BLOOMINGTON — Gun rights advocates and firearm-related business owners expressed uncertainty and anger Wednesday after Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed legislation banning the sale, distribution and manufacture of semiautomatic weapons.
"This bill that they passed in the General Assembly is going to impact a great majority of Illinois FOID card holders whether they realize it or not at this point," said John Boch, executive director of Guns Save Lives. "Bottom line is gun control disarms victims, not criminals, and it's un-American."
John Hoyt, owner of Guns Galore, 1205 Woodlawn Road in Lincoln, shows some of the guns that will be banned from sale under new legislation signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
Pritzker signed the bill hours after House Democrats led final passage of the measure on a 68-41 vote, and a day after Senate Democrats approved it 34-20. Pritzker and legislators acted amid warnings from Republicans and advocates that the new law was unconstitutional and would face a legal challenge.
The law gives current owners of such weapons until Jan. 1 to register gun serial numbers with Illinois State Police.
Stephen Stewart, owner of C.I. Shooting Sports in Bloomington, said the speed with which the legislation moved through the House and Senate left unanswered questions as to what owners and shops can do moving forward.
An example of one of the guns to be banned under new legislation signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker is pictured Wednesday at C.I. Shooting Sports, 700 Wylie Drive, Normal.
"Everyone is very confused with all the last minute changes in the language of the bill," Stewart said. "We're all still trying to come to an understanding of what's legal and what's not.
"Most people have a tendency to want to be law-abiding citizens, but this makes it difficult and hard for people's conscience," Stewart added.
Stewart said Wednesday the store had sold every brand of rifle in its inventory in the past few days, aside from four or five guns that they would not be able to sell in the future. All the handguns with a magazine capacity of more than 17 rounds were also pulled out of the showcases and stored away.
Although the store is focused on personal defense and tactical firearms, Stewart said the bill has reduced what they can sell by about 40%.
An example of one of the guns to be banned under new legislation signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker is pictured Jan. 11 at C.I. Shooting Sports, 700 Wylie Drive, Normal.
"We were in a phase of business where we had so many new gun owners coming in to purchase their first guns and to start enjoying gun ownership and shooting that are now faced with having to deal with this," Stewart said. "This is just the beginning of the erosion of our rights."
Catherine Franklin, of LeRoy, said she visited the Bloomington business in hopes of buying a Sig Sauer P320 handgun for competition shooting. On Wednesday, she was told that she could only buy the firearm but not the magazines due to them having a round capacity of 17.
"I really liked how it fit my hand and it has two barrels allowing me to use .22 caliber rounds for practice and 9mm for competition. It's a perfect setup," Franklin said. "We forgot a checkbook Monday, but we came in today and they can't sell us the magazines, making it useless."
Franklin, who is an firearm instructor with the Illinois Appleseed Project, said the bill villainizes gun owners for something as insignificant as magazine capacities even though most guns are sold with high-capacity magazines.
C.I. Shooting Sports customer Catherine Franklin of LeRoy speaks on Wednesday about new legislation signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Tuesday night to ban the sale or possession of semi-automatic weapons. C.I. Shooting Sports is at 700 Wylie Drive in Normal.
She worried that the new law would precede more measures that could reduce gun owners' rights one step at a time.
"People need to get their head out of the sand and realize that it's not just high-capacity rifles, they're going after all of our rights as Americans and this is just the start," Franklin said.
John Hoyt, owner of Guns Galore in Lincoln, said the law could easily put him out of business, due to the limits on "assault-style" weapons and magazines that hold more than 10 rounds.
"All of my best sellers fall in that category," he said.
John Hoyt displays the cartridge of a Sargun semi-automatic handgun that holds 15 rounds at Guns Galore, 1205 Woodlawn Road, Lincoln.
He plans to look at what options remain, such as selling to out-of-state buyers.
He said he does not believe criminals will abide by the new law and doubts that the restrictions will do much to hamper organized crime. Disrupting gang activity is the only way to change things, Hoyt said.
Attempts to limit weapons in these categories are not unique to Illinois or to the Pritzker administration in Illinois history, he said. He also questioned the constitutionality of the new law, noting that other restrictions had faced legal challenges.
"My first though was this is not going to fly, because it's clearly unconstitutional," Hoyt said.
Boch, the Guns Save Lives leader, said noted that the effort to achieve the ban accelerated last year after a mass shooting at the Fourth of July parade in Highland Park. The alleged shooter used an AR-15 style of weapon.
Facing a statewide semi-automatic firearm ban, John Hoyt, owner of Guns Galore, talks about his shop on Wednesday. The store has been at 1205 Woodlawn Road in Lincoln since 2006.
"Why is it that when people from a majority white community get shot at that they spur into action while people throughout Chicago are getting killed on a weekly, if not daily basis, and nothing was pushed?" said Boch, of Bloomington. "Riddle me that."
Boch said gun rights organizations were gearing up to file a restraining order against the state to stop the bill from being implemented.
In conjunction with the Illinois House Freedom Caucus, Federal Firearm Licensees of Illinois, the Illinois State Rifle Association and others, they plan to appeal to each level of the court system all the way up the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary, Boch said.
"It's going to get tied up in court and ultimately we're going to prevail on it," Boch said. "We're going to rub their noses in the humiliation of defeat."
Stewart said he hoped the lawsuit is effective but still thinks people should not depend on a favorable outcome because "in Illinois, anything is possible."
"I would tell people in the short term to sit back, relax and take a deep breath. The fight to overturn an unjust law is going to continue, but there is time in the law to let the process take place," Stewart said. "What they can do now is have a full understanding of what the law is about before they make any irrational decisions.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed legislation on Tuesday banning the sale or possession of semiautomatic weapons.
"We're still going to be here promoting shooting sports and the enjoyment of shooting, and if people have questions, they're always welcome to contact us, come in and have a discussion," he said. "There are still a lot of guns that are adequate and awesome and can be sold."
Owners of Darnall's Gun Works & Ranges in Bloomington declined to comment directly on the law, noting the likely pending litigation, but generally said they felt it would negatively affect their business.
D. Jack Alkire contributed to this story.
A previous version of this article miswrote John Boch's name as John Doch.
After Supreme Court gun decision, what’s next?
What exactly was the Supreme Court ruling on guns?
The Supreme Court said that Americans have a right to carry firearms in public for self-defense. That's important because about half a dozen states have conditioned getting a license to carry a gun in public on the person demonstrating an actual need — sometimes called "good cause" or "proper cause" — to carry the weapon. That limits who can carry a weapon in those states.
In its decision, the Supreme Court struck down New York's "proper cause" requirement, but other states' laws are expected to face quick challenges. About one-quarter of the U.S. population lives in states expected to be affected by the ruling.
The last time the court issued major gun decisions was in 2008 and 2010. In those decisions the justices established a nationwide right to keep a gun for self-defense in a person's home. The question for the court this time was just about carrying a gun outside the home.
Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the court's majority opinion that the right extended outside the home as well: "Nothing in the Second Amendment's text draws a home/public distinction with respect to the right to keep and bear arms."
How did the justices rule?
The gun ruling split the court 6-3, with the court's conservative justices in the majority and its liberals in dissent. In addition to Thomas, the majority opinion was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. The court's three liberals who dissented are justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
What other states are likely to be impacted?
A handful of states have laws similar to New York's. The Biden administration has counted California, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island as all having laws similar to New York's. Connecticut and Delaware are also sometimes mentioned as states with similar laws.
Are New Yorkers now free to carry a gun in public?
Not exactly. The justices didn't touch other parts of New York's gun law, so other requirements to get a license remain. The court made it clear that the state can continue to make people apply for a license to carry a handgun, and can put limitations on who qualifies for a permit and where a weapon can be carried. In the future, however, New Yorkers will no longer be required to give a specific reason why they want to be able to carry a gun in public.
The decision also doesn't take effect immediately and state lawmakers said Thursday that they were planning to overhaul the licensing rules this summer. They have yet to detail their plans. Some options under discussion include requiring firearms training and a clean criminal record. The state might also prohibit handguns from being carried in certain places, like near schools or on public transit.
In addition, the decision does not address the law that recently passed in New York in response to the Buffalo grocery store massacre that among things, banned anyone under age 21 from buying or possessing a semi-automatic rifle.
What can states do to regulate guns after the decision?
Justice Brett Kavanaugh, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, noted the limits of the decision. States can still require people to get a license to carry a gun, Kavanaugh wrote, and condition that license on "fingerprinting, a background check, a mental health records check, and training in firearms handling and in laws regarding the use of force, among other possible requirements." Gun control groups said states could revisit and perhaps increase those requirements. States can also say those with a license to carry a gun must not do so openly but must conceal their weapon.
Justice Samuel Alito noted that the decision said "nothing about who may lawfully possess a firearm or the requirements that must be met to buy a gun." States have long prohibited felons and the mentally ill from possessing weapons, for example. The decision also said nothing "about the kinds of weapons that people may possess," Alito noted, so states might also try to limit the availability of specific weapons.
The justices also suggested that states can prohibit the carrying of guns altogether in certain "sensitive places." A previous Supreme Court decision mentioned schools and government buildings as being places where guns could be off limits. Thomas said that the historical record shows legislative assemblies, polling places and courthouses could also be sensitive places. Thomas said courts can "use analogies to those historical regulations of 'sensitive places' to determine that modern regulations prohibiting the carry of firearms in new and analogous sensitive places are constitutionally permissible."
How do courts assess gun restrictions going forward?
The court made it harder to justify gun restrictions, although it's hard to know what the new test the court announced will mean for any specific regulation.
Thomas wrote that the nation's appeals courts have been applying an incorrect standard for assessing whether such laws are impermissible. Courts have generally taken a two-step approach, first looking at the constitutional text and history to see whether a regulation comes under the Second Amendment and then, if it does, looking at the government's justification for the restriction.
"Despite the popularity of this two-step approach, it is one step too many," Thomas wrote.
From now on, Thomas wrote, courts can uphold regulations only if the government can prove that they fall within traditionally accepted limits.
Among state and local restrictions already being challenged in federal court are bans on the sale of certain semi-automatic weapons, called assault rifles by opponents, and large-capacity ammunition magazines, as well as minimum age requirements to buy semi-automatic firearms.
What other big rulings are in the works?
The Supreme Court heard arguments in the guns case back in November and a decision had been expected before the court begins its summer recess. The court has nine more opinions to issue before it goes on break and plans to release more Friday. Still waiting is a major abortion decision.
Ethical Life podcast: What do hunters say about increased gun regulations?
Interactive: Fatal mass shootings in the U.S.
Contact Mateusz Janik at (309) 820-3234. Follow Mateusz on Twitter:@mjanik99
"This is just the beginning of the erosion of our rights."
— Stephen Stewart, owner of C.I. Shooting Sports
"Why is it that when people from a majority white community get shot at that they spur into action while people throughout Chicago are getting killed on a weekly, if not daily basis, and nothing was pushed? Riddle me that."
— John Doch, executive director of Guns Save Lives
Mateusz Janik
Government Reporter
Connor Wood
Higher Education Reporter
