On November 8, U.S. District Court Judge Stephen P. McGlynn of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois struck down as unconstitutional the Illinois law that bans most semiautomatic firearms, including Modern Sporting Rifles (MSRs), certain models of semiautomatic handguns, and standard-capacity magazines.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law HB 5471, the “Protect Illinois Communities Act (PICA),” in January 2023. HB 5741 is among the nation’s most expansive gun control laws and banned the sale of hundreds of models of rifles including commonly-owned MSRs, certain semiautomatic handguns and rifle magazines with a capacity greater than 10 cartridges and pistol magazines with a capacity greater than 15 cartridges.
NSSF, the firearms industry’s trade association, along with several co-plaintiffs, filed a legal challenge seeking to strike down this unconstitutional law and prevailed. Notably, in his decision Judge McGlynn wrote, “PICA is an unconstitutional affront to the Second Amendment and must be enjoined. The Government may not deprive law-abiding citizens of their guaranteed right to self-defense as a means of offense.” More specifically, the court held that MSRs and standard-capacity magazines are in common use and have legitimate self-defense purposes.
In his 168-page decision, U.S. District Judge Stephen P. McGlynn, a Donald Trump appointee, wrote, “As the prohibition of firearms is unconstitutional, so is the registration scheme for assault weapons, attachments, and large-capacity magazines.”
“This decision handed down by Judge McGlynn is welcomed and what we in the firearms industry have known all along: commonly-owned firearms and standard-capacity magazines are protected by law-abiding Americans under the Second Amendment,” said Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF senior vice president and general counsel. “The U.S. Supreme Court has already recognized that semiautomatic rifles ‘traditionally have been widely accepted as lawful,’ and with over 28 million of these rifles in circulation today, they are clearly commonly-owned for lawful purposes, meeting the threshold set by the Supreme Court in its Heller decision.
“Semiautomatic handguns are overwhelmingly the choice of firearms for personal self-defense,” Keane added. “This law was clearly unconstitutional and did nothing to punish criminals who choose to break the law. It only deprives law-abiding Americans from being able to exercise their full spectrum of Second Amendment rights.”
“Today, common sense prevailed with the finding that Illinois’ AWB and magazine capacity ban are unconstitutional affronts to the Second Amendment,” said Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) Executive Director Adam Kraut. “It is high time the Supreme Court weighs in and put finality to this issue once and for all. Our win today is a step in that direction, but our pending cert petition on this issue from Maryland provides the Court an opportunity to resolve this issue expediently without more unnecessary appeals in other cases.”
While the court struck down the law, it did stay its permanent injunction for 30 days to give the State the opportunity to appeal and seek an emergency stay from the Seventh Circuit, which means that the law temporarily stays in effect.
In the matter, SAF is joined by the Illinois State Rifle Association, Firearms Policy Coalition, C4 Gun Store, Marengo Guns and Dane Harrel, for whom the lawsuit is named. The case is known as Harrel v. Raoul.
Ready our previous reporting on this case here.
