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Rahm Defends Gun-Shop Demands as 'Good Public Safety, not Punitive'

By Ted Cox | June 25, 2014 5:26pm
 Mayor Rahm Emanuel defended a gun ordinance passed by the City Council Wednesday.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel defended a gun ordinance passed by the City Council Wednesday.
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DNAinfo/Quinn Ford

CITY HALL — Responding to a court order, the City Council passed a new ordinance establishing a license for gun shops Wednesday.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who submitted the ordinance, emphasized that it was "under court order" after a federal judge struck down the city's ban on gun shops earlier this year. "If it was up to me," he added, "I wouldn't take this step."

Ald. James Balcer (11th), chairman of the Committee on Public Safety, said it created the "smartest, most cutting-edge gun license in the country."

The ordinance passed without opposition, 48-0.

The mayor defended the license requirements that gun shops be located 500 feet from schools and parks, that all sales be videotaped and that buyers be limited to one gun a month to discourage straw purchases.

Gun advocates have said the ordinance would make it undesirable if not impossible to open a gun shop in the city.

"I actually consider that good public safety, not punitive," Emanuel added, calling it a "smart, tough, enforceable gun ordinance."

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