United States Supreme Court Intervenes in Illinois Assault Weapons Prohibition
Jose Nino
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On May 1, 2023, Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett called for an additional response from the City of Naperville, Illinois for the city’s recently passed “assault weapons” ban.
The National Association for Gun Rights (NAGR) and its legal arm the National Foundation for Gun Rights (NFGR) contend that both the state of Illinois and Naperville bans violate the Second Amendment, which upholds an individual’s right to bear arms.
On April 26, NAGR filed for an emergency application for an Injunction Pending Appellate Review to the United States Supreme Court. Should the injunction be granted, gun owners in Naperville would receive emergency temporary relief. One prominent gun owner who would receive this relief is gun store owner Robert Bevis, whose livelihood was severely disrupted by both local and state “Assault Weapons” prohibitions. Bevis is NAGR’s plaintiff and could lose his business if he doesn’t quickly receive relief.
The City of Naperville has until noon EST on May 8, to issue a response to Justice Barrett. The request highlights the Supreme Court’s interest in granting the request for relief.
“We’re thankful the Supreme Court is taking the Second Amendment rights of Illinoisans seriously,” declared Dudley Brown, President of the National Association for Gun Rights. “Any ban on so-called ‘Assault Weapons’ is plainly unconstitutional, and now it is on the city of Naperville to explain the legal justification for their ban. Of course, there isn’t any. The bans were ludicrous from the start, and if Illinois had any sense, they would wave the white flag now and save us all some time.”
The Emergency Appeal can be found here: https://gunrightsfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/Motion-in-S-Ct.pdf
At this point, legal action is one of the last courses of action that gun owners can use to protect their Second Amendment rights in Illinois.
Illinois is an anti-gun bastion through and through. Per Guns & Ammo magazine’s best states for gun owners rankings, Illinois is ranked in 39th place, effectively making it an anti-gun safe space. Due to Democrats’ firm control of the state government, the likelihood of pro-gun reforms being passed is very low. Instead, gun owners will have to rely on legal action to protect their rights from an increasingly hostile Illinois state government.
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