As is often the case with this sort of dispute, the first shot was fired away from the public view.
“There’s a group of people that’s against guns, that’s all,” says Rufus Taylor, president of the gun club (whose official name is Lincoln Park Traps). “They would rather not see a gun club in the park. They’re against the shooting activity, and they’re just using the environment as an excuse.”
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No one can say for certain why, at this moment in history, the gun club should get so much attention, particularly from city and state officials. For better or worse, it has operated in Lincoln Park since 1912. Its members could never hide their existence if they wanted to; their guns make too much racket.
“There are two kinds of shooting at the club: trap and skeet,” says Andrew Perellis, an expert in environmental law who was retained by the Park District for this case. “In trap, the target is thrown straight out over the water, so you are shooting as it moves away from you. With skeet shooting, the target goes from side to side, so you have to pan. In both cases, the target is a clay pigeon.
“We believe that the Park District should not wait for a serious accident to occur before taking action to assure public safety,” Kaszak wrote in a report on the matter. “Currently, about 1,000 boats use Diversey Harbor and several hundred use Belmont. In addition, an increasingly large number of small boats, windsurfers, and jet skis use the lakefront. Although the lake area east of the Gun Club is marked with buoys, the Marine Department has received reports that discharges from the Club have fallen on passing boats east of the buoy marker, particularly during strong westerly winds.”
“This is a way for one woman to get her name in the papers,” says Taylor of Kaszak, who in 1987 waged an unsuccessful campaign for alderman of the 46th Ward. “Nancy has done a terrific job of selling the [board members] a bill of goods. If she succeeds in removing us, then she can say, ‘I’m the woman who saved the park.’ It’s all political.”
“It’s true that the Metropolitan Sanitary District has a law that prohibits discharges into the lake. It says you can’t put anything in the lake, even if it is a sweaty baby, Perrier water, or a brick of gold bullion. That’s what I said at the public hearing. I said, ‘You can’t put a sweaty baby, Perrier water, or a brick of gold bullion into the lake,’ otherwise it’s considered pollution. You’re not even allowed to pick stuff off the bottom of the lake and put it back in. That’s considered pollution, too. Does that make sense? No. But it doesn’t matter if it makes sense, because it’s a law that’s on the books. And it’s true if the Park District wishes to adhere to that law, as silly as it sounds–we are stuck.”
