The headlong rush by Illinois authorities to bring the hammer down on law-abiding gun owners suffered an enormous setback Friday when a federal judge issued a permanent injunction against the state’s so-called “assault weapons” ban.
U.S. District Judge Stephen McGlynn determined the provision, a significant part of 2023’s misnamed Protect Illinois Communities Act (PICA), was unconstitutional.
McGlynn issued a monthlong stay on the injunction to allow a state appeal to the Seventh Circuit. He wrote that prohibiting these highly popular sporting rifles violates constitutional protections.
“PICA is an unconstitutional affront to the Second Amendment and must be enjoined,” McGlynn explained. “The government may not deprive law-abiding citizens of their guaranteed right to self-defense as a means of offense. The court will stay enforcement of the permanent injunction for a period of 30 days from the date of this order.”
The 168-page order blasts state officials for removing “a principal means to defend themselves and their property in situations where a handgun or shotgun alone would not be the citizen’s preferred arm.”
McGlynn cited historical examples of disarmed citizens and their vulnerability to injustice. Specifically, he referenced the East St. Louis Massacre of 1917.
This horrific crime involved the murder by White mobs of dozens of Black citizens deprived of the right to keep and bear arms. The judge warned that “disarming law-abiding citizens does not bring about happy endings.”
McGlynn further criticized what he described as the current “post-Constitution era.” This, he forcefully charged, is a time when “citizens’ individual rights are only as important as they are convenient to a ruling class.”
Friday’s decision was primarily based on the Second Amendment and 2022’s U.S. Supreme Court Bruen decision. The high court restored equilibrium to gun rights after several anti-gun state and local governments spent years suppressing these freedoms.
At the forefront of the monumental Bruen ruling was Justice Clarence Thomas. McGlynn noted the jurist’s statement last summer blasting PICA as an infringement on constitutionally protected rights after the Seventh Circuit allowed the controversial law to remain in place.
Thomas observed, “It is difficult to see how the Seventh Circuit could have concluded that the most widely owned semiautomatic rifles are not ‘Arms’ protected by the Second Amendment.”
Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), celebrated the ruling as a “great day for gun rights.”
PICA was signed into law on January 10, 2023, by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D). He burnished his anti-gun credentials by proclaiming that the package of gun control measures would protect residents from violent criminals and bring peace to the notoriously chaotic Chicago streets.
As McGlynn noted, PICA quickly ran into trouble as dozens of Illinois sheriffs vowed not to enforce its contentious provisions. The law banned the sale and purchase of most semi-automatic weapons and magazines with capacities greater than ten rounds for long guns and 15 rounds for handguns.
Those who already owned such firearms and magazines were allowed to keep them — for now — but they must be registered with government officials.
Last year, as many as 80 Illinois sheriffs quickly announced that they would not adhere to the most controversial elements of PICA. These elected law enforcement officials vowed not to determine whether weapons are registered with the state or hold anyone arrested simply for not complying with the law.
This led to an outburst from the governor’s office as Pritzker promised that sheriffs who do not “do their job…won’t be in their job.”
There are no reported instances of an Illinois sheriff being removed from office for honoring the Second Amendment as the supreme law of the land. And while an appeal to the Seventh Circuit is undoubtedly forthcoming, PICA’s most contentious provisions are now on shaky ground.
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