A Federal District Court judge in East St. Louis, Illinois last week struck down the state's recently adopted ban on common semi-automatic rifles and their standard capacity magazines.
After considering all of the evidence and arguments, Judge Stephen P. McGlynn, a 2020 appointment by President Trump, found the state's ban is "an unconstitutional affront to the Second Amendment and must be enjoined. The Government may not deprive law-abiding citizens of their guaranteed right to self-defense as a means of offense."
Democrat Gov. Jay Robert "J.B." Pritzker is a billionaire who Forbes describes as "the richest politician in office in the U.S." He was backed for office by President Obama and national anti-gun groups and signed an "assault weapon" ban into law last year, just minutes after it cleared the Dem-controlled state legislature.
This dropped the ban hammer on 12 million residents in the Land of Lincoln and brought almost immediate lawsuits from local Second Amendment groups and gun stores. While the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to get involved in the case earlier this year, the controversial new law – which was buried inside a gutted proposal to regulate insurance adjusters and given the innocuous title of the "Protect Illinois Communities Act" – was still subject to ongoing litigation in the case of Dane Harrel v. Kwame Raoul.
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The court pointed out the commonality of guns like the AR-15 in American homes, with conservative estimates ranging to 28 million in circulation, and decried their prohibition.
McGlynn's 168-page ruling this week blocked the law on Constitutional grounds, noting, "What is particularly disturbing is that the prohibition of weapons that are commonly owned and used by citizens are now banned, depriving citizens of 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."
Backers of the challenge praised McGlynn's unambiguous ruling.
“Today commonsense prevailed with the finding that Illinois’ AWB and magazine capacity ban are an unconstitutional affront to the Second Amendment," said Second Amendment Foundation Executive Director Adam Kraut in a statement emailed to Guns.com. "It is high time the Supreme Court weigh in and put finality to this issue once and for all. Our win today is a step in that direction, but our pending cert petition on this issue from Maryland provides the Court an opportunity to resolve this issue expediently without more unnecessary appeals in other cases."
McGlynn stayed the injunction for 30 days to allow the State time to appeal and seek a stay from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. The request for a stay was filed by Kwame Raoul's office on Friday. The Seventh currently has nine active judges appointed by Republican presidents going back to Reagan and six by Democrats, with most of the latter being recent appointments by the Biden administration.
Banner image: An Illinois-made Springfield Armory SA-16A2. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)
