WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two gun owners advocacy groups have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Protect Illinois Communities Act, the statewide ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines passed last year in response to the Highland Park shooting.
The Gun Owners of America and the Gun Owners Foundation on Monday filed a petition asking the nation’s highest court to overturn last year’s appellate court ruling that left the law in place.
In their petition, the pro-gun groups argue that the Illinois law contradicts Supreme Court precedent by restricting access to guns in common use for lawful purposes.
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The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in November that the Second Amendment does not protect the individual ownership of “military-grade” weapons.
But according to the gun owner advocates, the 7th Circuit’s distinction improperly excludes commonly owned guns like the AR-15 from constitutional protection, since the Supreme Court has not included that limitation in its interpretation of the right to keep and bear arms.
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“But even accepting the majority’s contrived civilian-military distinction as the appropriate historical focus (it is not), Founding-era history clearly establishes a tradition contrary to the [appellate court] majority’s premise,” the petitioners argued.
“Indeed, the Founders repeatedly sought to ensure the citizenry would be as well-equipped as the military,” their petition continued. “Countless contemporaneous sources confirm the Second Amendment’s original meaning as guaranteeing armament parity between the citizen and government.”
The justices have previously declined to intervene in challenges to the gun ban, rejecting a last-minute effort to block the law in December on the eve of a key gun registration deadline at the start of this year.
Last April, U.S. District Judge Stephen McGlynn in the Southern District of Illinois granted pro-gun groups request for an injunction blocking the law from taking effect.
“Whether well-intentioned, brilliant, or arrogant, no state may enact a law that denies its citizens rights that the Constitution guarantees them,” McGlynn said in his order. “Even legislation that may enjoy the support of a majority of its citizens must fail if it violates the constitutional rights of fellow citizens.”
That ruling was overturned on appeal by the 7th Circuit.
GOA Senior Vice President Erich Pratt said his group was fully prepared to argue before the Supreme Court, though its goal was to avoid having to do so.
“We urge the Justices to hear the pleas of millions of Americans in Illinois and several other states nationwide who cannot purchase many of the commonly owned semi-automatic firearms available today because of the unconstitutional laws passed by anti-gun politicians,” Pratt said.
As of the January deadline for registering banned guns with the Illinois State Police, less than 1.5 percent of licensed gun owners had done so, WBEZ reported.
But polls show about 20 percent of gun owners own an AR-15, the nation’s best-selling rifle and one of the guns specifically banned by the Protect Illinois Community Act.
Last month, Highland Park resident Susan Goldman dropped her lawsuit challenging the city’s local assault weapons ban ordinance, which she filed 2 ½ months after the mass shooting at the city’s 2022 Independence Day parade.
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A federal judge had earlier granted a motion to dismiss pro-gun nonprofit National Association for Gun Rights from the suit.
Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering said the town was proud to have banned the possession of assault weapons and large-capacity magazines — such as the M&P 15 and 30-roud magazines allegedly used in the 2022 mass shooting — within its municipal borders more than a decade ago.
“Then as now, it is a clear articulation of one of our community’s core values: that every person has a right to live free from the threat and fear of gun violence,” Rotering said last month. “It is incumbent upon all of us to fight the devastating impact of gun violence by pursuing policies that will end mass shootings across the nation.”
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