Most Norridge residents don’t know of online-based firearms dealer Tony Kole, who operates Norridge’s only gun retail center in an unmarked building at 7601 W. Montrose Ave.
Kole’s business, Ghost Industries, LLC, has been shipping firearms to online buyers since 2010 from an indiscreet office building that was banned from displaying signage when the village allowed it to open.
Village officials were reluctant to allow Ghost Industries to open in Norridge four years ago, with or without signage, but were mandated to do so because of an older ordinance that was enacted years ago to allow K-Mart to sell firearms before the store ended gun sales in 2010.
Kole turned around in 2011 and sued the village less than a year after opening, after trustees sought to change their firearms ordinance to ban gun stores altogether starting in late 2013.
Confronted with the lawsuit from Kole and his lawyer, Walter Maksym (the same Chicago-based attorney who represented famed murder suspect and ex-cop Drew Peterson), Norridge in December 2013 decided to allow gun retailers, but only in areas that meet specific zoning requirements.
Among the requirements of that version of the ordinance was a stipulation that said gun stores had to be at least 1,000 feet away from schools, parks, and churches.
But village trustees this month caved to the mounting financial pressure threatened in the ongoing lawsuit (which also alleges Second Amendment violations) and slackened existing regulations even further.
The more liberal new law means gun sales could become more than an online business in Norridge with village trustees on Dec. 10 unanimously approving another revised firearms ordinance that makes it legal for a gun shop to open even closer to schools, parks, and churches — just 500 feet away.
Brian Gaseor, building commissioner for Norridge, said Kole and other firearms shops could now technically open along any of Norridge’s main areas, including along Cumberland and Harlem avenues and along Irving Park Road.
“This ordinance expands the areas where he could open,” Gaseor said. “We don’t know where he wants to open yet, and he still has to find a storefront to rent.”
Kole, who has openly expressed his wishes to expand his online shop to a walk-in style business, didn’t answer the phone number listed on Ghost Industries’ web site on Thursday. It’s unclear whether Maksym is still representing Kole, and the number listed for his practice on Lincoln Avenue in Chicago wasn’t in service.
Gaseor said the village couldn’t confirm whether Kole was still operating his online gun business in the office on Montrose Avenue, but the Ghost Industries web site is still active and lists hundreds of different gun models for sale.
Kole now has until Jan. 12 to file for a public hearing with the zoning board, a required step before he could open his shop. That hearing wouldn’t be scheduled until at least March, Gaseor said.
Village President James Chmura said it was in the best interest of the village to avoid Second Amendment battles.
“We’re trying to accommodate him,” Chmura said. “It’s all about constitutional rights—we don’t want problems with the village with constitutional rights.”
The Ridgewood High School and Norridge District 80 superintendents didn’t return calls Dec 11.