Assault Weapons Ban Blocked by Federal Appeals Court

This past Tuesday, a federal appeals court had denied a request to block the state’s own assault weapons ban as legal challenges are quickly apparent. Yet, it’s all because of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals having denied a request to let in an injunction, proposed by Robert Bevis, who is the firearms store owner from Naperville, which is where he appeals a ruling by the U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall. She thought the ban was “constitutionally sound.”

Bevis was going after the injunction in the past month, where the appeals court had to block the ban for himself and many others affected by the law. Illinois has had to ban the sale of military-like weapons and high-capacity magazines in a bill being signed by Governor J.B. Pritzker on January 10th. It had asked for everyone owning a specific weapon that could therefore allow it to be registered with the state police.

Additionally, the law had capped the purchase of magazines at about 10 rounds for long guns and around 15 for handguns and even rapid-fire devices, otherwise known as “switches.” These are definitely illegal since they can turn firearms into fully automatic weapons.

The signature from the Governor had come about six months after a gunman utilized an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle to kill about seven people and wound even more than 48 others.

That Was the Highland Park Fourth Of July Shooting Last Year, Right?

Yes. Unfortunately, Robert E. Crimo III had apparently thought it a good idea to open fire and attack a crowd that had been attending the Independence Day Celebration at Highland Park. The man himself was discreet and difficult to identify. Crimo used a ladder to access the rooftop where he aimed and fired at a range of victims.

Five died at the scene, while one died at the hospital. All adults. Meanwhile, the wounded had a wide diversity of age. As old as 85 and as young as 8.

That day, the shots had been fired in such a quickness, to where about 20 to 25 shots had been discharged without any awareness of how it all occurred. Paradegoers themselves were panicked enough to leave the parade route on Central Street in downtown Highland Park in such a fright, as various objects were left behind with no knowledge of what’s happened. Family members were lost, others were attacked and the whole day was pretty much overruled by the shooting that had been done on the same day of America’s freedom from Great Britain.

This won’t stop Bevis however!

The lawyers from Law Weapons & Supply, Bevis’ company, had claimed that his business had suffered because of the ban while it may feel the need to close as it wasn’t quite possible to sell the popular guns.

Judge Kendall herself has believed that assault weapons are “particularly dangerous weapons,” given that “their regulation accords with history and tradition.”

Bevis’ own lawsuit is supposedly one of the many legal challenges that are pursuing the need to overturn the state’s ban.