Illinois loses appeal on gun ruling :: 02/01/2023

The state of Illinois passed its assault weapon ban and we all know it would happen. The only shocking thing there was that the state didn’t already have such a law on the books previously. It’s not like they’re known for being pro-gun or anything, after all.

Unsurprisingly, the law was immediately challenged and a judge issued a stay.

Also unsurprisingly, the state filed an appeal, desperate to implement their terrible new law for some reason.

Well, they lost that appeal on Tuesday.

The state of Illinois lost an appeal on Tuesday after a lower court judge issued a restraining order on a newly enacted ban on some semiautomatic rifles as well as high-capacity magazines.

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed the gun control law on Jan. 10, which bans the sale and distribution of assault weapons, high capacity magazines, and switches, which went into effect immediately after he approved it.

Effingham County Judge Joshua Morrison issued a temporary restraining order against the law on Jan. 24, preventing it from being enforced.

Morrison’s ruling came in response to a lawsuit from four gun merchants and 850 individuals who argued that the law was enacted improperly and didn’t have proper public input, adding that the law violated the state and U.S. Constitutions equal protection clause in providing exemptions for some groups of people based on their occupation or training. For example, people who are active or retired law enforcement are excluded from the ban.

All of that is, of course, correct.

However, I’d also argue that the ban runs afoul of the Second Amendment as well, where “the people’s right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” Granted, I don’t think anyone who backed this bill would see it that way and this approach might well be the best way to overturn the measure, but still…

At the end of the day, what we’re seeing in Illinois is yet another attempt by a state to restrict what people can own out of a misdirected desire–or so they say, anyway–to keep people safe.

Yet we also know that despite the awful tragedy of Highland Park, AR-15s and similar weapons aren’t all that common at crime scenes. We also know that Highland Park had an assault weapon ban in place, which clearly did nothing to prevent that tragedy.

It’s idiotic to think that a statewide ban will do anything any differently. It won’t.

Unfortunately, anti-gun lawmakers either don’t want to see that or don’t want to admit it. Either way, the effect is the same. Good, decent folks will have to deal with the ramification of this law while criminals won’t.

Well, that’s not exactly true. Criminals will be dealing with the ramifications.

It’s just that the bad guys will rest easy knowing that the good guys are less likely to have the best possible means to resist them out there. They’ll deal with the ramifications, but it won’t be a negative for them in the long run and anyone who looks at things objectively should be able to see that.

Losing this appeal is just the first step in ending this particular brand of stupidity.

https://bearingarms.com/tomknighton/2023/02/01/illinois-loses-appeal-n66845