Deerfield Assault Weapon Ban Set For Final Approval

DEERFIELD, IL — Owners of certain guns in Deerfield may have until June to get rid of them or get them out of village limits, as the village board next week is set to approve a ban on large-capacity magazines and semi-automatic firearms defined as an assault weapon. Trustees are due to vote on an amendment to the municipal ordinance Tuesday that would take effect 60 days after its passage.

In 2012, a federal appeals court struck down Illinois' ban on carrying concealed firearms in public, giving state lawmakers a 180-day deadline to come up with something constitutional. The following year, the General Assembly passed the Firearm Concealed Carry Act, which included another deadline on local municipalities to pass stricter gun regulations to avoid a patchwork of different gun regulations.

Several places banned assault-style weapons outright within that 10-day deadline, including Chicago, Evanston, Skokie and Highland Park, while Deerfield trustees decided to pass an ordinance restricting how the weapons can be stored and transported instead.

According to the village's law department, the proposal under consideration – a complete ban on semi-automatic rifles, pistols and shotguns containing certain prohibited features and magazines containing more than 10 rounds of ammunition – doesn't violate the state rule prohibiting such weapons regulations from being enacted after July 19, 2013 as it is merely an amendment to that ordinance.

More than 50 Illinois municipalities have passed ordinances relating to firearms, according to Illinois State Police. Cook County has an assault weapon ban, Lake County does not.

Deerfield Mayor Harriet Rosenthal explained fines of up to $1,000 a day could be assessed of the village learns that residents are in possession of banned guns.

"We're not going to go door to door searching people's houses," Rosenthal told Patch. "But if somebody has told us that they possess the weapons in their home that we have voted on as illegal then it would be up to, I think, our chief to speak with them and see if they've made other arrangements to remove them from Deerfield."

In about 90 minutes of public comment on March 19, more than two dozen speakers spoke both in support and opposition to the ordinance in its first reading.

Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering spoke on behalf of her town's City Council, and commended Deerfield trustees. The terminology of Deerfield's ordinance is modeled off that in Highland Park's ban, which was upheld in federal court and a centerpiece of her recent primary campaign for Illinois attorney general.

"We know that important statewide initiatives often start at the city level," Rotering said. "I think we can agree that the time for action is now." She rejected arguments that Deerfield doesn't have an "assault weapon problem," citing several mass shootings in places that had not previously seen any such carnage.

Jenny Staddleman, of Deerfield, read a letter from a former infantryman who said there was no conceivable need for a civilian to have an AR-15, other than that they are "fun" to shoot.

Bob Morgan, a Deerfield lawyer running as a Democrat for the 58th District Illinois House seat Rep. Scott Drury (D-Highwood) chose to vacate with his run for attorney general, thanked the board for its "courage" for moving forward with the ban. He said he was sympathetic with some of the concerns expressed by its opponents.

"But I will not let somebody's economic or professional interests compromise the safety of my child or the children of this community," Morgan said.

"If it's so offensive to them that they believe that they will just become criminals, I say: 'Don't become criminals.' It's not very difficult to follow the law, once you know what the law is," said the health care policy attorney and former statewide coordinator of the Illinois Medical Cannabis Pilot Program.

Zoe Richardson, a Deerfield High School junior, said the threat of school shootings was not as keenly felt by adults compared to students.

"We know that gun legislation isn't the end of violence, it isn't the end of unjust deaths in this country," she said, citing other legitimate public policy concerns. "I don't think that focusing on the gun legislation now is going to cancel those other things. I think that we should be able to talk about several things at once."

Daphne Browdy, another Deerfield High School junior, that that politicians could no longer ignore the voice of a generation that was leading this country. She said she respected the constitutional rights of law-abiding gun owners but worried about ones who don't follow the law.

"The truth is, I feel unsafe going to school, and I don't know what else I can say...I don't know what else I can do to make you hear me and to make you hear my peers. We feel unsafe going to school. How can I be sure that someone who's a law abiding citizen with an AR-15 won't – God forbid – come into my school and shoot up my school? How can I be sure of that? I can't be," she said.

"I will choose to no longer grow up living in fear, because I am the face of the generation who is seriously changing the world."

Several opponents of the ban suggested it would lead to an eventual ban on handguns, a possible police state, legal fees and place the community on the frontline of an emerging culture war. Some residents with state-issued concealed carry licenses pointed out they were already subjected to 360 days a year of background checks, so they should be allowed to maintain the same 17-bullet magazines as police in order to protect their own homes.

"If you think about this from a public policy perspective," said Dean Ulizio of Riverwoods, "I think you have a great experiment that's gone on for years south of us in Chicago that's shown that gun control doesn't make people safer, quite the opposite."

Ulizio said what he found most disheartening was the suggestion that the board was intolerant of supporters of a more expansive view of the Second Amendment.

"Just because some of us have a belief in the Constitution as a contract between the government and us and we take it as the Founders intended it, then this would send a clear message that those type of people are not welcome here," he said.

Frances Kowalik, of Deerfield, ran through the prices of some of the high-end rifles, pistols and shotguns that fall under the village's definition of assault weapons, like Russian sniper rifles that go for more than $6,000.

"These are not toys, they are significant investments by people who choose to invest in them because, according to the Constitution, they have a right to own them," he said.

Steve Isaacson, of Deerfield, said it was "well-established that there's no Second Amendment right to these kind of killing machines." Until "more is done," he predicted more mass shootings.

"We can take, at least, a small step as a community to stand up against this outrage until greater steps can be taken," Isaacson said.

UPDATE: Deerfield Assault Weapon Ban Challenged In Lake County Court

READ MORE: Deerfield Moves Forward With Assault Weapons Ban

WATCH: Discussion of Assault Weapon Ban at March 19 Village Board Meeting

Read the complete definition of assault weapon in the proposed Deerfield ordinance below. The same definition was used in a 2013 Highland Park ordinanceupheld in federal court.

Article 11. Assault Weapons.

Sec. 15 - 56. Definitions.

The following words, terms and phrases, when used in this Article, shall have the meanings ascribed to them in this section, except where the context clearly indicates a different meaning:

Assault weapon means:

1. A semiautomatic rifle that has the capacity to accept a large capacity magazine detachable or otherwise and one or more of the following:
   1. Only a pistol grip without a stock attached;
   2. Any feature capable of functioning as a protruding grip that can be held by the non - trigger hand;
   3. A folding, telescoping or thumbhole stock;
   4. A shroud attached to the barrel, or that partially or completely encircles the barrel, allowing the bearer to hold the firearm with the non - trigger hand without being burned, but excluding a slide that encloses the barrel; or
   5. A muzzle brake or muzzle compensator.
2. A semiautomatic rifle that has a fixed magazine that has the capacity to accept more than ten rounds of ammunition.
3. A semiautomatic pistol that has the capacity to accept a detachable magazine and has one or more of the following:
   1. Any feature capable of functioning as a protruding grip that can be held by the non - trigger hand;
   2. A folding, telescoping or thumbhole stock;
   3. A shroud attached to the barrel, or that partially or completely encircles the barrel, allowing the bearer to hold the firearm with the non - trigger hand without being burned, but excluding a slide that encloses the barrel;
   4. The capacity to accept a detachable magazine at some location outside of the pistol grip.
4. A semiautomatic shotgun that has one or more of the following:
   1. Only a pistol grip without a stock attached;
   2. Any feature capable of functioning as a protruding grip that can be held by the non - trigger hand;
   3. A folding, telescoping or thumbhole stock;
   4. A fixed magazine capacity in excess of five rounds; or
   5. An ability to accept a detachable magazine.
5. Any shotgun with a revolving cylinder.
6. Conversion kit, part or combination of parts, from which an assault weapon can be assembled if those parts are in the possession or under the control of the same person.
7. Shall include, but not be limited to, the assault weapons models identified as follows:
   1. The following rifles or copies or duplicates thereof:
      1. AK, AKM, AKS, AK -47, AK -74, ARM, MAK90, Misr, NHM 90, NHM 91, SA 85, SA 93, VEPR;
      2. AR - 10;
      3. AR -15, Bushmaster XM15, Armalite M15, or Olympic Arms PCR;
      4. AR70;
      5. Calico Liberty;
      6. Dragunov SVD Sniper Rifle or Dragunov SVU;
      7. Fabrique National FN/ FAL, FN /LAR, or FNC;
      8. Hi -Point Carbine;
      9. HK -91, HK -93, HK -94, or HK- PSG - I;
      10. Kel -Tec Sub Rifle;
      11. Saiga;
      12. SAR -8, SAR -4800;
      13. SKS with detachable magazine;
      14. SLG 95;
      15. SLR 95 or 96;
      16. Steyr AUG;
      17. Sturm, Ruger Mini -14;
      18. Tavor; 3-
      19. Thompson 1927, Thompson MI, or Thompson 1927 Commando; or
      20. Uzi, Galil and Uzi Sporter, Galil Sporter, or Galil Sniper Rifle Galatz).
   2. The following pistols or copies or duplicates thereof, when not designed to be held and fired by the use of a single hand:
      1. Calico M -110;
      2. MAC - 10, MAC - 11, or MPA3;
      3. Olympic Arms OA;
      4. TEC -9, TEC -DC9, TEC -22 Scorpion, or AB -10; or
      5. Uzi.
   3. The following shotguns or copies or duplicates thereof:
      1. Armscor 30 BG;
      2. SPAS 12 or LAW 12;
      3. Striker 12; or
      4. Streetsweeper.

"Assault weapon" does not include any firearm that has been made permanently inoperable, or satisfies the definition of "antique firearm," stated in this section, or weapons designed for Olympic target shooting events.