Chicago wasn't always this way, life before the handgun ban

Crime, Guns, and Videotape has a discussion here:

Chicago Was Not Always So Miserable To Gun Owners.
While I was growing up in Chicago guns were not contraband, gun registration was neither mandatory nor taxed. The city had many gun stores and sporting goods stores that sold guns.

Concealed carry was something the ward organizations doled out, not by a simple permit but with a star and the full police powers of a Cook County Deputy Sheriff.

In high school I had my own .22 rifle I carried on a CTA bus on days of ROTC rifle practice. Today that behavior would make any high school kid a national and infamous celebrity. . . .