Assault Weapon Vote Postponed in Buffalo Grove

With most Buffalo Grove trustees saying they need more information about a proposed ban on assault weapons, officials deferred a vote on the matter Monday night. 

“We will eventually get to a decision one way or the other,” Village President Jeff Braiman said.

Residents packed into the boardroom Monday night and many indicated they wanted to share their stances with village officials. The room cleared out, however, when it was announced that no action would be taken on the matter during the meeting. No citizens spoke in favor or against the proposed ban, but a couple of times the audience erupted into applause after some officials indicated they were not in favor of a ban.

“Criminalizing people because they own a gun that they’ve owned a long time legally, all of a sudden it’s illegal, I don’t think it’s a municipality’s job to do that,” Trustee Mike Terson said. “I think it is completely inappropriate for the Village Board to pass a gun ordinance of any kind. That is why whenever we vote on this, I will be voting no.”

Trustee Andy Stein said he needed more time to research the matter and determine his stance. Officials learned Thursday that the subject would be on their Monday meeting agenda.

“This is a matter for national discussion. If forced to vote tonight, I would also vote no, and it’s not because I don’t support a ban on assault weapons.  I just can’t support the Buffalo Grove ordinance as it’s written. I just have too many questions,” Stein said. 

Braiman said he placed the proposed ordinance on this week’s agenda because Gov. Pat Quinn is expected to consider the state’s concealed carry bill in early July.

If Quinn signs the bill, home rule municipalities would have a 10-day window to pass legislation regulating assault weapons at a local level. 

"The Village would also have the ability to amend the ban in the future," reads a summary from village staff to trustees.

Without a local ban, Buffalo Grove "will be prohibited in perpetuity from further regulating assault weapons," the summary reads.

“I don’t want to wait until the governor signs it and then start the discussion,” Braiman said. “I think it’s our responsibly to just consider this issue because the state legislature is telling us that if we don’t even consider it, we’ll be precluded. I think we have a responsibility to all of our citizens to determine whether or not we want to move ahead or not.

The proposed ordinance is modeled after Cook County’s assault weapon ban. While that covers about one-third of Buffalo Grove, the rest of the village falls under the jurisdiction of Lake County, which does not have such a ban in place. 

Trustee Jeff Berman, who said he is “not by any definition a gun guy” said his many concerns about the proposed village ordinance can be summed up with three questions: “One, can we do something like this? Two, should we be doing something like this, and particularly right now? And three, if so, how should we go about doing it?

He spoke for about 20 minutes Monday about the Constitution, case law, who should determine which weapons are most dangerous and whether the matter warranted a vote Monday night.

“Doing so, in my opinion, would amount to an unjustifiable over-reaction. At this point, we don’t even know if the bill will be signed by the governor. It is certainly possible that he would veto it entirely, or exercise an amendatory veto,” Berman said.

Berman said he also wants more public input before the board considers a ban.

“Uninformed, precipitous, knee-jerk legislating is not good government,” he said.

Braiman said board members have received emails from residents both in favor of and opposed to a ban. Citizens who signed up to speak Monday night will be notified in advance of the next board discussion on the matter.

The village attorney and staff members will be asked to gather more information and report back to the board at a later date.

Previously: Tonight: Buffalo Grove to Consider Assault Weapon Ban

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