Chicago Contestants Vie for Handguns
April 25 -- Want to win a gun? If you're at least 21 years old, can pass a criminal background check, and live in Chicago, you qualify for a contest that has law enforcement officials and gun-control supporters shaking their heads.
The gun-rights group Concealed Carry, Inc. of suburban Oak Brook, Ill., wants to give away a gun a month to a Chicago resident starting this month. The catch: A Chicago ordinance bans all handgun possession and punishes offenders with a trip to jail.
Concealed Carry President John Birch, who announced the giveaway on the group's Web site last week, said the contest aims at city residents because of what he calls Chicago's restrictive gun-control laws.
"It's time to level the playing field some. Criminals have been getting a free ride in [Mayor Richard] Daley-land for too long and countless families have paid a terrible price in blood for the mayor's miscalculated and misguided 'disarm the citizens policy,'" reads a statement on the Concealed Carry Web site.
So far, Birch says he has 16 candidates for the giveaway. Applicants are asked to write a few sentences explaining why they need a gun — females win extra points because they have the most to gain from defending themselves, the group says. Concealed Carry members will select the winner based on criteria such as gender, disability, perceived threats to the applicant, finances and whether the applicant already owns a gun.
The winner gets a Kel-Tec P-32 semi-automatic .32-caliber handgun — a 5-inch long pistol intended as a secondary weapon for plainclothes police officers and for concealed carry for licensed citizens, according to its manufacturer. The gun retails for about $300.
City: Pack Heat, Do Time
Birch knows that carrying a gun or keeping one in your home in Chicago breaks city law, and warns applicants of this fact, but points out that violators are not committing felonies.
"It's like a parking ticket," he says.
In media interviews since the giveaway was announced, Chicago law enforcement officials have been trying to convince city residents that violating the city's handgun ordinance is nothing like committing a parking violation. The maximum penalty is six months in jail and a $500 fine, and the lowest penalty is 10 days in jail — and not in a white-collar criminal-type lock-up, said Jennifer Hoyle, spokeswoman for the Chicago Law Department.
