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The case Bevis v. Naperville was filed last year challenging the
city’s gun ban. Plaintiffs modified the federal case to include the
state’s gun ban enacted in January. In February, federal Judge
Virginia Kendall ruled the ban on certain weapons is “consistent”
with the “historical tradition of firearms regulation.”
Plaintiffs appealed to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals with a
request the law be blocked pending appeal. Tuesday, an appeals court
denied that motion.
G-PAC board member John Schmidt said gun control advocates got a
win, but the case continues.
“So are we impairing the right to bear arms because we limit the
ability to buy certain types of weapons, I think my common sense
answer to that is ‘no’ but we have to see ultimately what the [U.S.]
Supreme Court has to say about that,” Schmidt told The Center
Square.
Schmidt said things could get interesting with the challenge in the
Southern District of Illinois federal court where a ruling on
whether to block the law is pending before a judge.
“He is not bound by the decision that was reached earlier here in
Chicago, so he could come out differently, but he is in the Seventh
Circuit, so whatever the Seventh Circuit does now on appeal from the
Chicago case will also be binding on the judge in East St. Louis,”
Schmidt said.
The timing of the cases is unclear, but it’s expected whichever way
the cases go, the ultimate decision will be up to the U.S. Supreme
Court.
The arguments come down to whether governments can restrict access
to certain guns after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year changed
the standard for how courts are to deal with such measures. Gun
rights groups argue the government cannot ban commonly owned
semi-automatic firearms like the AR-15. Gun control groups and the
state argue they have the power to ban “unusual and dangerous”
firearms.
The federal cases are separate from the state-level challenges,
where there are four pending cases, including one from state Rep.
Dan Caulkins, R-Decatur, that will be heard by the Illinois Supreme
Court next month.
Greg Bishop reports on Illinois government and other
issues for The Center Square. Bishop has years of award-winning
broadcast experience and hosts the WMAY Morning Newsfeed out of
Springfield.
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