City may ban look-alike weapons

BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter
Chicago Sun-Times
Sep. 30, 2006

Chicago would ban the sale and possession of BB and pellet guns and any replica that shoots a projectile under a crackdown advanced by a City Council committee Thursday to prevent a repeat of a controversial summer shooting near Cabrini-Green.

A Daisy BB-gun made to look like a Smith & Wesson pistol was at the center of a bitter dispute between police and Near North Side residents that followed the August shooting of 14-year-old Ellis Woodland.

"The danger for a policeman is that, if he hesitates and it's not a replica, he could be killed. It places the officers in a tremendously dangerous situation. It also places our children in a tremendously dangerous situation," said Chicago Police Deputy Supt. Charles Williams.

Shooting declared justified

The shooting that triggered Thursday's proposed crackdown happened after a man flagged down a sergeant on Division and pointed to Woodland on a sidewalk, claiming the teen had robbed him. Officers spotted a fleeing Woodland and shot him after authorities contend he refused to put up his hands and drop what turned out to be a BB-gun.

Police and prosecutors have characterized the shooting as justified.

Currently BB and pellet guns are legal in Chicago as long as you're 18 or over and obtain a police permit. The new ordinance, which still needs full Council approval, would outlaw look-alikes altogether, and violators would face fines of up to $1,000 and up to six months in jail or community service.