA) filed a suit against the Windy City only on behalf of other local plaintiffs.

Fighting in court to try to keep the law would cost money the village does not have, Morton Grove officials said.

“I appreciate the courage the board (showed) in 1981 in a noble experiment,” Trustee Dan Staackmann said. “(But) we don’t have the resources to fight this all the way.”

Officials said the impetus for the repeal was the court’s decision, not the suit, according to The Chicago Tribune.

The year after the Morton Grove handgun ban ordinance was adopted, the city of Kennesaw, GA, responded by enacting an “experimental” ordinance of its own, requiring every household, except those with religious and philosophical objections, to maintain firearms and ammunition for personal and community defense. The American Civil Liberties Union challenged the Kennesaw ordinance but with SAF helping to defend the city that challenge was defeated at circuit court level.

Morton Grove Trustee Georgianne Brunner cast the lone vote against the repeal. “We may be acting a little bit in haste,” she said. “I’m just grateful for what they did in 1981, and I wish we could just take a step back and wait it out.”

Morton Grove adopted the nation’s first ordinance banning the possession of handguns in 1981, triggering a storm of publicity and a nationwide debate over the merits of using local ordinances to control gun ownership. The ordinance was upheld in 1984 by the Illinois Supreme Court.

The move to repeal the ban attracted little controversy, Village Administrator Joe Wade said. Only a few residents came to a meeting earlier this month, when the repeal was first on the agenda. The opinions were fairly evenly split, Wade said.

“Really, there hasn’t been too much interest in the community,” Wade said.