Illinois Assault Weapons Ban: Supreme Court Makes Final Decision on Calls To Block Law

The Supreme Court has finally decided whether the Illinois assault weapons ban is illegal and decided that the gun ban stay in place. This is just the second time in six months that the justices have declined to intervene on the issue of guns.

Two lower courts have upheld the law, and the Supreme Court has now decided that it should stay in place. The Illinois assault weapons ban itself was passed after the 2022 Independence Day parade shooting that left seven people dead and 48 wounded.

According to NPR, that attack left many in the state scarred as gunmen fired 83 rounds in under a minute using an AR-15 during a 4th of July parade. This led to the gun ban that prevents people from owning semiautomatic weapons in the entire state of Illinois. It also bans magazines that enable handguns and rifles to fire off many rounds without reloading.

However, the law was challenged by an Illinois gun retailer and a gun rights advocacy group. They argued that the "ban is not consistent with the nation's history and tradition of firearms regulation and fails constitutional muster." This argument is based on the Supreme Court's ruling last year that in order for gun restrictions to be constitutional, they must be "analogous to laws on the books at the nation's founding."

Court of Appeals Previously Upheld Illinois Assault Weapons Ban

Before the appeal went to the Supreme Court, the effort to block the law also went through the court of appeals. Specifically, it was the US Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit that decided that the Illinois gun ban stays in place, prompting the plaintiffs, Robert Bevis, a gun shop owner, and the National Association for Gun Rights, to take it all the way to the highest court in the land.

According to CBS News, the 7th Circuit decided to have the ban in place because t "assault weapons and [large-capacity magazines] are much more like machineguns and military-grade weaponry than they are like the many different types of firearms that are used for individual self-defense."

Bevis was not happy with the decision, calling it "manifestly erroneous," and argued that the 7th Circuit was "literally destroying" his livelihood because the laws were forcing his gun shop out of business.

Plaintiffs Did Not Have Sufficient Argument To Ban Illinois Assault Weapons Ban, Says State Lawyers

Meanwhile, the state of Illinois itself responded to the requests to lift the ban by saying that the plaintiffs "did not satisfy the Supreme Court's high criteria for emergency relief."

"Applicants' request, which was not made by any other plaintiff in the six cases consolidated below, should be denied for essentially the same reasons that the Court denied their application in May," state lawyers argued.

The Supreme Court expanded the Second Amendment last year, and the justices have already declined multiple emergency requests to block gun control measures.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: U.S. Supreme Court leaves Illinois assault weapons ban in place - CBS Chicago