IL assault weapon ban temporarily blocked by federal judge in southern Illinois

Judge Stephen P. McGlynn, of the Southern District of Illinois, said the law known as the Protect Illinois Communities Act, or PICA, is likely to be found unconstitutional when the case goes to trial and the plaintiffs in the consolidated cases will suffer harms without a preliminary injunction to block its enforcement.

In a 29-page opinion, McGlynn acknowledged that the law was passed in the wake of a mass shooting at an Independence Day parade in Highland Park last year. But he said the "senseless crimes of a relative few" cannot be used to justify abridging the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens.

Citing a U.S. Supreme Court case that was decided less than two weeks before the Highland Park shooting, New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, he said the Constitution guarantees an individual right to keep and bear arms for self-defense.

McGlynn's decision came less than a week after another federal judge, Lindsay Jenkins, of the Northern District of Illinois, reached an opposite conclusion and denied a motion to halt enforcement of the law. Plaintiffs in that case have indicated they intend to appeal to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

"We have a federal judge ruling one way. We have two federal judges ruling another way. It's going to be appealed to the seventh circuit, and of course the next level of appeal above the seventh circuit is the United States Supreme Court. This is probably the most significant moment in what will be an ongoing battle," said ABC7 legal analyst Gil Soffer.

The law prohibits the manufacture, sale, and possession of more than 190 different types of firearms as well as many types of grips, stocks and attachments. It also bans large-capacity magazines like the ones used by the accused Highland Park shooter that enabled him to fire off more than 70 shots in just a few minutes.