As advocates in Lake County celebrate passage of assault weapons ban, local gun rights backers mull options

When Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed an assault weapons ban into law on Tuesday, it spurred celebration and relief for supporters in Lake County, while local opponents argued it is unconstitutional and anticipated stiff legal challenges in response.

The conversation around assault weapons has gripped Lake County in particular after a gunman fired at least 80 rounds from an AR-15 style rifle at Highland Park’s Fourth of July parade last summer, killing seven people and injuring dozens.

Highland Park politicians such as Mayor Nancy Rotering, State. Rep. Bob Morgan — who co-sponsored the successful bill — and Lake County Board members Paul Frank and Paras Parekh have frequently vocalized their desire for state and federal lawmakers to enact an assault weapons ban, and make other changes to laws around firearms in the months following the shooting.

Frank told the News-Sun that the assault weapons issue is now “very personal” for Highland Park residents and also expressed confidence that Illinois’ new ban could withstand court challenges, as Highland Park’s municipal assault weapons ban has remained intact.

“Our Founding Fathers never imagined that a citizen of our country would take a weapon of war, a semi-automatic, high-powered rifle designed specifically to kill as many people as possible, that a teenager would have a weapon like that and go into a school, a church, a synagogue to kill fellow citizens senselessly,” Frank said. “That’s not what freedom is about. People are losing their freedom because of the prevalence of these weapons of war.”

Rotering called on the U.S. Congress to follow Illinois’ lead after the ban’s advanced from the General Assembly to Pritzker’s desk on Tuesday, writing that Illinois has signaled to the “federal government that we need continued bold action to address mass shootings across our nation.”

The bill’s passage into law immediately prompted defiant responses from gun rights supporters, including from the Illinois State Rifle Association.

Former state representative Ed Sullivan of Libertyville, a lobbyist for the ISRA, said the bill, “flies in the direct face of the (New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn., Inc v. Bruen) decision, the (District of Columbia v. Heller) decision and the (McDonald v. City of Chicago) decision and is patently unconstitutional.”

“Unfortunately, Illinois Democrats don’t have lawyers that can read case law,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan echoed ISRA executive director Richard Pearson’s “challenge accepted” statement from Tuesday, noting that lawsuits are on the way. He said gun rights advocates will seek an injunction halting the implementation of the law, and that legal precedents show the law is unconstitutional.

“One of the things (Illinois Senate President Don) Harmon had said is, ‘Courts change,’ and that’s why they want to move forward with this,” Sullivan said. “Which is fine. It’s a complete waste of money. We’re just here to try and protect our rights.”

Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart praised the ban as, “one of the ways we can reduce the risk of gun violence.”

“We have a national problem with gun violence,” Rinehart said. “We are one of the few countries on the planet that has that problem.”

He said the move by state legislators shows that, “advocacy and arguments matter.”

“We can take legislative action to make ourselves safer,” Rinehart said. “And I think that’s one of the reasons why this is so important. We see an entire community with Highland Park coming together to advocate for change. Many Lake County leaders, separate from people directly impacted by Highland Park, believe in this change.”

Mayors across Lake County have offered their support for an assault weapons ban, including North Chicago Mayor Leon Rockingham Jr., who spoke before the County Board about gun violence last summer.

Rockingham, Waukegan Mayor Ann Taylor, Buffalo Grove Village President Beverly Sussman, Fox Lake Mayor Donny Schmit, Lake Bluff Village President Regis Charlot and Deerfield Mayor Dan Shapiro each signed onto a letter urging lawmakers to pass the ban.

As the new laws take effect, gun retailers around Lake County are starting to wonder what their new normal will look like.

Mike Quist, who operates Vintage Arms of Illinois in Gages Lake but does not primarily deal with assault weapons, said he received an email from the Illinois State Police on Tuesday night communicating the passage of the law.

“They tried to explain it in very broad strokes, as best as they could, but ultimately they said, ‘Go read the bill,’” Quist said. “Which is pretty funny because I doubt most of the people who worked on the bill, or passed the bill, read the bill.”

Quist said he is concerned with how a business could be “in jeopardy if you do something by mistake,” and that the law could, “make felons out of a bunch of law-abiding people for no valid reason.”

He said he believes requirements for gun owners to register their weapons and share its serial numbers with Illinois State Police could conflict with federal legal precedent, and that the ban would not decrease gun violence.

“The only people that are going to comply with it are people that weren’t going to break the law in the first place,” Quist said.

He said firearms dealers in Illinois are already subjected to more scrutiny “than most people would ever realize,” citing turnaround times on background checks, FOID card requirements and red flag laws.

Clinton Hartford, director of operations at 5 Star Firearms in Zion, said 5 Star Firearms has reached out to the Illinois State Police for clarification about what exactly the law will mean for the shop and shooting range’s daily operations.

“I don’t really have any straight comment because we’re still trying to figure things out this morning ourselves,” Hartford said.

Gun violence prevention advocate Sara Knizhnik, who recently won the District 18 seat on the Lake County Board, said the legislation would not have been possible without more than a decade of “intense advocacy” following the Sandy Hook mass shooting in 2012.

“When I first started, people advised me to never use the word ‘ban’ because if I did, no one would ever listen to me, including legislators,” Knizhnik said. “I just keep thinking about that and reflecting on how far we’ve come with the grassroots gun violence prevention movement in Illinois.”

Sullivan believes advocates praising the bill as one of the most stringent weapons bans in the country may come to regret that label.

“Good for them,” Sullivan said. “Just makes it easier to knock it down in the courts.”