Appeals Court Upholds Illinois Assault-Weapons Ban, Setting Up a Supreme Court Showdown

A federal appeals court has upheld Illinois' ban on semiautomatic weapons and high-capacity magazines, reversing a lower-court decision that had struck the law down and handing gun-control advocates a significant victory as the fight heads toward the U.S. Supreme Court. The 2-1 ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit was issued July 9.

Writing for the majority, the court found the restrictions "consistent with the principles that underpin our Nation's tradition of firearm regulation" — the historical test the Supreme Court established in its 2022 Bruen decision, which requires gun laws to be analogous to regulations from the founding era. The majority concluded that Illinois' limits on the most lethal categories of firearms fit within that tradition and did not violate the Second Amendment.

Chief Judge Michael Brennan dissented, arguing that the AR-15 and similar rifles are among the most commonly owned firearms in the country and are therefore "protected by the Second Amendment." His opinion echoed the central argument of gun-rights groups: that weapons owned by millions of law-abiding Americans cannot be categorically banned, and that the Illinois law sweeps too broadly.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat who championed the measure, hailed the decision as "a victory in the fight to end gun violence." The law, known as the Protect Illinois Communities Act, was passed in the aftermath of the 2022 mass shooting at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park that killed seven people and wounded dozens more. It bans the sale and distribution of dozens of models of semiautomatic rifles and limits magazine capacity.

The ruling is almost certainly not the final word. The National Shooting Sports Foundation, the firearm industry's trade association, said it plans to petition the Supreme Court to review the case. The justices have already agreed to take up a related question — whether state bans on semiautomatic rifles violate the Second Amendment — with oral arguments expected in the fall, meaning the Illinois dispute could be folded into a landmark decision on the reach of gun rights.

The outcome will carry national weight. Roughly ten states and the District of Columbia have enacted assault-weapons bans, and lower courts have split sharply over their constitutionality since Bruen upended the legal landscape. A definitive Supreme Court ruling could either entrench such laws or wipe them off the books nationwide, making the coming term one of the most consequential for gun policy in a generation.