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 The complaint filed in Cook County Circuit Court against the towns
of Riverdale, Lyons and Lincolnwood said gunshops there, along with
stores in Gary, Indiana, supply a fifth of guns seized by police at
crime scenes in the city.
With between 400-500 murders a year, almost all with guns, Chicago
lags other big U.S. cities in bringing down homicides. Police
Superintendent Garry McCarthy, on the job for four years, says the
biggest factor in the city's high crime rate is illegal weapons,
many purchased in the suburbs.
The lawsuit brought by prominent activist Reverend Michael Pfleger
of St. Sabina Catholic Church on Chicago's South Side, Reverend
Robin Hood, a pastor on the West Side, and other plaintiffs alleged
that the suburbs are too lax in regulating gun stores.
In Illinois, it is up to municipal governments to license and
regulate gun dealers.
The lawsuit asked a judge to order the towns to force the gunshops
to do background checks on their employees and to take steps to
reduce gun purchases by straw men.
The lawsuit said training could help employees and managers identify
common signs of someone purchasing the gun for someone else. The
stores should keep a log of purchases of all guns that are later
recovered in a crime, and then block sales to any customer that has
purchased guns used in a crime, the complaint said.
The lawsuit alleges the three towns, located north, west and south
of Chicago, have violated civil rights laws because guns purchased
in stores there are used overwhelmingly in crimes that affect black
communities in Chicago, bringing down property values, harming
businesses and causing distress.
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The Chicago Sun-Times reported that similar lawsuits filed in the
past have had limited impact. The Illinois Supreme Court in 2004
dismissed a lawsuit that the City of Chicago had brought against gun
dealers and others after undercover officers posed as gang members
and bought dozens of guns, the Sun-Times said.
Lyons and Lincolnville village offices were closed on Tuesday
evening and it was not possible to get a response to the lawsuit.
"They are not giving any statements," a Riverdale employee said.
(Editing by Sandra Maler)
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