The recently-passed Illinois ban on "assault weapons" and magazines has been subjected to several federal and state court challenges. I previously posted about an adverse decision from the Northern District of Illinois, in which the court appeared to have been seriously misled by the state's "experts" about the nature of the banned firearms. Today I'd like to focus on the oral argument on motions for a preliminary injunction that recently took place before a judge whose electrifying questions and comments exhibited superior knowledge about firearms.
Oral argument on four challenges was held in Harrel v. Raoul on April 12, 2023, before Judge Stephen McGlynn of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois. Erin Murphy, counsel in Barnett v. Raoul, conducted the argument for the plaintiffs. A preliminary injunction was sought not only by the plaintiffs, but also by the defendant local state's attorney and the sheriff. Christopher Wells argued for the attorney general, the governor, and director of the Illinois State Police, in opposing injunctive relief.
Following the Supreme Court's decision last summer in the Bruen case, Ms. Murphy explained that "arms" include anything that constitutes bearable arms and all instruments that facilitate armed self-defense. Thus, "a rifle, a pistol, a shotgun doesn't become any less of a bearable arm because it has a pistol grip or a thumbhole stock." And under Heller and Bruen, the only "arms" that can be banned are those that are dangerous and unusual and therefore not in common use by law-abiding citizens.
