In a way, this case is a rematch. In one corner, we have Alan Gura, who represented us admirably in McDonald v. Chicago. In the other corner, we have Chicago counsel James Feldman, who utterly crashed and burned in his attempts to argue the city’s claims in that case. Apparently, Feldman isn’t willing to settle for one failure in front of the nation’s highest court, so he’s repeating it here.
The case at hand is Ezell v. Chicago, a challenge to Chicago’s ban on the construction of indoor shooting ranges within the city limits. The ban presents something of a Catch-22, due to the Responsible Gun Ownership Ordinance (also known as the “We’re Cooperating As Little As Humanly Possible With The Damn Court” ordinance). The Ordinance requires that registration of a handgun include
an affidavit signed by a firearm instructor certified by the State of Illinois to provide firearm training courses attesting that the applicant has completed a firearm safety and training course, which, at a minimum, provides one hour of range training
That’s a hard thing to do when there are no firing ranges around. Continued...