Metro East Sun

Madison County Sheriff Jeff Connor and Madison County State’s Attorney Tom Haine will not be enforcing the state’s gun ban.

Both said Madison County residents "can remain confident that their local law enforcement will not turn the criminal justice system against those acting within their clearly-defined constitutional rights," and "that crimes involving firearms are investigated and prosecuted according to the facts and circumstances of each case.”

“Like many of you, we are very concerned by the passage of HB 5471, which bans certain commonly-used firearms and firearm components in the State of [I]llinois,” Connor and Haine said in a joint statement. “Overnight, thousands of otherwise legal gun owners fear their Second Amendment rights are in jeopardy. We feel the duty to clarify for our citizens the policy their Madison County law enforcement leaders will adopt with regard to this new situation.” 

Haine and Connor "expect a strong court challenge to HB 5471 in short order," and "trust that this legislative overreach will not stand." 

“[W]e are acutely aware that this statute touches on fundamental constitutional issues and is in obvious tension with recent and binding Supreme Court precedent on the Second Amendment," they said. "Among other things, it bans many of the most popular firearms in America, firearms that are currently in common use for lawful purposes and which law-abiding citizens have legally owned for many years. Whatever the policy justification, such a ban is hard to square with the Supreme Court's 2022 decision in Bruen, which stated simply. 'the Second Amendment protects the possession and use of weapons that are in common use at the time.'"

According to Colion Noir, nearly 90% of the state’s sheriffs have said they will not enforce the ban due to what they see as constitutional violations.

“Therefore, pending further direction by the courts, the Madison County Sheriff's Office will not expend its limited resources to check whether otherwise law-abiding gun owners have registered their weapons with the State, nor will the Madison County Sheriff's Office be arresting or housing otherwise law-abiding individuals solely due to non-compliance with H 5471. As to possible prosecution, if the Madison County State's Attorney's Office is brought cases relating to enforcement of H8 5471, it will exercise strict prosecutorial discretion in such circumstances, ensuring that the clearly-defined Second Amendment rights of our citizens remain undiminished.” 

Otherwise known as the Protect Illinois Communities Act, HB 5471 classifies all semi-automatic weapons assault weapons. It affects 170 types of guns commonly available in the state. The law requires that those firearms be registered for $50 apiece. As many as five million firearms and ten million magazines in the state may be affected. Gun rights advocates have begun litigation against the state, claiming the law is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment, according to Chicago City Wire.

In Effingham County the ban was stopped after Judge Joshua Morrison issued a temporary restraining order last week. That means the ban will not be applied to the 866 plaintiffs represented by Greenville attorney Thomas DeVore until it can be heard in court. “We will see if the state wants to appeal. If not, we’ll work on getting this pursued to a final ruling so we can get to the merits of these issues, sooner rather than later,” DeVore, a former attorney general candidate, told The Center Square. The plaintiffs included 862 Illinois citizens from more than 80 counties and four licensed firearms dealers.

In another report, The Center Square said 1,690 plaintiffs are fighting the assault weapon ban, joining a second lawsuit headed by DeVore after the Effingham County ruling. “How many plaintiffs in the second case? … I don’t want to give that away,” DeVore said. “I’m going to let the governor hang in suspense and he’ll find out … when we file this thing. I’m really pleased with the support because we’re going and we’re going to go off into federal court and we’re going to get the governor's attention in a bigger way than we’ve already got.” Of the nearly 1,700 plaintiffs across 92 counties in the second case, 62 are gun stores.

The Illinois State Rifle Association, the Firearms Policy Coalition, Inc., the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), and several gun owners from across Illinois have filed joint action in federal court against the State of Illinois over the sweeping gun ban enacted early this month. "The Second Amendment Foundation has filed a motion for preliminary injunction in its federal court challenge of the recently signed ban on modern semiautomatic rifles and their ammunition magazines. The case is known as Harrel v. Raoul," SAF said in a news release. "Joining SAF are the Illinois State Rifle Association, Firearms Policy Coalition, C4 Gun Store LLC, Marengo Guns, Inc. and a private citizen, Dane Harrel, for whom the case is named. They are represented by attorney David Sigale of Wheaton, Ill. The motion was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois."