SE Illinois News

Darren Bailey, a former state senator and gubernatorial candidate, is part of the latest legal challenge to a sweeping assault weapons ban signed into law in early January by Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

Bailey, together with former Attorney General candidate Tom DeVore, filed a lawsuit in White County challenging the ban.

"Until JB’s tyrannical law is permanently overturned by the Supreme Court, the people of Illinois will be able to enjoy their 2A freedoms!” Bailey said on Facebook.

The Protect Illinois Communities Act, HB 5471, classifies all semi-automatic weapons as assault weapons. The ban affects 170 types of guns commonly available in the state. The law requires that certain firearms be registered for $50 apiece. As many as five million firearms and ten million magazines in the state may be affected. Gun rights advocates have begun litigation against the state claiming it is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment, Chicago City Wire reported.

In Effingham County, the assault weapons ban was stopped after Judge Joshua Morrison issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) last week. That TRO means the law will not be applied to the 866 plaintiffs represented by DeVore until it can be heard in court. “We will see if the state wants to appeal. If not, we’ll work on getting this pursued to a final ruling so we can get to the merits of these issues, sooner rather than later,” DeVore told The Center Square. The plaintiffs included 862 Illinois citizens from more than 80 counties and four licensed firearms dealers.

Bailey is among the 1,690 plaintiffs in the second lawsuit headed by DeVore after the Effingham County ruling. “How many plaintiffs in the second case? … I don’t want to give that away,” DeVore said. “I’m going to let the governor hang in suspense and he’ll find out … when we file this thing. I’m really pleased with the support because we’re going and we’re going to go off into federal court and we’re going to get the governor's attention in a bigger way than we’ve already got.” Of the nearly 1,700 plaintiffs across 92 counties in the second case, 62 are gun stores.

Central Illinois Proud has reported The Illinois State Rifle Association, the Firearms Policy Coalition, Inc., and the Second Amendment Foundation, along with several gun owners from across Illinois, have filed joint action in federal court against the State of Illinois over the assault weapons ban.

Altogether 85 of Illinois’ 102 counties have said they will not enforce the ban due to what they see as constitutional violations, according to Colion Noir.