A federal judge overturned an Illinois assault weapons ban Friday, contending that the law enacted in response to the 2022 mass shooting at a Highland Park parade violated the Second Amendment in its entirety.
The 168-page ruling, by Donald Trump-appointee Stephen McGlynn, deals a sharp blow to reformers and marks the latest major court ruling to expand gun rights in the wake of the conservative-dominated U.S. Supreme Court’s sweeping reinterpretation of the Second Amendment two years ago.
The decision boosts the likelihood that the Supreme Court will eventually weigh in on whether states can restrict the sale of semiautomatic rifles, such as AR-15s and AK-47s, without running afoul of the Constitution.
“While the Court is sympathetic to those who have lost loved ones to gun violence, such tragedies are not an excuse to restrict the rights guaranteed to the Illinois public by the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution,” McGlynn wrote in his opinion.
