Gun rights advocates once again are asking a federal appeals court in Chicago to overturn Illinois’ ban on assault-style firearms and large-capacity magazines in a case that may be destined for the U.S. Supreme Court.
In briefs filed Friday with the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, attorneys representing plaintiffs challenging the law urged the court to uphold the decision of a lower court judge in East St. Louis who said the law violates the Second Amendment because it bans weapons that are commonly used for lawful purposes like self-defense.
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office is appealing that decision, arguing that the weapons banned under the law such as the AK-47, AR-15 and other similar firearms are primarily military in nature and therefore are not protected by the Second Amendment.
The state has until June 27 to file a response to the gun industry’s brief. The court is then expected to set a date for oral arguments, possibly later this year.
* Assistant United States Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division…
The amicus brief’s introduction points to Bruen (2022) and says in part:
Three years ago, the Supreme Court issued a landmark decision meant to break a habit developed by some States of treating the Second Amendment as “a second-class right, subject to an entirely different body of rules than the other” constitutional rights. …[Bruen] (2022).
Regrettably, not every State got the message. Just a few months after Bruen, Illinois outlawed some of the most commonly used rifles and magazines in America via a so-called “assault weapons” ban. In doing so, Illinois violated the Supreme Court’s clear directive that States cannot prohibit arms that are “in common use” by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes. …[Heller] (2008).
The Civil Rights Division’s brief centers on two issues:
1. Whether the Act violates the Second Amendment to the extent that it bans the possession of firearms that are in common use by law-abiding citizens for lawful reasons.
2. Whether the Act violates the Second Amendment to the extent that it bans the possession of magazines and other firearm attachments that are in common use by law-abiding citizens for lawful reasons.
The brief then notes that the AR-15 is among the “arms” protected by the Second Amendment, and that those protections also include the magazines necessary to feed ammunition to the rifles.
Q: The DOJ has now joined a lawsuit over the assault weapons ban and whatnot. Can you comment on that? And why are they wrong in getting involved with this?
Pritzker: Look, change of administration. They obviously don’t understand the damage that’s being done across the country where there are no assault weapons bans. And they have paid zero attention to the fact that in the 90s, when there was a national assault weapons ban, the number of killings went down significantly. They’re wrong-headed on so many things, but this is yet another of those.
…Adding… Illinois State Rifle Association…
Late Friday, the U.S. Justice Department filed an amicus brief with the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in support of our challenge to the Illinois ban on commonly owned firearms. The Department of Justice argues that such bans violate the Second Amendment — a position we’ve consistently maintained since this unconstitutional legislation was first introduced several years ago.
“This historic and unprecedented move is welcomed news,” said ISRA Executive Director Richard Pearson. “The ISRA remains on the front lines and continues to stand up to Gov. Pritzker and anti-gun legislators in Springfield on behalf of 2.5 million law-abiding, responsible firearms owners in Illinois – and this latest development proves it.
The ISRA has been working diligently behind the scenes to ensure that the Trump administration — particularly the Justice Department — holds Illinois’ anti-Second Amendment leaders accountable for their unconstitutional actions.
In a social media post over the weekend, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon wrote, “The Second Amendment is not a second-class right. See you in Court, Illinois.”
The ISRA is presently leading the charge as a named plaintiff on two cases and playing a supporting role in an additional five more – totaling 7 cases dealing with constitutional issues and on behalf of law-abiding gun owners in Illinois.
* During the press conference announcing the arrest of alleged assassin Vance Boelter, Minnesota’s Superintendent of the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Drew Evans told reporters that Illinoisans were on the list compiled by the alleged Minnesota assassin. When asked if others in states beyond Minnesota were on the list…
I don’t want to say it, because it won’t be exhaustive, but Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, some others that were on there. There was a variety in Nebraska, Iowa.
* Gov. JB Pritzker said this today in response to a question about Evans’ comment. Rush transcript…
Let me begin by saying that, no, there is not a hit list that has Illinois politicians on it. There was a list, as you may recall, that was in the car that was recovered before they arrested the perpetrator. And that list was referred to as a hit list. It has Minnesota politicians, as I understand it, on it, about 70 of them.
Later, as the FBI and the Minnesota police were going to the various locations that this man lived, they recovered devices and other papers that had on them 600 names, more than 600 names, more of a hodgepodge. It wasn’t a list of 600. It was literally like a few people here, a few people there, websites that he had visited, etc.
And they put all that together, and I think out of a desire to be responsive to the media and to other inquiries, the FBI decided to put out the list, or at least the the information about the list, again, a hodgepodge of names that were put together, but not, as I have been told, a ‘hit list’ of any sort. And… the people who were among that very large list were not targeted in any way.
There are Illinois folks, like Iowa and others, but very few, and the again, no one, the FBI specifically said to me that these people are not targets, and they certainly, now that he has been apprehended, are they’re not concerned about those people being targeted in any way whatsoever.
Pritzker also said, “As I understand, I was not on that list.”
The suspect in the killing of a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband in addition to the shooting of another lawmaker and his wife also visited two more politicians’ homes, according to authorities.
“In the early-morning hours of June 14, Boelter went to the homes of four Minnesota state politicians with the intent to kill them,” Joseph H. Thompson, the acting US attorney for the District of Minnesota, said at a news conference Monday.
The amount of $5,000,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated from the General Revenue Fund to the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity for a grant to NASCAR events and Entertainment LLC for costs associated with operating expenses.
This is a reduction from the current fiscal year, which provided $7 million to NASCAR ($2 million for operating expenses and $5 million for “capital improvements, including prior year costs.”
There are a ton of very worthwhile programs which desperately needed $5 million GRF this year.
* If we won’t give money to the Bears and the White Sox, why are we appropriating $5 million in “operating expenses” (of all things) to NASCAR?
…Adding… Isabel just asked Gov. Pritzker about the NASCAR appropriation. His response…
I can’t speak to the specific reason for that, I can tell you that our tourism budget in the state of Illinois has increased over the last six and a half years since I became governor. Very importantly, it has brought enormous benefit to the state. Specifically, the investment in tourism yields revenue for the state that is vastly more than the investment that gets made by our tourism office. And so I’m proud of the work that we’ve done, and we’re going to continue to make investments there.
