(The Center Square) โ Nearly 1,700 plaintiffs on Monday filed a new joint lawsuit against Illinois’ ban on “assault weapons” and high-capacity magazines, an attorney announced.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker earlier this month enacted a law banning the sale of certain semi-automatic firearms and magazine capacities.
Gun stores were immediately prohibited from selling such items to anyone other than certain individuals like law enforcement.
The law grandfathers in already owned guns and magazines. Guns have to be registered with Illinois State Police by Jan. 1, 2024.
An Effingham County judge on Friday issued a temporary restraining order preventing the state from enforcing the gun ban on 866 plaintiffs who sued, including several gun stores.
With that TRO in place, the plaintiffs can buy and sell the more than 170 semi-automatic firearms and magazines that were banned by the legislature and Pritzker.
The docket for the case shows a โNotice of Interlocutory Appeal with the 5th Judicial Appellate Courtโ as Pritzker and legislative leaders promised.
Over the weekend, DeVore was signing on new plaintiffs for a separate yet similar challenge.
He answered questions during a live video Sunday.
โHow many plaintiffs in the second case? โฆ I donโt want to give that away,โ DeVore said.
โIโm going to let the governor hang in suspense and heโll find out โฆ when we file this thing. Iโm really pleased with the support because weโre going and weโre going to go off into federal court and weโre going to get the governor’s attention in a bigger way than weโve already got,โ DeVore said.
DeVore announced Monday the second case was filed in White County where he has 1,690 plaintiffs, 62 of which are gun stores, spanning 92 counties.
DeVoreโs state-level case deals with the procedural way the law was passed and enacted but does include an argument of equal protection of rights being violated, as the law exempts active duty and retired law enforcement and others in the security and law enforcement sector.
โReally, what you guys are doing right now is hiring a lawyer to defend your rights that the attorney general of the state of Illinois [Kwame Raoul] should be defending for you,โ DeVore said.
โThatโs really his job is to defend you. Heโs not defending you. Heโs defending the governor,โ DeVore said.
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul defended the gun ban earlier this month.
โOnce the legislature passes legislation and the governor attaches his signature to it, itโs the law of the land,โ Raoul said.
A separate state-level case out of Crawford County challenges the gun ban and registry on several grounds, including the Second, Fifth and 14th amendments in the U.S. Constitution. That has yet to have a hearing scheduled.
A federal case from the Illinois State Rifle Association has sent out summonses, but a hearing date has yet to be set. A separate federal court case is expected to be filed soon.