Illinois Supreme Court Upholds State’s ‘Assault Weapons’ Ban

On Friday, the Illinois Supreme Court upheld the state’s ban on “assault weapons” and “high capacity” magazines.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) signed the ban into law on January 10, and lawsuits were immediately filed against it.

U.S. District Stephen P. McGlynn issued a preliminary injunction against the ban on April 28, noting in his opinion that there are already plenty of gun laws on the books and those laws need to be enforced, Breitbart News reported.

On May 4, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit put a hold on McGlynn’s preliminary injunction and is currently reviewing the suit that came before the lower court.

However, Illinois state Rep. Dan Caulkins (R) brought his own case — Caulkins v. Pritzker — arguing that the “assault weapons” ban was unconstitutional, and it was in his case that the Illinois Supreme Court ruled in favor of the ban.

Caulkins’ case made it to the Illinois Supreme Court after a court in Macon County heard it and decided against the “assault weapons” ban. The Illinois Supreme Court reversed the Macon County decision.

Judge Elizabeth Rochford wrote the majority opinion for the Illinois Supreme Court, and the Chicago Sun-Times reported that Rochford was one of two candidates Pritzker supported for court in order to “[preserve] a 5-2 Democrat majority.”

In the majority opinion, Rochford focused on trained professionals and opined that average Firearm Owner’s Identification (FOID) card holders are not trained professionals, and therefore not prepared to use guns categorized as “assault weapons.”

When plaintiffs described themselves as both FOID card holders and “law-abiding gun owners,” Rochford responded:

A FOID card holder does not have a duty to maintain public order; to make arrests for offenses; or to prevent, detect, investigate, prosecute, or incarcerate a person for a violation of law. By contrast, each of the seven categories of trained professionals must undergo specialized firearms training pertaining to their employment to maintain their exempt status under the Act.

RELATED VIDEO — Hawkins: Chicago’s New Mayor Means “Same Song, Different Verse” on Gun Policy:

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“Federal courts and state courts and two independent court systems, so the only federal court that Illinois state courts need to obey is the U.S. Supreme Court,” Breitbart News senior legal contributor Ken Klukowski explained. “If the Seventh Circuit affirms Judge McGlynn’s opinion granting a preliminary injunction, then the Illinois law will again be blocked, regardless of what the Illinois Supreme Court says.”

“The U.S. Supreme Court will eventually need to decide the question of whether these gun bans violate the Second Amendment,” Klukowski added. “We just don’t know which case the justices will eventually take, and what the specific provisions are of the law they eventually review.”

“Supporters of the Second Amendment will want to make sure the right statute gets teed up for review, and that the right lawyers are arguing the case,” Klukowski concluded.

The case is Caulkins v. Pritzker, No. 129453 in the Illinois Supreme Court.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010, a speaker at the 2023 Western Conservative Summit, and he holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.