SE Illinois News

Saline County Sheriff Whipper Johnson and Saline County State’s Attorney Molly Wilson Kasiar will not be enforcing the state’s gun ban.

Both promised to continue working tirelessly to protect and ensure the safety of the community, and "uphold the rights of all individuals by enforcing genuine threats to public safety.”

"As your Sheriff and State's Attorney, we join together to express our profound disappointment in House Bill 5471, also known as the Protect Illinois Communities Act, which was signed into law by Governor Pritzker on January 10, 2023,” the pair said in a joint statement. “When we were both originally sworn into office in 2018, we swore to uphold the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Illinois. We share concerns that House Bill 5471 violates the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution, derogates our oath of office, and makes law-abiding citizens subject to arrest and prosecution.” 

Nearly 90 percent of the county sheriffs are not enforcing the ban due to constitutional violations.

HB 5471 otherwise known as the Protect Illinois Communities Act  redefined all semi-automatic weapons as so-called “assault weapons.” The ban affects 170 types of guns commonly available in the state. The law requires that included 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 noting it is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment, Chicago City Wire reported.

Effingham County Judge Joshua Morrison issued a temporary restraining order last week. That means the law will not be applied to the 866 plaintiffs represented by Greenville attorney Thomas 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, a former attorney general candidate told The Center Square. The plaintiffs included 862 Illinois citizens from more than 80 counties and four licensed firearms dealers.

The Center Square has reported more Illinoisans are fighting the gun ban with another 1,690 plaintiffs joining a second lawsuit headed by DeVore’s 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.

The Illinois State Rifle Association, the Firearms Policy Coalition, Inc., the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), and several gun owners from across Illinois have filed joint action in federal court against the State of Illinois over the sweeping gun ban enacted early this month. "The Second Amendment Foundation has filed a motion for preliminary injunction in its federal court challenge of the recently signed ban on modern semiautomatic rifles and their ammunition magazines. The case is known as Harrel v. Raoul," SAF said in a news release. "Joining SAF are the Illinois State Rifle Association, Firearms Policy Coalition, C4 Gun Store LLC, Marengo Guns, Inc. and a private citizen, Dane Harrel, for whom the case is named. They are represented by attorney David Sigale of Wheaton, Ill. The motion was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois."