The Illinois Supreme Court on Friday overruled a lower court's ruling and upheld the state's law banning assault weapons in a 4-3 decision.
Illinois lawmakers passed the ban in January, months after the mass shooting at a July 4 parade in Highland Park, just outside of Chicago. The shooter legally purchased a semiautomatic weapon and shot parade goers from a rooftop, killing seven and injuring 36.
The ban includes dozens of types of rifles and handguns, .50-caliber guns, and rapid-firing attachments. No rifle can accommodate more than 10 rounds and handguns have a 15-round limit.
Lawsuits followed immediately in state and federal court, eventually leading to a Macon County Circuit Court judge to declare the ban unconstitutional, as did a judge in Effingham County.
State Attorney General Kwame Raoul appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court.
The plaintiffs in the legal challenge were weapons dealers and gun owners. They staked their claim to violations of the Second and 14th amendments. The majority justices denied the 14th Amendment claim but did not offer comment on the Second Amendment.
"We express no opinion on the potential viability of plaintiffs' waived claim concerning the Second Amendment," justices wrote.
The ban allows for law enforcement officers and licensed security workers to purchase the illegal weapons for their jobs. The lawsuits against the ban challenged this, arguing the ban created a protected class that would be subject to different laws. The High Court disagreed with the argument.
The ban also includes a grandfather clause, allowing owners of the now-banned weapons to maintain possession of them.
"Plaintiffs are not similarly situated to the trained professionals," Justice Elizabeth Rochford wrote in the majority opinion. "To the extent plaintiffs claim they possess restricted items, they are not treated differently from the grandfathered individuals."
Democrat Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who signed the measure into law, took a victory lap on Friday.
"This is a commonsense gun reform law to keep mass-killing machines off our streets and out of our schools, malls, parks and places of worship," he said in a statement. "This decision is a win for advocates, survivors, and families alike because it preserves this nation-leading legislation to combat gun violence and save countless lives."
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to block the ban in May but it may end up there eventually.
In May, the federal 7th Circuit Court of Appeals put a hold on an injunction issued by a U.S. district judge in East St. Louis. The law remains in effect while under review by the 7th Circuit.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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