Yesterday afternoon, Gun Owners of America (GOA) and the Gun Owners Foundation (GOF) filed a petition for certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court in their challenge to the Illinois ban on standard capacity magazines and so-called “assault weapons.”
These bans took effect in January 2023, and GOA quickly filed suit and secured an injunction from Judge Stephen McGlynn. As Judge McGlynn put it, the Illinois laws in question “seem to be written in spite of the clear directives in Bruen and Heller, not in conformity with them.”
Frustratingly, the anti-gun 7th Federal Circuit quickly blocked Judge McGlynn’s ruling, leaving Illinois gun owners with no choice but to request relief from the nation’s high court.
Erich Pratt, GOA’s Senior Vice President, issued the following statement:
“GOA has been at the forefront of this challenge since before the bans even took effect, and while our goal was never to have to end up before the Supreme Court, we were fully prepared 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.”
Sam Paredes, on behalf of the board for GOF, added:
“JB Pritzker and his colleagues in the Illinois General Assembly openly defied the Supreme Couret and the Constitution when they passed their ‘emergency’ bill to ban so-called ‘assault weapons.’
We are optimistic the Justices will choose to hear the case and make clear once and for all that ‘assault weapons’ bans on tens of millions of commonly owned rifles are wholly out of line with the Second Amendment.”
