{"id":1997694,"date":"2023-08-11T11:38:02","date_gmt":"2023-08-11T15:38:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/illinois-supreme-court-rules-assault-weapons-ban-constitutional-in-4-3-vote\/"},"modified":"2023-08-11T11:40:47","modified_gmt":"2023-08-11T15:40:47","slug":"illinois-supreme-court-rules-assault-weapons-ban-constitutional-in-4-3-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/illinois-supreme-court-rules-assault-weapons-ban-constitutional-in-4-3-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"Illinois Supreme Court upholds &#8216;assault weapons&#8217; ban in close vote."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fillinois-supreme-court-rules-assault-weapons-ban-constitutional-in-4-3-vote%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1997694&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>The Illinois Supreme Court Upholds &#8220;Assault Weapons&#8221; Ban, Protecting\u200b Illinois Communities<\/h2>\n<p>The Illinois Supreme Court has delivered \u2063a significant blow to Republican lawmakers and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/nra-mothers-day-tweet-of-little-girl-holding-a-rifle-sparks-backlash\/\" title=\"NRA Mother\u2019s Day Tweet Of Little Girl Holding A Rifle Sparks Backlash\">gun rights advocates<\/a> by ruling that \u2063the state&#8217;s &#8220;assault \u2063weapons&#8221; ban is \u2064constitutional. The court&#8217;s decision affirms the constitutionality of the Protect Illinois \u200cCommunities Act, which prohibits\u200d the sale of specific types of rifles, handguns, attachments, and rapid-firing devices.<\/p>\n<h3>Challenging the Ban<\/h3>\n<p>Illinois Republican lawmakers,\u2063 led by state Rep. Dan Caulkins, and gun owners had filed \u200da complaint arguing that the ban on semiautomatic\u200d weapons violated their Second Amendment rights and the Constitution&#8217;s right to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-lawyers-pa-lawsuit-dismissal-moves-us-closer-to-supreme-court\/\" title=\"Trump Lawyers: PA Lawsuit Dismissal Moves Us Closer to Supreme Court\">equal protection<\/a> under the law.\u200d They also claimed that\u200b the ban constituted &#8220;special legislation&#8221; \u200bin \u2064violation of \u2062the state constitution.<\/p>\n<p>However, four of the state high\u2063 court&#8217;s Democratic justices ruled in favor of the \u200cstate, while two \u200cRepublican justices dissented. Justice Mary Kay O&#8217;Brien, a Democrat, wrote a\u200d separate dissenting opinion.<\/p>\n<h3>The Majority Opinion<\/h3>\n<p>Justice Elizabeth Rochford, writing for the majority, stated that the plaintiffs attempted to combine their equal protection claims with a Second Amendment challenge. \u2062She \u2062argued that the plaintiffs had waived any Second Amendment challenge in their appeal, as it was \u2063not raised in the circuit court.<\/p>\n<p>Rochford\u2062 emphasized that \u200dthe law&#8217;s impact on the right \u200cto bear arms depended on whether\u2062 the restricted firearms were commonly \u2062used for self-defense and whether the regulations \u2063aligned with the nation&#8217;s historical traditions. However,\u2062 she noted that the record lacked evidence on these matters, as \u200bthe plaintiffs had not raised them \u200cin the circuit court.<\/p>\n<h3>Equal Protection Arguments<\/h3>\n<p>Attorney \u200cJerry Stocks, representing the plaintiffs, contended that the law was not being applied equally, as\u200d &#8220;grandfathered&#8221; gun owners were allowed to\u2063 keep their now-restricted firearms \u2062while others were prohibited from purchasing\u200d them. Rochford countered \u2064this argument \u2064by stating\u200b that the act allowed plaintiffs to retain\u2064 their restricted items but\u2064 not acquire more. Therefore, those\u2062 who did not \u2063own\u200d any\u2062 of the restricted items\u2063 could\u2062 not claim equal protection \u200cviolations.<\/p>\n<h3>Implications and Reactions<\/h3>\n<p>This ruling marks a\u2062 significant victory for the state of Illinois in defending its\u200b &#8220;assault weapon&#8221; ban. While the\u200b law&#8217;s fate is still pending in a federal \u200bappellate court, the Supreme Court&#8217;s decision allows\u200d the ban to remain in place for now.<\/p>\n<p>Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, expressed his satisfaction with the court&#8217;s ruling, stating that the Protect Illinois Communities Act is\u2062 a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/illinois-supreme-court-rules-assault-weapons-ban-constitutional-in-4-3-vote\/\" title=\"Illinois Supreme Court upholds 'assault weapons' ban in close vote.\">commonsense gun reform law aimed<\/a> at ensuring\u2062 the \u200dsafety of Illinoisans in all\u200b corners of the state.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read \u2063more:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\">The Washington Examiner<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Illinois Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the state&#8217;s &#8220;assault weapons&#8221; ban, disappointing Republicans and gun rights advocates who claimed it violated the Second Amendment. The Protect Illinois Communities Act prohibits the sale of various rifles and handguns, including AR-15 rifles and .50-caliber guns, along with their attachments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1997695,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1997694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1997694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1997694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1997694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1997695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1997694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1997694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1997694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}