NSSF®, The Firearm Industry Trade Association, petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court in Barnett v. Raoul, to consider the Constitutionality of Illinois’ ban on over 1,000 models of firearms including Modern Sporting Rifles (MSRs) and standard-capacity magazines.
NSSF argues that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit erred in its judgment upholding the state’s ban on the purchase and possession of more than 1,000 previously lawful semiautomatic rifles, pistols and shotguns – including the most popular semiautomatic rifle in America. The state’s ban on these firearms, and standard-capacity magazines, violates the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
“The Seventh Circuit defiantly jettisoned the U.S. Supreme Court’s holdings in both Heller and Bruen in favor of its own invented test that impermissibly shifts the burden to citizens to prove which firearms are Constitutionally-protected by the Second Amendment,” said Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF Senior Vice President & General Counsel. “The Seventh Circuit’s decision upholding Illinois law that the state defiantly passed in the immediate wake of the Bruen decision, is a direct and open challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court’s authority. Left unchecked, the Seventh Circuit’s flagrant disobedience will give license to states and other courts to ignore the fundamental liberties enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.”
The U.S. Supreme Court’s Bruen decision chastised states that would reduce Second Amendment rights to a state-government privilege granted by bureaucrats. The Bruen decision’s “history and tradition” test rejected state attempts to inject “interest-balancing” tests, whereby states and courts would justify gun control laws by placing a thumb on the scale to rationalize infringing on rights protected from infringement by the government.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the Protect Illinois Communities Act in January 2023, and it is among the nation’s most expansive gun control laws. It bans the sale and possession of over 1,000 models of rifles including commonly owned MSRs, certain semiautomatic handguns and shotguns as well as and rifle magazines with a capacity greater than 10 cartridges and pistol magazines with a capacity greater than 15 cartridges. There are over 28.1 million MSRs in circulation today, more popular than the top selling Ford F-150, and hundreds of millions of standard-capacity magazines also in circulation. NSSF challenged the law within days of Gov. Pritzker signing the law.
