A recent Supreme Court ruling cited in the decision, which is stayed for 30 days.
District Judge Stephen McGlynn overturned Illinois’ ban on semiautomatic weapons earlier this month and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul filed his notice of appeal later the same day.
The supermajority in the state of Illinois’ General Assembly passed the ban in 2022 after a gunman killed seven people in a Chicago suburb with a semiautomatic weapon during a Fourth of July parade. State Republicans and gun rights groups questioned the ban’s constitutional validity, but Illinois officials argued the ban addresses a modern phenomenon not present when the Constitution was written – mass shootings and semiautomatic weapons.
In his court opinion, Judge McGlynn sided with the coalition of gun rights groups who filed this case against Illinois, citing a recent Supreme Court ruling on another state gun ban.
“While mass shootings and firearm-related deaths are universally tragic and senseless, the government has not met its burden to prove that the history and tradition of firearm regulations supports [the ban’s] expansive sweep, covering hundreds of models of weapons, magazines, and attachments used by tens of millions of law-abiding United States citizens,” Judge McGlynn wrote.
As the Lord Leads, Pray with Us…
- For district judges as they hear constitutional challenges to state laws.
- For Supreme Court justices as they hear and consider oral arguments in the current term.
Sources: AP News, Washington Examiner
