Judge denies state’s motion to delay response to challenge of Illinois gun ban

The state’s motion seeking a delay in its required response to a federal lawsuit challenging Illinois’ gun ban was denied Thursday.

Since Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Jan. 10 enacted the state’s ban on more than 170 semi-automatic guns and magazines of more than 10 rounds for rifles and 15 rounds for handguns, a slew of legal challenges have been filed.

In state court, four temporary restraining orders have been issued against the state from enforcing the law on named plaintiffs. Attorney Thomas DeVore, who filed three of those four cases, motioned with the Illinois Supreme Court to consolidate the cases out of Effingham, White and Macon counties.

In federal court, a Crawford County case was transferred from state court to the Southern District of Illinois. Also in the southern district are separate cases from the Illinois State Rifle Association, the National Shooting Sports Foundation and the Illinois Gun Rights Alliance.

The state has already been ordered to detail “each and every item banned” in its response to three of the federal lawsuits challenging the gun and magazine ban. That order came down Monday.

On Tuesday, Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly, Pritzker and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul sought more time to respond to a request in federal court for a preliminary injunction filed by the Illinois Gun Rights Alliance. That case differs from the three other cases in that it challenges the ban on firearms and firearms parts, not the ban on firearms and magazines.

On Thursday, federal Judge Stephen McGlynn issued his order denying the motion for an extension of time to respond.

“Although these cases have not been consolidated, the Court wishes to keep them on a similar timetable. Additionally, the Office of the Illinois Attorney General, who recently entered in this case, represents the state defendants in the other three matters that have deadlines of February 28th, March 1st and March 2nd, respectively, so there is no hardship by denying this extension,” McGlynn wrote. “As such, defendants shall respond to [the motion] for Preliminary Injunction on or before March 2, 2023.”

Now nearly five weeks into the ban, gun-rights advocate Todd Vandermyde said the hardship is being felt by many.

“The problem is that you’ve got a law that is a direct infringement on the Second Amendment and you’ve got the gun shops and the citizens of Illinois that are suffering the most because you can’t acquire stuff, the shops can’t sell stuff,” Vandermyde said, warning small businesses could close the longer the cases go on.

About 60% of inventory has been pulled off the shelves for a lot of gun shops, Vandermyde said.

“So I think it’s the Illinois gun shops and the residents that are being harmed the most at this juncture,” he said.