Prairie State Wire

The Illinois State Rifle Association expects, despite a judge’s ruling overturning the state’s sweeping gun ban, the case will end up in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Knowing that Protect Illinois Communities Act (PICA) proponents will continue advocating for the gun ban, ISRA will continue to fight if it reaches the highest court. 

“On Friday Illinois gun owners received a preliminary injunction that blocks Illinois’ ban on more than 170 semi-automatic firearms and magazines over certain capacities. This is a major accomplishment as our lawsuit moves forward to a full hearing,” ISRA said in a press release. “We have said from day one that this law is unconstitutional and infringes on the rights of legal firearm owners in our state. As the leader in protecting 2nd Amendment rights, ISRA LAC will not stop supporting our residents and their constitutional rights.” 

United States District Judge Stephen P. McGlynn, of the Southern District of Illinois, said in a 29-page ruling that Illinois’ gun ban - passed earlier this year - is a direct constitutional violation. 

“The Supreme Court in Bruen and Heller held that citizens have a constitutional right to own and possess firearms and may use them for self-defense," McGlynn wrote in his order. "PICA seems to be written in spite of the clear directives in Bruen and Heller, not in conformity with them.”

McGlynn’s ruling comes weeks after U.S. District Judge Lindsay Jenkins in the Northern District of Illinois upheld the ban. 

"The challenged restrictions on semiautomatic weapons and large-capacity magazines … are consistent with ‘the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation,' namely the history and tradition of regulating particularly ‘dangerous’ weapons,” Jenkins wrote in that ruling.

The Illinois State Rifle Association has called out a similar ban being pushed by President Joe Biden. Biden oft-repeated advocating for gun ban legislation at a federal level, Fox News reported. ISRA Executive Director Richard Pearson encouraged people to vote. 

“Now that Joe Biden has announced his intention to run for President of the United States again, this should be a clarion call for law-abiding gun owners to get active,” Pearson said in a news release. “Biden and his cronies will stop at nothing to destroy the Second Amendment and all those who stand in the way. Every second he is president, he is entrenching antigun bureaucrats in the government to make life harder for gun owners after he is gone, executing Executive Orders to attack gun owners, the firearms industry, and firearm dealers. Another term would mean more evil does this way come.”

Biden has recently signed an executive order that would increase the number of background checks conducted before firearm sales.