City’s gun law has little firepower

Marty Zamora will be the first to tell you he’s a gun guy—he owns seven handguns and four rifles. He likes to shoot at a suburban range for sport, but he says that’s not the main reason he has them.

“Everybody on my block has been robbed but me,” says Zamora, a longtime resident of Pilsen who works for the city’s Department of Streets and Sanitation. “The gangbangers, they know I’ve got guns, and I don’t get messed with.“

Zamora says he’s carefully complied with state regulations, which require him to register for a Firearm Owner’s Identification Card and to undergo background checks each time he buys a gun. He’s taken training classes, and so have his wife and son. But none of Zamora’s firearms are registered with the Chicago Police Department, though they’re supposed to be under the city’s gun law. He says he doesn’t trust the city’s motives.

“Why should I go register with the city and later have a guy knock at my door saying, ‘Hey, can we see your gun?'”

via City’s gun law has little firepower | Feature | Chicago Reader.