The National Rifle Association lost no time challenging the Illinois’ city of Evanston’s handgun ban in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 26 decision upholding individual rights of gun owners.
One day after the high court’s 5-4 opinion, the NRA filed separate federal lawsuits against the city of Chicago, the city of Evanston, the village of Morton Grove and the village of Oak Park. The court found sections of a Washington, D.C., ordinance incompatible with the rights accorded gun owners by the Second Amendment.
The NRA’s lawsuit naming the city of Evanston and Mayor Lorraine H. Morton seeks to strike down the city’s 1982 ban on possession of any operative handgun. The lawsuit contends the ordinance infringes on the right of the people to keep and bear arms in violation of the Second and 14th amendments of the U.S. Constitution.
The Evanston lawsuit was brought by the NRA and three members who live in Evanston. According to the lawsuit, plaintiffs Jonathan Blair Garber and Kevin P. Stanton lawfully own and store handguns outside of the city of Evanston.
“But for … Evanston City Code, they would forthwith retrieve such handguns to keep them at their residences” and the guns “could then be used for self-protection and the protection of loved ones,” according to the lawsuit.
Plaintiff Alan L. Miller and other NRA members would like to keep handguns in their homes for lawful defense against a deadly attack by an intruder. However, they “face arrest, prosecution and incarceration” for violating the Evanston city code.
