AMGOA Staff
Pennsylvania


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Illinois' highest court upheld the state’s ban on the sale of assault weapons Friday.

The ruling came in a lawsuit brought earlier this year by a central Illinois lawmaker who argued that banning the sale of high-powered rifles and high-capacity magazines violates the state constitution.

The suit, by state Rep. Dan Caulkins of Decatur, was part of a flurry of challenges to the constitutionality of the ban after it was signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Jan. 10.

Lawmakers approved the ban about six months after a gunman killed seven people and wounded more than 48 others at the Highland Park Fourth of July parade using a high-powered rifle that was outfitted with a large magazine.

Police collected 83 shell casings after the shooting and said the shooter fired a 30-round magazine, then fired two more.

The law bans the sale, delivery, import and purchase of guns that the law defines as "assault weapons." It also makes devices known as switches, which modify guns to allow them to fire more rapidly, illegal because they turn firearms into fully automatic weapons.

https://news.stlpublicradio.org/government-politics-issues/2023-08-11/illinois-supreme-court-upholds-states-semiautomatic-weapons-ban