Donald Trump winning on Tuesday was pretty good for gun rights. Retaking the Senate was as well, and it’s looking more and more like Republicans will retain control of the House, which means that we’re unlikely to see any federal gun control for the next two years, and depending on how things go in the midterms, maybe even longer.
But the wins didn’t stop there. As Cam noted on Friday, there was a big win in the challenge to the Illinois assault weapon ban cases. Namely, there ain’t an assault weapon ban anymore. At least for now.
Unsurprisingly, gun rights groups are celebrating the win.
“This is a great victory for the Second Amendment Foundation and the right to keep and bear arms,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “The gun prohibition lobby and their bought-and-paid-for politicians just suffered a big defeat.”
Additionally, SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut said it’s time for the highest court in the last to act. “It is high time the Supreme Court weigh in and put finality to this issue once and for all. Our win today is a step in that direction, but our pending cert petition on this issue from Maryland provides the Court an opportunity to resolve this issue expediently without more unnecessary appeals in other cases.”
“We are gratified that the Court properly found that these bans violate the constitutionally protected rights of Illinois residents and visitors. As we clearly showed at trial, PICA fails even under the Seventh Circuit’s misguided test that conflicts with binding Supreme Court precedent,” said FPC President Brandon Combs.
Combs also noted there were other cases his organization was fighting, adding, “We will continue to fight forward until we eliminate every unconstitutional ban like this throughout the country. Further, we are optimistic that the Supreme Court will soon address bans like these in our Snope v. Brown case out of Maryland, which is pending the Court’s decision on our petition for certiorari. Gun owners across the United States should be confident that the ultimate victory on these issues is coming, likely soon.”
In a statement, Gun Owners of America senior vice president Erich Pratt said, “This week just keeps getting better for gun owners and worse for anti-gunners like J.B. Pritzker. We warned them to fall in line, but instead they chose to do the opposite. And, while this case took time, we are thrilled with the victory and for the citizens of Illinois. We the People deserve the right to decide how best to protect ourselves and our loved ones, not anti-gun tyrants.”
The truth of the matter is that assault weapon bans are never going to hold up to the standards laid out in the Bruen decision, and even after Rahimi broadened the scope with regard to how close analogs have to be, all such bans are on borrowed time. This will most likely be appealed, though it’s possible that Illinois will decide not to out of fear they’d lose and see similar bans overturned throughout the country.
However, we’ll have to wait and see what happens there.
Either way, it’s a pretty good week for gun rights advocates, all things considered.
