{"id":925147,"date":"2026-07-10T09:05:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T09:05:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/925147\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T09:05:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T09:05:23","slug":"federal-appeals-court-upholds-illinois-ban-on-semiautomatic-weapons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/925147\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal appeals court upholds Illinois ban on semiautomatic weapons"},"content":{"rendered":"

A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld an Illinois ban on semiautomatic weapons, keeping in place a law passed largely in response to a deadly Independence Day parade shooting<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit overturns a lower court decision<\/a> that found the ban unconstitutional. The 2-1 appellate decision found that the Illinois law does not violate the Second Amendment, and its restrictions are \u201cconsistent with the principles that underpin our Nation\u2019s tradition of firearm regulation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether to adopt them is thus a decision reposed in our elected representatives, and we reverse,\u201d the appeals court said.<\/p>\n

The majority opinion also pushes back on claims made by the plaintiffs that semiautomatic weapons are not at fault for mass shootings. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe undisputed record evidence undercuts that claim, showing that the presence of assault weapons and large-capacity magazines is strongly correlated with the severity of the societal problem,\u201d the opinion states.<\/p>\n

Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker said in a post on X that the decision is \u201ca victory in the fight to end gun violence that helps keep our communities safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

The National Shooting Sports Foundation, the firearms industry trade association seeking to stop the ban, said that it is disappointed with the decision and plans to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case.<\/p>\n

The gun trade group said it agrees with Chief Judge Michael Brennan\u2019s dissent in which he wrote that the country prohibits governments from banning \u201cfirearms commonly owned for self-defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause the people have overwhelmingly chosen the AR-15 rifle and its magazine as their weapon of choice, they are protected by the Second Amendment,\u201d the judge\u2019s dissent states.<\/p>\n

The Protect Illinois Communities Act<\/a> was signed into law in 2023 by Pritzker and bans AR-15 rifles and similar guns, large-capacity magazines and an assortment of attachments.<\/p>\n

It came six months after a 2022 shooting<\/a> in which a gunman on a rooftop in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park opened fire on a parade, killing seven people and injuring more than three dozen. <\/p>\n

The law prompted immediate pushback from county sheriffs who said they refused<\/a> to enforce what they considered an unconstitutional law, while gun owners and advocates sued.<\/p>\n

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In 2024, a federal judge overturned the ban<\/a>, leaning on recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings that strictly interpret the Second Amendment right to keep and bear firearms. <\/p>\n

The injunction was set to take effect 30 days after the judge\u2019s decision. But that same day, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul filed a notice of appeal, which ultimately led to a stay in the injunction.<\/p>\n

Raoul said Thursday\u2019s decision enhances public safety. \u201cWe have seen the damage that assault weapons and large-capacity magazines can inflict, and these weapons of war have no place in our communities,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Last month, the Supreme Court announced it will consider<\/a> whether bans on semiautomatic rifles, often called assault weapons, violate the Second Amendment. In the fall, the court, which has expanded gun rights<\/a>, is expected to hear appeals challenging a ban in the Chicago area, which predates the statewide law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld an Illinois ban on semiautomatic weapons, keeping in place a law…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":925148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[356,57,2935,1819,1818,72794,2936,163359,50,80,3677,369,61,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-925147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","category-us","tag-courts","tag-general-news","tag-gun-politics","tag-il-state-wire","tag-illinois","tag-j-b-pritzker","tag-law-enforcement","tag-michael-brennan","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-shootings","tag-supreme-court-of-the-united-states","tag-u-s-news","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116894887326397088","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/925147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=925147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/925147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/925148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=925147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=925147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=925147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}