Gun store confident SCOTUS will enjoin Naperville’s and Illinois’ gun bans

[May 10, 2023]  By Greg Bishop | The Center Square

(The Center Square) – With all the cases challenging the state’s gun and magazine ban in state and federal courts, one has made it to the nation’s highest court.

Robert Bevis of Law Weapons Supplies in Naperville sued the city over its ban last fall. He amended the complaint to include a challenge of Illinois’ ban after the law was enacted Jan. 10.

In February, Bevis appealed a ruling by a Northern District of Illinois federal judge who sided with the state and city to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, seeking an injunction while the case progressed, which was denied.

Bevis then sought relief from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett. The state and Naperville replied this week, saying Bevis hasn’t met the burden that there’s been irreparable harm, among other claims.

Bevis said Naperville is trying to put him out of business.

“We are down to about 10 to 15% of our normal business right now, which no business can survive losing that much money, OK,” Bevis said.

The state this week argued Bevis could be made whole monetarily if he does prevail in showing the gun ban is unconstitutional.

“Moreover, lost sales are precisely the type of harm that can later be remedied with monetary damages, if needed and appropriate,” Naperville’s filing to the U.S. Supreme Court said. “This is not the type of case where, for example, individuals will be denied communion or other ‘important religious traditions’ that, for some, no amount of money could later remedy.”

Bevis argued determining how much lost business he really has suffered during the prohibition of sales will be difficult. And that doesn’t address the irreparable harm done to individuals prohibited from obtaining certain firearms.

“All people that are not able to get firearms to use them in self defense, that’s irreparable harm, that's something that maybe somebody doesn't survive from because they weren’t able to get a firearm,” Bevis said. “So it’s absolutely an issue for the U.S. Supreme Court.”

And while the state and Naperville say they don’t think Bevis will succeed on the merits of his challenge, Bevis disagrees.

“The Supreme Court is going to rule that what they are doing is unconstitutional and against all of the other precedent that’s already been set in all the other Supreme Court cases,” Bevis said.

It’s unclear when the U.S. Supreme Court will make a ruling on the motion for an emergency injunction.

Other cases from the Northern District could be consolidated with cases from the Southern District of Illinois in the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. The federal cases are separate from the state-level cases where the Illinois Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on a challenge from Macon County on May 16.

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.