Out Front on Arms Control

An Illinois town says no to handguns

For years Congress has avoided passing even modest gun registration measures, wary of incurring the well-financed wrath of shooters' groups like the National Rifle Association. But the town fathers of Morton Grove, Ill. (pop. 24,000), a genteel suburb northwest of Chicago, are not so timorous. Beginning next Monday, selling or possessing a handgun in Morton Grove will be a crime, punishable by up to six months in jail and a $500 fine. The law against possession, passed 4 to 2 by the village trustees and upheld by a federal district court, is the most stringent gun control statute in the U.S.

Authorities are counting on voluntary compliance. Morton Grove police are not launching an enforcement drive. Handgun enthusiasts could easily circumvent the law anyway by buying and storing their weapons in neighboring towns. Gun clubs and collectors of antique pistols are exempt from the ban. Indeed, Village Trustee Don Sneider knows that the effect of the legislation will be as much symbolic as practical. "Our little town can't change society," he says. "But we're making waves."

Indeed they are. Seven nearby suburbs are considering similar laws, and in Chicago, Mayor Jane Byrne has proposed a measure effectively prohibiting ownership of new handguns.

The N.R.A. is predictably alarmed, calling the Morton Grove bans "the most dangerous attack ever staged against the right to keep and bear arms." The 2 million-member group and a smaller gun lobby based in Washington State have financed four lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the ownership prohibition. But the village government is sticking to its guns, mounting court defenses of the law with the help of a $15,000 subsidy from the National Coalition to Ban Handguns.

The antihandgun sentiment in Morton Grove was latent until an entrepreneur announced last spring that he was opening a gun shop in town. That prospect galvanized the trustees. "I'm just against guns," says Sneider. "It's a deep conviction of mine." Says fellow Village Trustee Neil Cashman, who wrote the law against possession: "I was sick and tired of reading about handgun deaths." Three years ago, a pair of local teenage girls were murdered in a Morton Grove woods, both shot to death with a handgun.

As Morton Grove goes, so goes Illinois? Not exactly. Even as the village was joining the U.S. gun control vanguard, the state legislature enacted a law permitting private ownership of machine guns. Governor James Thompson signed the bill, but soon realized it was "an error," and won an amendment again outlawing machine guns. That farcical episode in the state capitol will surely be eclipsed by the enduring legislative example set in Morton Grove's village meeting room. In fact, Morton Grove's stand on handguns may become legend: ABC has paid the town $17,000 for the option to make a TV movie about the crusaders from Morton Grove.

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