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Oh, shoot! (Chicago alderman changes gun law to void his violation)
Chicago Sun-Times ^ | May 20, 2008 | FRAN SPIELMAN

Posted on 05/20/2008 5:16:31 PM PDT by decimon

Ald. Richard Mell forgot to re-register his guns (which reportedly include a Walther PPK like this one). No problem -- he'll just write a new law.

(Excerpt) Read more at suntimes.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; US: Illinois
KEYWORDS: bang; banglist; chicago; democratparty; democrats; ratcrime; secondamendment
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1 posted on 05/20/2008 5:19:13 PM PDT by decimon
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To: decimon

Nice move, Dick....


2 posted on 05/20/2008 5:22:02 PM PDT by pointsal
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To: pointsal

Now you know how his son-in-law, Governor Blagojevich, got his ethics.


3 posted on 05/20/2008 5:24:13 PM PDT by guinnessman
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To: decimon

“Re-register”????

Ha!!!

None of their damn business in the first place!

That’s the line of crap they fed gun owners in New York, just before they outlawed them!


4 posted on 05/20/2008 5:24:47 PM PDT by G Larry (HILLARY CARE = DYING IN LINE!)
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To: decimon
Pardon me! Is this legal? I thought the Constitution prohibited ex post facto laws.
5 posted on 05/20/2008 5:27:58 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative (1984 was supposed to be a warning not an instruction manual! ©)
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To: Paleo Conservative
Pardon me! Is this legal? I thought the Constitution prohibited ex post facto laws.

You never heard of grandfathering? Yeah, that's it, grandfathering.

6 posted on 05/20/2008 5:32:24 PM PDT by decimon
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To: decimon

Richard Mell is his own grandfather? ;-)


7 posted on 05/20/2008 5:44:23 PM PDT by an amused spectator (Spitzer would have used the Mann Act against an enemy in a New York minute.)
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To: Paleo Conservative
I thought the Constitution prohibited ex post facto laws.

Man, like - the Constitution is like, so, yesterday!

8 posted on 05/20/2008 5:45:21 PM PDT by an amused spectator (Spitzer would have used the Mann Act against an enemy in a New York minute.)
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To: an amused spectator
Richard Mell is his own grandfather? ;-)

He will be once he's changed the law.

9 posted on 05/20/2008 5:53:44 PM PDT by decimon
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To: decimon
I may need this someday, so I'm posting it in its entirety. The Sun Times does not need to be excerpted, and I can't afford the link to go dead.

Ald. Richard Mell (33rd) is a former hunter with an arsenal of weapons that reportedly features shotguns, rifles and pistols, including a Walther PPK of James Bond fame.

But there's a problem.

Mell forgot to re-register the weapons as required every year by the ordinance that he helped to pass as one of the City Council's most senior members.

So, what does an alderman do when he finds himself in violation of the law? He writes a new law. Mell has quietly introduced an ordinance that would reopen gun registration in Chicago and create a one-month amnesty for himself and other gun owners in the same predicament.

During the monthlong window, gun owners who attempted to re-register their guns between May 1, 2007, and April 1, 2008, only to be rejected on grounds the registrations had lapsed would be allowed to re-register without penalty.

"It's not just for me. It's for other people with the same problem. It's giving people who legitimately registered their guns at one time only to let it slip by a chance to come back into compliance," Mell said. "Some people didn't realize that, every year, you have to re-register your guns."

As an aldermen who helps write Chicago's gun laws, Mell acknowledged that he should have been in compliance with the re-registration requirement.

"I knew it was the law. I thought it was being done [by a staff member]. If you have a person you trust to do it and they don't do it, then it doesn't get done. I'm not gonna say it's embarrassing. I'm just gonna say I should have done it," the alderman said.

Mell said he first realized he was in violation of the re-registration requirement about a year ago. When he tried to re-register his guns belatedly, the Chicago Police Department's Gun Registration Section refused to bend the rules. Mell appealed that ruling to the city's Department of Administrative Hearings but decided to re-write the law instead."When we looked at the law, we saw the possibility of winning [the appeal] wasn't gonna happen," he said.


10 posted on 05/20/2008 5:55:35 PM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: G Larry
That’s the line of crap they fed gun owners in New York, just before they outlawed them!

Which weapons were outlawed by NY besides so called "assault weapons" like the AR-15?

11 posted on 05/20/2008 5:58:03 PM PDT by neverdem (I'm praying for a Divine Intervention.)
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To: 1rudeboy
The Sun Times does not need to be excerpted...

Thanks. I can't keep up with what must be excerpted so it's safer to just do it.

12 posted on 05/20/2008 6:01:12 PM PDT by decimon
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To: 1rudeboy
“When we looked at the law, we saw the possibility of winning [the appeal] wasn't gonna happen,” he said.

Wow. The hubris.

A gun owner of a special sort, I guess.

Why not introduce a law to repeal your asinine anti-Second Amendment regulations.

13 posted on 05/20/2008 6:01:13 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar (Who would the terrorists vote for?)
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To: Jet Jaguar
Why not introduce a law to repeal your asinine anti-Second Amendment regulations.

Were there any justice, this would serve as legal precedent for other Chicagoans up on gun charges.

14 posted on 05/20/2008 6:06:53 PM PDT by decimon
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To: decimon; Squantos

Absolutely.


15 posted on 05/20/2008 6:09:31 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar (Who would the terrorists vote for?)
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To: Paleo Conservative

They don’t need no steeking constitution!


16 posted on 05/20/2008 6:11:14 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (G-d is not a Republican. But Satan is definitely a Democrat.)
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To: Paleo Conservative

They don’t need no steenking constitution!


17 posted on 05/20/2008 6:11:21 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (G-d is not a Republican. But Satan is definitely a Democrat.)
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To: decimon; DMZFrank; endthematrix; Chgogal; NotJustAnotherPrettyFace; Lawgvr1955; Petruchio; ...
State needs concealed carry law, not county
18 posted on 05/20/2008 6:11:34 PM PDT by neverdem (I'm praying for a Divine Intervention.)
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To: Paleo Conservative
Pardon me! Is this legal? I thought the Constitution prohibited ex post facto laws.

I think because this LOOSENS the law it is Constitutional.

Not that many care about the Constitutionally of laws around here any more.

19 posted on 05/20/2008 6:37:16 PM PDT by Balding_Eagle (OVERPRODUCTION......... one of the top five worries for American farmers.)
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To: decimon
"Some people didn't realize that, every year, you have to re-register your guns."

Not in The Old Dominion!

20 posted on 05/20/2008 7:14:02 PM PDT by JOE6PAK (My own business bores me to death; I prefer other people's.)
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