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In separate petitions filed Monday, the Colorado-based National
Association for Gun Rights and the Nevada-based Firearms Policy
Coalition asked the nation’s high court to reverse a decision of
the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. That court ruled 2-1 in
November not to issue a temporary injunction against the law,
finding that rights guaranteed under the Second Amendment of the
U.S. Constitution are not absolute.
The gun rights groups were among the lead plaintiffs in two of
the many federal lawsuits that have been filed beginning almost
immediately after state lawmakers passed the ban in January
2023.
The ban came in reaction to numerous mass shootings around the
country in which gunmen used high-power, rapid-fire rifles with
large capacity magazines. Among those was a 2022 mass shooting
at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park that left seven
people dead and dozens more injured and traumatized.
The National Association for Gun Rights backed a suit originally
filed in the Northern District of Illinois challenging both the
statewide ban and a local assault weapons ban enacted by the
city of Naperville. In February 2023, a federal judge in that
case refused to grant a preliminary injunction blocking
enforcement of the law pending the outcome of a trial in the
case.
The Firearms Policy Coalition backed a separate suit in the
Southern District of Illinois that also had support from the
Illinois State Rifle Association and the Second Amendment
Foundation. A judge there granted a preliminary injunction to
block enforcement of the law, saying the ban likely violated the
Second Amendment.
Both of those cases, along with others, were part of a
consolidated appeal before a three-judge panel of the 7th
Circuit, which ruled 2-1 in November not to block enforcement of
the law.
Another petition seeking to overturn an assault weapons ban in
Maryland was filed Feb, 9. The court has not yet announced
whether it will hear any of the appeals.
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