The Evanston City Council has decided to investigate an assault weapons ban...it would be interesting to see if they have considered many of the issues that are involved in the debate:
Q. Could an incident like Columbine or Sandy Hook happen in Evanston?
A. Absolutely Yes.
Q. Would an assault weapons ban or high capacity magazine ban do anything to prevent such an event?
A. Absolutely NO....and I doubt you would find a knowledgable person in local law enforcement to dispute that reality.
Having started there consider:
- Why Now? Is there a recent crime problem with these types of firearms in Evanston?
- Is the city prepared to identify and prosecute citizens who cannot/do not comply with the ban? Why not?
- Is the city prepared to defend the ban in court and spend the amounts that Chicago and Oak Park did in their unsuccessful efforts?
- Would there be grandfathering...would the ban require surrender/registration of all affected?
- One murder in Chicago in 2012 and less than 2% of murders in Illinois statewide were committed with this class of firearms does it really make sense for Evanston to expende scarce resources to control this.
- There are over a million of these modern sporting rifles in Illinois being used for hunting, target shooting, etc is it the Evanston City Council's intent to criminalize each of them
- This type of legislation does absolutely NOTHING to reduce the supply of firearms to criminals, demand for firearms by criminals, or anything to diminish criminal activity.
