Titled: In wooing Cabela's, village suspends local gun rules
With no public discussion, the Hoffman Estates Village Board on Monday voted unanimously to eliminate parts of the village's local firearms ordinance.
The changes mean that gun purchases will not have to be reported to the Hoffman Estates Police Department. It also means that the police department will no longer run its own background checks on gun buyers and it will not issue permits.
Firearms retailers and consumers, however, must still comply with state and federal gun laws, which require buyers to obtain an Illinois Firearms Owner Identification (FOID) card, submit to a background check and comply with the standard 24- or 72-hour waiting period, depending on what type of gun is being bought.
The new ordinance was tailored on behalf of Cabela's, a national camping and hunting outfitter which is planning to open a 200,000-square-foot store in Hoffman Estates in 2007. Cabela's will sell shotguns, long rifles and handguns in addition to second-hand firearms. The retailer is expected to generate annual sales tax revenues of about $2 million.
I know that they sell a lot of goods besides guns, but I still don't understand why they choose to patronize states that chose to restrict the liberties of their customers. Cabela's is a major attraction to any area. Michigan's store has become the state's greatest tourist attraction. Customers come from hundreds of miles around. I can't see many of the longer distance customers willing to drive back to the store after a 24-hour or 72-hour wait to pick up a firearm they could buy locally without a wait.
I would rather they set up in gun-friendly states and pull the customers, and the sales-tax, out of the more oppressive areas.
Still, its a minor victory for that one small town.