A trial over the constitutionality of Illinois’ ban on certain high-powered firearms ended this week after four days of arguments and now is in the hands of a federal judge who is expected to make a decision within the next few months.
The trial before U.S. District Judge Stephen McGlynn concluded in East St. Louis on Thursday. Lawyers for gun rights advocates and for the state were instructed to submit additional trial-related paperwork by Oct. 21 and a ruling from McGlynn could come a few weeks after that.
On the same day the trial ended, the Illinois attorney general’s office announced it would appeal a ruling in a separate case in which a judge found that the state’s prohibition on allowing residents with concealed carry licenses to carry guns on public transportation violated the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
A common thread in the two gun cases are arguments over a new constitutional test requiring gun laws to be historically consistent with laws on the books in the 18th century, when the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms was written. This arose from the landmark 2022 case of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, in which the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative 6-3 majority established the new standard.
For the trial over Illinois’ gun ban, the gun rights proponents, which included the National Shooting Sports Foundation, cited Bruen’s “historical tradition” test to contend the state’s ban on many semiautomatic guns, which require the trigger to be pulled once per round, is too broad because it prohibits guns that are commonly used by law-abiding citizens.
The NSSF, a firearm industry trade organization, has noted there have been more than 24 million so-called modern sporting rifles in circulation in the U.S. since the early 1990s, including many AR-15- and AK-47-type guns that are subject to the Illinois ban.
Since the gun ban was signed into law in January 2023 by Gov. JB Pritzker, the state has strongly defended its constitutionality and has prevailed against most challenges.
In April 2023, McGlynn, who was appointed to the bench in 2020 by Republican President Donald Trump, granted a preliminary injunction to temporarily block the enforcement of the gun ban. His ruling was overturned later in the year when a 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel by a 2-1 vote found “there is a long tradition, unchanged from the time when the Second Amendment was added to the Constitution, supporting a distinction between weapons and accessories designed for military or law-enforcement use, and weapons designed for personal use.”
“The legislation now before us respects and relies on that distinction,” the panel’s majority wrote.
In July, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up an appeal from gun rights advocates on the 7th Circuit decision, noting the legal challenge at the time was only in its preliminary injunction phase. But Justice Clarence Thomas, a member of the high court’s six-member conservative majority, said it should take up the full case if it comes back for review and expressed deep reservations about the Illinois gun ban’s constitutionality.
The state’s gun ban prohibits the delivery, sale, import and purchase of more than 100 high-powered guns including semiautomatic rifles, shotguns and handguns. Also banned are the delivery, sale and purchase of magazines of more than 10 rounds for long guns and 15 rounds for handguns.
Illinois’ ban also prohibits any “device, part, kit, tool, accessory, or combination of parts that is designed to and functions to increase the rate of fire of a semiautomatic firearm above the standard rate of fire.” People who owned guns covered by the ban before the law’s effective date are also required to register them with the Illinois State Police, and violators could be charged with a misdemeanor for a first offense and felonies for subsequent offenses.
Many law enforcement officials have declared that they had no intention of proactively investigating violators of the law.
The attorney general’s office filed its notice of appeal to the 7th Circuit following an Aug. 30 ruling from U.S. District Judge Iain Johnston in Rockford in favor of four people who alleged the section of Illinois’ concealed carry law that bars holders of concealed carry licenses, or CCLs, from carrying the guns on public buses or trains violated their Second Amendment right to self-defense.
While the law remains intact and the ruling only applied to four plaintiffs, their lawyer has argued it could be “arguably applicable to any CCL holder on any public transportation in Illinois,” while acknowledging its “broader applicability” needs to be made clear.
In the ruling, Johnston, also a Trump appointee, wrote that the defendants “failed to meet their burden to show an American tradition of firearm regulation at the time of the Founding that would allow Illinois to prohibit Plaintiffs — who hold concealed carry permits — from carrying concealed handguns for self-defense onto the CTA and Metra.”
In 2013, Illinois became one of the last states to adopt a concealed carry law. The measure included a number of places where permit holders were not allowed to carry guns such as government buildings, stadiums where sporting events are taking place, hospitals and public buses or trains.
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