(The Center Square) – Gun rights advocates aren’t surprised the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued a stay on a district judge’s ruling that the Illinois gun ban was unconstitutional.
Southern District of Illinois Judge Stephen McGlynn issued a permanent injunction last month, but put a 30-day hold on his order. Thursday, the state successfully got the appeals court to issue another stay before McGlynn’s lifted Sunday.
Attorney General Kwame Raoul praised the decision, saying the ban remaining in place during the appeal will “prevent weapons of war from being used in our schools and on our streets.”
“My office will continue to prosecute the appeal, and the Protect Illinois Communities Act remains the law of the land as the litigation is pending in the lower courts,” Raoul said.
Illinois State Rifle Association’s Ed Sullivan wasn’t surprised by the appeals court’s ruling. He said gun control advocates don’t understand firearms.
“And where’s the outcry for the deaths and the destruction of our communities in the city of Chicago yet we’re going to go after something we need to demonize to make it look like we’re doing something about violence when the reality is they aren’t,” Sullivan told The Center Square.
Gun control group G-PAC welcomed the action, which keeps the gun pan in place for now. The group said citizens will continue to be protected against weapons designed for military purposes.
“Judge McGlynn was and continues to be an outlier whose negative view of a state’s constitutional power to ban these weapons of destruction has found no support from any higher court,” said John Schmidt, a G-PAC executive committee member. “We expect that will continue to be the case.”
Sullivan said the district court showed commercially available civilian semi-automatic rifles are not military grade. He’s not sure the appeals court will be swayed and it may take the U.S. Supreme Court.
“March is critical because that’s where we could file for cert and still have a potential prospect of being in front of the U.S. Supreme Court this summer,” Sullivan said.
With the injunction against the gun ban on hold pending the outcome in the appeals court, it’s unclear when the issue will be resolved. The appeals court has yet to announce a briefing schedule.
“I don’t want to have people that are on our side to be upset about this, but I think this is a 2026 case,” Sullivan said.
There are two other challenges to local gun bans in the Seventh Circuit. Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court may consider taking a challenge to Maryland’s gun ban for their coming term.
