SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – Governor JB Pritzker says he believes his side will be successful when the at least two state lawsuits and one federal lawsuit challenging the new assault weapons ban he signed are decided on.
Speaking Thursday on what was supposed to be a conference call with reporters about his participation in the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, Pritzker said the law’s drafters worked with legal experts to make sure it was constitutional.
“The state has a lot of experience litigating over legislation or actions that a small minority oppose,” said Pritzker. “We know that it sometimes unfortunately takes time in the courts to present all of our arguments and get the right results. We saw that sometimes during COVID.”
Opponents argue that both the law itself, and the part the requires current assault weapon holders to register the weapons with the state, are unconstitutional.
“Just because somebody goes on Fox News and says that they’ve talked to lawyers and they believe it’s unconstitutional, that isn’t definitive of whether anything is constitutional or not,” said Pritzker. “It really need to go through the court system.”
Pritzker says he still feels obligated to help protect the public.
