A Wisconsin gun control advocate says Monday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down a Chicago gun ownership law doesn’t mean other gun laws are now in jeopardy. Jeri Bonavilla of WAVE – the Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort – says nothing in the court’s decision to overturn a Chicago gun law came as any surprise. “The precedent was set with the Heller decision two years ago, that struck down the gun ban in Washington, D.C.” said Bonavilla. “The makeup of the court is virtually the same, so we’re not at all surprised that it came down as it did.”
The court did not strike any other gun control measures currently in place, but it provides a legal basis for challenges to other laws where gun owners think that government has been too restrictive. “In think that there will be challenges, but it appears that the Supreme Court has used language that would allow lower courts to find all of those types of regulations perfectly legal,” said Bonavilla. Few cities have gun ownership laws as restrictive as D.C. or Chicago, and Bonavilla noted there certainly hasn’t been a nationwide movement in that direction.
