WASHINGTON, D.C. — NSSF®, The Firearm Industry Trade Association, filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to block state authorities from enforcing HB 5471, the recently-enacted “Protect Illinois Communities Act,” which bans the sale of several hundred of the most commonly-owned semiautomatic rifles in America, including all rifles on the very popular Modern Sporting Rifle (MSR) platform. That same law also bans the possession of standard-capacity magazines and certain models of semiautomatic handguns. This unconstitutional law unquestionably violates the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Illinois citizens and the state should be enjoined immediately from enforcing it.
“NSSF filed this motion for a preliminary injunction because every day this unconstitutional law is on the books, law-abiding citizens are being denied their right to keep and bear arms of their choosing for self-defense and other lawful purposes,” said Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel. “This ban on MSRs and other commonly-owned rifles, standard-capacity magazines and certain handguns was passed in open defiance of the Supreme Court’s Bruen and Heller decisions. The Second Amendment protects the right of a citizen to freely approach a gun counter to legally purchase commonly-owned firearms, unless, as the Supreme Court held in Bruen, the state can prove its law is part of a historic, national tradition and heritage of banning such arms – something the state obviously cannot do.”
HB 5471 is among the nation’s most expansive gun control laws. It bans the sale of hundreds of models of rifles, including commonly-owned MSRs, certain semiautomatic handguns and rifle and pistol magazines with a capacity greater than 10 and 15 ammunition cartridges, respectively. There are over 24.4 million MSRs in circulation today, more popular than the top selling Ford F-150 and hundreds of millions of standard-capacity magazines owned by tens of millions of Americans.
