NORTHBROOK, IL — The Northbrook Village Board unanimously adopted a pair of modest gun control ordinances and directed staff to continue exploring how to become the first municipality in Cook County to enforce a 24-year-old ban on assault-style weapons. The two measures approved by trustees Tuesday ban accessories that make it easier to rapidly fire bullets and restrict most people from carrying concealed weapons where alcohol is served. Both new ordinances take effect early next month, and the board plans to further discuss how the village might enforce the county's gun ban at its June 12 meeting.

The problem for the village is Cook County is not enforcing and has never enforced its assault weapons ban, Village Attorney Steve Elrod told trustees. He said he was hoping to get some guidance from the county prosecutors and the sheriff's office about the ban while conducting research on behalf of the board, but they had no advice to provide. Patch has confirmed Elrod's assertion with the Cook County state's attorney's office, the Cook County clerk of the circuit court, the Cook County sheriff's office and the office of the Cook County board president. "They simply were not and have not been enforcing the ordinance," Elrod said. "Therefore there's no historical practice, no procedural guidance. So basically we the village of Northbrook, if we choose to enforce the Cook County ordinance within our corporate limits, would be starting from scratch."

Nonetheless, Elrod said that he believes the county ordinance banning assault applies to and is enforceable in Northbrook. In fact, he said, the village no longer even has the option of opting out of the ordinance due to a state law restricting any new regulations on rifles that were not enacted before the end of a 10-day window in 2013. Before instructing police to start writing tickets for violations of the ordinance, Elrod said there were several policy issues that still have to be sorted out. They include what kind of penalty to assess, whether there would be any grace period for gun owners and where to prosecute the citations. (Also at the May 22 meeting, trustees approved a new administrative hearing system, projected to begin hearing cases in September, which functions an alternative to circuit court and could adjudicate violations of the county's firearm ban.)

The Cook County assault weapons ban predates the federal ban that existed from 1994 to 2004. Originally introduced as the Cook County Firearms Dealer's License and Assault Weapon and Ammunition Ban Ordinance, it was passed in 1993 and took effect Jan. 1, 1994. In 2007, the ordinance was amended to reduce the capacity of permitted magazines and renamed the Blair Holt Assault Weapons Ban, after the 16-year-old son of a Chicago police officer who was murdered when another teenager opened fired on a crowded bus with a .40 caliber semi-automatic handgun.

Last year, a Rolling Meadows man and a Brookfield man refiled a previously-withdrawn challenge to the ban that had been dismissed by a judge and appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court. Having moved to federal court, their suit faces another motion for dismissal.

Despite apparently never being enforced, the Cook County ordinance was expanded multiple times, increasing penalties for potential violators. First-time offenders would be fined from $5,000 to $10,000 and repeat offenders would be subject to fines of between $10,000 and $15,000. According to a release from the office of Board President Toni Preckwinkle following a 2013 amendment to the ban, the ordinance technically applies to every municipality in the county except those that have their own laws on the books.

"We must do what we can to stem the tide of gun violence and keep weapons with high levels of destructive capability out of circulation," Preckwinkle said. "This amended ordinance recognizes the challenges we face in Cook County and puts in place responsible and meaningful laws aimed at protecting our residents and law enforcement officers." The neighboring municipalities of Deerfield and Highland Park, both in Lake County, have passed their own bans on assault-style weapons. Highland Park's regulation was appealed up to the Supreme Court in 2015 and allowed to stand. Deerfield's ordinance uses the same language and Highland Park's. It was enacted as an amendment to the village's existing regulations on firearm storage and takes effect June 13.