Leading Firearms Industry Association Files Lawsuit to Block Enforcement of Illinois Gun & Magazine Prohibition
Jose Nino
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At the end of January, the National Sports Shooting Foundation (NSSF) filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to prevent state law enforcement from carrying out HB 5471, a law which bans the sale of hundreds of rifles that millions of lawful Americans have owned for years. In addition, the law prohibits the possession of standard-capacity magazines and certain models of semi-automatic handguns. Jim Grant of AmmoLand declared that “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,” stated 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 a very expansive gun control law. Grant noted that it “bans the sale of hundreds of models of rifles, including commonly-owned MSRs [Modern Sporting Rifles], certain semiautomatic handguns, and rifle and pistol magazines with a capacity greater than 10 and 15 ammunition cartridges, respectively.”
He added that “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.”
Illinois’ gun-grabbing ways must be resisted at all costs. Indeed, its Democratic trifecta, especially 41-18 control in the State Senate and 78-39 control in the State House, effectively makes it impossible for any legislative reforms to take place at the state level. As a result, gun owners must turn to the courts or nullify unconstitutional gun control edicts.
That’s how the political game plays out in blue states and the Right must adjust accordingly.
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