SE Illinois News

Illinois Rep. Adam Niemerg and local sheriff’s departments held a press conference on January 26, speaking in opposition to the assault weapons ban that was passed, saying it is unconstitutional.

Niemerg was alongside Crawford County Sheriff William Rutan, Jasper County Sheriff Brandon Francis and Lawrence County Sheriff Trenton Masterson. He thanked them for their support of the Second Amendment and constitutional rights.

“Let's focus on real solutions and let's stop infringing on the rights of honest citizens,” said Niemerg. “Our Second Amendment is not subject to a governor's political narrative or presidential aspirations.”

The law was signed on January 10 by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who maintains that it is constitutional, according to a report by NBC Chicago. It was in response to a shooting that left seven dead and 30 injured at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park. The new law limits magazine capacity to 10 rounds for long guns and 15 for handguns, and also requires people with grandfathered guns to be registered with the state, according to Niemerg's Facebook post the day of the press conference. He noted that the law also prohibits manufacturing and sale of many guns that are legal in other states. Niemerg is part of a lawsuit against Pritzker, Senate President Harmon, House Speaker Welch and Attorney General Kwame Raoul about the law.

Niemerg said the people who support the new law tell them that the ban will stop senseless acts of violence and that they have solved the crisis, but he questioned the basis for their claims.

“We have some of the most stringent gun control laws in the country, yet crime is still a major issue in the state of Illinois,” Niemerg said. “How exactly is a new law going to accomplish what they claim? If further gun control were the solution, the problem would have been solved a long time ago. Gun control advocates in Springfield are the same people who pushed the SAFE-T Act and other policies that put habitual career criminals back on the streets. Woke progressive states attorneys will not prosecute acts of gun violence in their counties, they'll call it mutual combat yet they will prosecute honest citizens who wish to exercise their constitutional right to keep and bear arms. Make no mistake about it this new law infringes on the rights of honest citizens.”

Niemerg said the new law infringes on their rights by preventing them from buying firearms that are legal in most other states. He added that it applies constitutional rights to only some citizens, and that this new law treats the Second Amendment “like a privilege rather than a right.”

“In our society, we don't provide the government a list of people who attend church or who are members of the local Rotary Club because our constitution gives us a right to freely Assemble,” Niemerg said. “We don't have to get permission from the government to exercise our rights because to do so would contradict the very nature of what a right is. Honest citizens are not the ones causing gun violence. Stripping honest citizens of their rights won't solve the problem. More laws are not the solution. We must address the root cause of gun violence. We must help troubled youth get the mental health care they need and we must as a society elevate and promote the family as the Bedrock of Who We Are.”

According to a report by the New York Times on January 20, only days after signing the legislation into law there have been three lawsuits filed in state and federal court that say the law is unconstitutional. NBC Chicago reported that the NRA argues in the lawsuit that the law “takes the radical step of banning nearly every modern semiautomatic rifle — the single-most popular type of rifle in the country, possessed by Americans in the tens of millions.”

In a report by ABC 7, DuPage County Sheriff James Mendrick said he won’t enforce the new assault weapons ban despite being urged by four members of Congress, state and county representatives and groups like Moms Demand Action. Mendrick released a statement saying “There is absolutely nothing that we are doing or not doing that would make a mass shooting more accessible in DuPage County. In fact, I have asked on multiple occasions to increase penalties on all existing gun crimes.”