“You cannot legislate criminals, they are going to be criminals no matter what,” said Ald. Ed Smith, 28th. “And the people who intend to do crime, they are going to do it in whatever manner they can. They are going to get a gun wherever they can. And they are going to use it. And they are not going to register their gun.”

[Right, so just go ahead and pass an unutterably stupid law anyway.]

After making a similar acknowledgement, Alderman Deborah Graham, 29th Ward, issued a plea: "I would also encourage gang bangers who get their guns unlawfully to stop getting them unlawfully."

[What do you say to that? She's actually asking criminals to...stop acting like criminals. Well, gee, if only we'd have known that's all it would take. Pathetic. Simply pathetic.]

"We're going to increase the penalties to make sure that our communities are safe," she said.

[SAFE? Is she insane? If not, she is at least terminally stupid. No matter how much all the factual data show that this approach only reduces the number of LEGAL gun owners, and does NOTHING to deter thugs from getting, carrying, and USING guns, these idiots simply refuse to "get it."]

When the new law takes effect in 10 days, people who want to keep a handgun in their homes and be on the right side of the law will have to obtain Chicago firearm permits. To get one, they must take firearms training and not have convictions for a violent crime, unlawful use of a firearm or two or more charges of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Each weapon would have to be registered, and those with permits will only be able to register one weapon each month.

[Aaaah, now we get to the real agenda - registration of your firearms. So that, once the government trolls know what guns you own, they can then declare them to be "unapproved" and demand that you hand them over....just as they already did in California under a similar registration scheme.]

Guns could only be kept in the home, and each per permit holder in the home could only have one handgun in readily operable condition at a time. The law does not consider garages, porches or exterior stairs as part of a home.

And the ordinance outright bans gun sales, firing ranges and shooting galleries in the city. The ban on sales already faces a potential challenge in federal court, and other aspects also are expected to trigger lawsuits. But aldermen said they are ready for those battles.

[Yep, they're ready - but let's face it, battling the good citizens of Chicago beats having to battle Chicago's street gangs, who are heavily armed in spite of the previous ban.]

“I can’t imagine why anyone would oppose these reasonable regulations, these reasonable restrictions, but I know there will be those who believe that this right to bear arms is unrestricted and that anyone can have any weapon anywhere at all,” Ald. Joe Moore, 49th, told the mayor during the council meeting. “I will stand with you defending this ordinance against the inevitable attacks from the far right wing, and I hope that wisdom and rationality prevails in our court system and that these laws will be upheld.”

[He actually spoke these words with a straight face? "Far right wing?" and "Reasonable restrictions" he says? That would be like saying that the Founders were the "far right wing" - oh, wait, liberal Democrats already DO think that about the Founders! And then there is the phrase "reasonable restrictions" - imagine if we used the the same approach to put "reasonable restrictions" on free speech. We would require every personal computer, cell phone, radio and TV be registered with the state - AFTER you pass a background check and take a training class. And provided the devices are on the "approved" list, of course.]

During the discussion, several aldermen said the narrow 5-4 ruling that effectively tossed out handgun bans in Chicago and Oak Park would not have been made if justices were more familiar with urban violence.

“I have to say it: I think the Supreme Court is wrong, just like they’ve been wrong before,” said Ald. Leslie Hairston, 5th.

“They were wrong about segregation. They were wrong about the right to vote. And I think…when we look back years and years ahead, we will see that they were wrong about this as well.”

But Alderman Edward Burke, 14th Ward, who in 1982 shepherded the gun ban through the council, said that maybe it was the council that got it wrong in the first place. 

[No, you're kidding, right? The Chicago City Council might have actually gotten something wrong? Say it ain't so, Shoeless Joe]

“Perhaps I and some of the others that voted in favor of this ordinance exhibited too much ardor for the ban and we perhaps should have been more sensitive to weighing the rights of legitimate citizens to have weapons,” Burke said.

[Think about this last comment - Alderman Burke actually sees it as a novel idea to finally consider the "rights of legitimate citizens to have weapons" - do you need any more proof of what out-of-control liberal lunacy leads to?