The village of Deerfield may follow the lead of neighboring Highland Park and ban the kind of rapid-fire weapons that were used in the Feb. 14 mass shooting at a Florida high school and recent massacres at a church in Texas, a Las Vegas concert and an Orlando nightclub.
A proposed ban of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines received unanimous support from Deerfield trustees Monday night in the first formal action taken on the measure.
The Deerfield Village Board approved a report from the village attorney and staff that recommends the village amend its current ordinance regulating assault weapons to make those guns illegal.
Mayor Harriet Rosenthal said after the meeting the amended ordinance will likely get its first reading March 19 and a final vote could be taken on April 2.
Unlike Highland Park, Deerfield opted not to enact a total ban on assault weapons during a 10-day window that Illinois lawmakers’ gave home-rule municipalities in June 2013 before the state’s new Firearm Concealed Carry Act eliminated their ability to do so.
However, Deerfield trustees did enact an ordinance defining assault weapons and requiring the safe storage and safe transportation of those weapons within the village. That measure, which was enacted during the permitted time frame, preserved Deerfield’s right to amend the ordinance in the future, Village Manager Kent Street said.
The amended ordinance will make possession, sale and manufacturing of assault weapons and large capacity magazines illegal.
Village attorney Matthew Rose said the ordinance is based on one passed in 2013 by Highland Park that withstood a legal challenge of its constitutionality.
“This is not only held constitutional by the Seventh Circuit but similar laws have been ruled constitutional in California, the District of Columbia and Maryland,” Rose said.
The resolution says that since Deerfield enacted its regulations, “assault weapons have been increasingly used in an alarming number of notorious mass shooting incidents at public schools, public venues, places of worship and places of public accommodation.”
In the ordinance, the definition of an assault weapon includes, among others, semiautomatic rifles that have a fixed magazine with a capacity to accept more than 10 rounds of ammunition; shotguns with a revolving cylinder and semiautomatic pistols and rifles that can accept large capacity magazines and meet one of a list of other features. Among the dozens of specific models cited are the AR-15, AK-47 and Uzi, according to the ordinance.
The rationale mentions four recent shooting incidents that have claimed a total of 150 lives: The shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that left 17 dead; a massacre at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas that killed 26 people; the Las Vegas music festival shooting that left 58 dead and the Pulse Nightclub mass shooting in Orlando, Fla. that killed 49 people.
Deerfield trustees had no questions or comments about the proposed ordinance Monday, but 17 members of the public did with 14 in favor and three against. One of those favoring the ban was Deerfield High School senior Ariella Kharasch.
Kharasch said she and her classmates were all born after students were gunned down at Columbine High School near Denver in 1999 making school shootings “her reality.” She said when 17 people were shot at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School it shook her classmates.
“Deerfield High School students are going into school tomorrow having instituted a support group to talk about gun violence,” Kharasch said. “It’s on our mind and the Parkland kids are in our hearts. Deerfield had an opportunity to do something sooner and they didn’t. This is your opportunity and we need you.”
For Daniel Easterday, who spoke against the ban, the potential ordinance is personal. He said he moved from Highland Park to Deerfield four years ago because he did not want to give up his assault weapons. A recreational shooter and a pistol instructor, he said he may be faced with another move.
“I moved my family out of Highland Park because they gave in to fear,” Easterday said. “Highland Park outlawed the things that I own. I would hate to move my family again. To the people who say the community is with you, I am part of this community. I’m not with you on this. Please don’t give in to fear.”
Though none of the trustees publicly debated the issue before quickly moving for a vote, Trustee Mary Oppenheim voiced her feelings when she offered her motion.
“I would be delighted to move approval of the report from staff and the attorney regarding a ban on assault weapons,” Oppenheim said.
Another Deerfield High School student, Zoie Richardson, spoke at the invitation of Rosenthal. Richardson spoke of plans she and her classmates are putting together as part of a national school walkout on March 14 to raise awareness of gun violence.
Richardson also talked about some of the issues she believes are preventing elected officials from passing stricter gun control measures.
“People who use the Second Amendment to justify what’s going on, it’s frustrating because is it really applicable to us now?” Richardson said.
Highland Park’s fight
Highland Park was one of only a few Illinois municipalities to adopt a ban on assault weapons within the 10-day period the Illinois legislature gave home rule municipalities in mid 2013. Illinois had been ordered by a federal appellate court to rewrite the state’s gun laws to allow owners with permits to carry handguns in public.
Months later, Highland Park was sued by the Illinois State Rifle Association on behalf of a local gun owner, Arie Friedman, on the grounds the ban infringed on his Second Amendment rights. The suit was filed just days before owners of assault weapons were required to turn in, or render inoperable any firearms and ammunition magazines outlawed under the ordinance.
Citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2008 decision in the Heller case — which protected the individual’s right to own and use firearms for self defense — the lawsuit contended that many of the weapons on Highland Park’s banned list are commonly owned and kept for self-protection within the home.
“While ownership of dangerous and unusual firearms is not protected by the Second Amendment, ownership of firearms that are in common use and for lawful purposes is categorically protected,” the suit claimed.
The rifle association also contended Highland Park’s ordinance was more a symbolic political gesture than a response to any real or perceived threat. The Highland Park ordinance was upheld both by a U.S. District Court judge and, in a split 2-1 decision, by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
Writing for the appellate court majority, Judge Frank Easterbrook said Highland Park’s ordinance leaves residents with many options for self-defense.
“True enough, assault weapons can be beneficial for self-defense because they are lighter than many rifles and less dangerous per shot than large-caliber pistols or revolvers,” Easterbrook wrote. “But assault weapons with large-capacity magazines can fire more shots, faster, and thus can be more dangerous in the aggregate. Why else are they the weapons of choice in mass shootings?”
Easterbrook wrote that a ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines might not prevent shootings in Highland Park, where they are already rare, “but it may reduce the carnage if a mass shooting occurs.”
Though the National Rifle Association appealed the Seventh Circuit ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2015, the high court declined to take up the case in December 2015, allowing the appellate court ruling to stand.
Two justices, Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia, dissented in favor of considering the case.
“If a broad ban on firearms can be upheld based on conjecture that the public might feel safer (while being no safer at all), then the Second Amendment guarantees nothing,” wrote Thomas, asserting that the Seventh Circuit ruling in the Highland Park case flouts Supreme Court precedents and threatens to relegate the Second Amendment to a “second-class right.”
Steve Sadin is a freelance reporter and Karen Berkowitz is a reporter for Pioneer Press.
kberkowitz@pioneerlocal.com