(CN) - The city of Evanston revised its handgun ban to resolve the Second Amendment issues raised by the National Rifle Association and three Evanston residents, a federal judge in Chicago ruled.
The NRA originally challenged Evanston within 24 hours of the Supreme Court's landmark June ruling that the Second Amendment confers an individual right to keep and bear arms.
Once faced with the suit, Evanston determined that handguns may be stored at the owner's home for self-protection, specifically addressing the residents' complaints that the misdemeanor threat impeded their ability to protect belongings and loved ones.
The city's original ordinance banned handguns in Evanston, unless the guns did not work or the owner met one of a handful of exemptions.
If not for the ordinance, the plaintiffs complained, they would retrieve their guns from their current locations and feel safer at home.
Although the residents and the NRA have argued for the right to keep arms for any lawful purpose, downplaying Evanston's amendment as a "single change," U.S. District Judge Marvin Aspen maintained that the plaintiffs' continued complaints ignore the "critical fact" that the prohibition of firearms itself was eliminated.
"We have no justifiable question before us," he wrote.
Aspen also stated that while the plaintiffs are "understandably eager for guidance," pondering the scope of the Supreme Court's decision and whether the Second Amendment applies to Evanston via 14th Amendment incorporation, the current action is not the right forum for such debates.
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