The Chicago Tribune reported Wednesday that a Cook County judge has dismissed for a second time a lawsuit seeking to bar a gun store from opening in Niles, Ill.
The lawsuits were filed by the Skokie-based People for a Safer Society. Member Ticia Ashcroft, who attended the hearing, told the Tribune, “I’m a resident of Niles and I don’t want this in my town. It’s disgusting.” Jim Argionis, an attorney for the firm that plans to open a Sportsman’s Club and Firearms Training on the site, characterized the harms claimed by the suit as being “hypothetical and potential.”
Circuit Court Judge Franklin Ulyses Valderrama granted a motion to dismiss without issuing a ruling in the case, saying that People for a Safer Society did not own property adjacent to the site, and therefore did not have standing. Denyse Stoneback, founder of PFASS, vowed to file an appeal. Presumably, the appeal will require hypothesizing new and improved potential harm.
