It's not every day that a Chicago suburb makes it easier to operate a firearms business, but the village board in Oak Lawn, Illinois, has approved an ordinance allowing a limited number of home-based federal firearms licensees to set up shop. Of course, this being Cook County, there's some fine print that can't be ignored.
The new ordinance comes with restrictions on how these businesses can operate, how many can exist, and what services they can provide. And while the village is making room for a handful of home-based FFLs, its longstanding restrictions on traditional retail gun stores are still in place. So is this a meaningful step toward respecting the Second Amendment, or just a modest improvement to an unnecessarily restrictive system?
Mayor Terry Vorderer said the new classification for gun dealers came after a resident asked to open a gun repair business from home. Though the resident does not plan to sell firearms, the ordinance creates an avenue for home sales and repairs when state and federal requirements are met.
“When I first became a policeman,” Vorderer said, “there were three gun shops in Oak Lawn. They disappeared decades ago, but society has changed.”
The mayor said he didn’t know of many remaining successful gun retailers in Cook County, recalling buying his own guns from the former Chuck’s Gun Shop and Pistol Range in Riverdale.
Under the plan approved by the Village Board, as many as five appointment-only gun shops could be approved to operate from in-home locations. The cap is curious to me, and I can't help but wonder what would happen if a sixth FFL wanted to set up shop in their home.
Oak Lawn already restricts brick-and-mortar shops from operating within a quarter mile of any school or public park, but the new ordinance exempts those home-based businesses. Illinois state law, however, has its own 500-foot restriction for retail firearm locations near "schools, preschools, and early care and education providers," and the in-home FFLs are still subject to that law.
The village's zoning laws make it incredibly difficult to find a space for anyone who would want to open up a retail gun shop, so while the board's approval of the ordinance is a step in the right direction, it could definitely be better.
I understand why village officials might want to ensure that home-based businesses don't create traffic or parking problems in residential neighborhoods. But why arbitrarily limit the number of FFLs to five? If a sixth applicant meets every applicable federal, state, and local requirement, what public safety interest is served by telling them they're out of luck?
And while Vorderer is right that society has changed since his days as a police officer, I'd say the disappearance of Oak Lawn's gun shops is a reason to reconsider the village's existing restrictions. A quarter-mile buffer around every school and public park eliminates a large amount of commercial property from consideration, and for no good reason.
Oak Lawn deserves some credit for making it easier for residents to operate certain firearms-related businesses from their homes. But if village officials really want to accommodate lawful gun owners and the businesses that serve them, they shouldn't stop at five home-based FFLs. If a properly licensed FFL can safely sell firearms from a home, why make it so difficult to sell those same firearms from a commercially zoned storefront location?
Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their extreme gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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