{"id":105539,"date":"2024-11-12T23:58:06","date_gmt":"2024-11-13T05:58:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=105539"},"modified":"2024-11-12T23:59:02","modified_gmt":"2024-11-13T05:59:02","slug":"105539","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=105539","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Seventh Circuit Hears Oral Arguments in ‘Assault Weapon’ Ban Challenge<\/a><\/p>\n

No, not the challenge to the gun and magazine ban that U.S. District Court Judge Stephen McGlynn found unconstitutional last Friday. The almost half-dozen lawsuits taking on the Protect Illinois Communities Act will be heard by the Seventh Circuit as well, but not for several months. Instead, today’s oral argument is in a case called\u00a0Viramontes v. Cook County<\/em>, which is seeking to undo the “assault weapons” ban first put in place by Cook County lawmakers in the early 1990s.<\/p>\n

The ordinance, which was revised in 2006 and again in 2013, makes it \u201cunlawful for any person to manufacture, sell, offer or display for sale, give, lend, transfer ownership of, acquire, carry or possess any assault weapon or large capacity magazine in Cook County.\u201d Earlier this year U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer, a Clinton appointee,\u00a0ruled in favor of Cook County<\/a>\u00a0and dismissed the claims brought by the plaintiffs.<\/p>\n

Pallmeyer’s decision was based almost entirely on the Seventh Circuit’s denial of an injunction in yet another challenge to a semi-auto ban in Illinois. In\u00a0Bevis v. Naperville<\/em>, the appellate court ruled that both local and statewide bans on so-called assault weapons and large-capacity magazines are likely to withstand constitutional scrutiny because the arms in question are \u00a0“more like military weapons than those useful for self-defense.”<\/p>\n

That decision was authored by Judge Frank Easterbrook; a Reagan appointee with a long history of upholding Illinois gun laws. In 2009, Easterbrook ruled that Chicago’s ban on handguns didn’t violate the Second Amendment because the Second Amendment’s protections didn’t extend to state and local laws. In 2015 Easterbrook ruled in favor of Highland Park, Illinois and its ban on “assault weapons”, arguing that even if arms that were in common use were prohibited, gun owners had other options available to them if they wanted a firearm for self-defense.<\/p>\n

But Easterbrook is\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0a part of the three-judge panel that’s considering the constitutionality of Cook County’s gun and magazine ban today. Instead, Judge Diane Sykes (who’s authored a\u00a0good ruling for gun owners)<\/a>, Judge Michael Brennan, and Judge Amy St. Eve will determine whether the county’s prohibition on modern sporting rifles and ammunition magazines that can hold more than ten rounds violate the Second Amendment.<\/p>\n

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