Federal Judge Strikes Down Illinois ‘Assault Weapons’ Ban

Last updated on November 9th, 2024 at 12:59 pm

A federal judge struck down Illinois’ so-called “assault weapons” ban on Friday, Nov. 8.

The Illinois law—called the Protect Illinois Communities Act (PICA)—defines “assault weapons” as a semiautomatic rifle capable of accepting a detachable magazine that also has any of either a pistol grip, thumbhole-stock, collapsible stock, foregrip, flash suppressor, shroud, or grenade launcher; or any semiautomatic rifle with a fixed magazine capable of carrying more than 10 rounds of ammunition.

Also banned are any semiautomatic pistols with threaded barrels, foregrips, shrouds, flash suppressors, detachable magazines that are fed anywhere other than through the pistol grip, buffer tubes, arm braces, or parts that protrude horizontally behind pistol grip, or that have a fixed magazine capacity of more than 15 rounds.

The law further banned shotguns that can take detachable magazines or have a fixed magazine capacity of more than five rounds, have revolving cylinders, collapsing or thumbhole stocks, foregrips, or grenade launchers.

District Judge Stephen McGlynn, of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, struck down the law in law in a 168-page ruling that addressed four separate legal challenges to the state law.

The State of Illinois argued the firearms banned under their law, and particularly the long-guns listed, are rarely used in self-defense scenarios and generally are “a poor choice for self-defense.” Justifying their magazine capacity limits, the state also argued “it is extremely rare for a person, when using a firearm in self-defense, to fire more than 10 rounds.”

McGlynn, whom Donald Trump appointed in his first term in office, concluded that so long as the various firearms listed under the Illinois law constitute bearable arms, authorities must presume them to be protected by the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Assuming those firearms are considered bearable arms, he said it becomes the state’s burden to prove that banning them “is part of the historical tradition that delimits the outer bounds of the right to keep and bear arms.”

“The Court is also not convinced that weapons like the AR-15 and its relatives are ‘dangerous and unusual.’ Considering the Court’s definition of ‘dangerous,’ it is clear that a semiautomatic rifle does not suffer from the lack of control as is inherent to machineguns and sawed-off shotguns. Additionally, the AR-15 and other semiautomatic rifles do not appear to be ‘unusual’ like ricin-pellet launchers or directed-energy weapons,” McGlynn continued. “While they have features that closely resemble their military counterparts, they do not operate or utilize technology sufficient to call them ‘unusual’ in the sense that they are not widely used in the United States.”

McGlynn rejected other arguments that the banned weapons are only suitable for military use, noting the semiautomatic weapons cannot achieve the same rate of fire as fully-automatic weapons reserved for military use.

“[T]he Court holds that ‘military use’ refers to weapons that are selected, procured, tested, and issued to military members for use in combat,” he wrote. “With this in mind, none of the weapons, magazines, or attachment prohibited by PICA can be called ‘military-grade’ since they were not issued to the military for use in combat.”

The judge issued a permanent injunction, barring the state from enforcing its “assault weapons” ban.

“We are gratified that the Court properly found that these bans violate the constitutionally protected rights of Illinois residents and visitor,” said Firearms Policy Coalition president Brandon Combs.

FPC was among several gun rights activist groups to support the challenges to the Illinois law.

Gun Owners of America described the ruling as a “historic win”

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul quickly responded to the ruling, filing a notice of appeal on Friday evening.