Illinois Assault Weapons Bans Likely to Survive, 7th Cir. Says

Illinois and several municipalities can continue to enforce their bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, after the Seventh Circuit concluded they’re likely to survive constitutional scrutiny.

“Using the tools of history and tradition” as directed by the US Supreme Court, the court said the weapons regulated by the bans are more like portable nuclear weapons than handguns.

“We come to this conclusion because these assault weapons and high-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,” Judge Diane P. Wood wrote for the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

Challengers of the laws sought injunctions against their enforcement in various trial courts. The appeals court affirmed the rulings denying those injunctions, and reversed the rulings that had granted them.

Judge Frank H. Easterbrook concurred.

Judge Michael B. Brennan dissented, calling the majority’s conclusion that the regulated weapons weren’t “arms” under the Second Amendment “remarkable.”

Arrington Law Firm and Jason R. Craddock Sr. of Oak Brook, Ill., represented the parties challenging the bans. The Illinois Attorney General’s Office represented the state. Perkins Coie LLP represented Naperville, Ill.

The case is Bevis v. City of Naperville, Ill., 7th Cir., 11/3/23.