Today, an Illinois judge in the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit Court for Lake County, IL ruled for gun owners in the case of Guns Save Life, Inc. v. Village of Deerfield. The order issued today permanently blocks enforcement the Village of Deerfield’s gun ban.
The ordinance would have outlawed America’s favorite rifle and numerous other popular firearms along with standard capacity ammunition magazines in today’s best-selling and most used handguns and rifles.
Guns Save Life had filed the suit last year with backing from the National Rifle Association in the days after the village government unanimously passed the ordinance.
The plucky Illinois-based gun rights group soon received a temporary order blocking enforcement just days ahead of the 2018 deadline for gun owners to surrender their guns and magazines.
Additionally, the Illinois State Rifle Association filed their own lawsuit with the support of the Second Amendment Foundation. The suits were joined by the court, so today, they too share Guns Save Life’s victory.
The Village of Deerfield’s Mayor, Harriett Rosenthal, has fought vigorously to maintain her precious gun ban since it was enacted. The city publicly touted their partnership with the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence’s crack legal team.
Rosenthal also partnered with the high-powered and nationally known, white shoe law firm Perkins and Coie.
We covered some of their, uh, “novel” legal arguments earlier.
The defendants’ brief (click for .pdf) in opposition to our motion for injunctive relief argues the village’s ban on rifles is necessary “to protect the public health, safety and welfare.” Then they boldly cite criminal misuse of handguns as justification for their ban on scary-looking rifles.
Hard to believe, right? It’s true. They cite the South Carolina church killings and the attempted assassination of Gabby Giffords — both crimes committed with handguns — as reasons to ban rifles.
They also cited the Washington D.C. Naval Yard spree killing. There, a lunatic used a no-frills Mossberg 500 shotgun purchased at Dick’s Sporting Goods to kill most of his victims. He also used a handgun stolen from a murdered security guard.
Yes, the Village argues that they need to ban rifles because of criminals who used handguns and shotguns to kill people. That’s some sound logic, right? Not so much.
Wait. It gets worse. The defendants’ brief also names two domestic Islamic terror attacks as reasons to ban guns in Deerfield. Yes, they actually cited the Islamic terror attacks in San Bernardino, CA and at the Orlando Pulse nightclub as justification for taking our guns. So because the U.S. Government can’t protect us from Islamic terror attacks, the Village of Deerfield should disarm law-abiding Americans?
The brief also cites the Sutherland Springs, Texas church massacre. At the same time, it fails to note that a good guy’s AR-15 stopped the killings.
But all those high-priced lawyers couldn’t block Guns Save Life’s motion for a temporary restraining order last summer.
In the end, the judge found:
(1) The 2018 Ordinance is preempted by the FOIDCA and the FCCA and therefore unenforceable. (2) The 2018 Ordinance is a new ordnance (sic) and not an amendment of the 2013 Ordinance and is therefore preempted by FOIDCA and FCCA. (3) The 2018 Ordinance does not prohibit ownership or possession of large capacity magazines. …
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT:
1. A temporary restraining order is issued enjoining the defendant Village of Deerfield, its agents, officials or police department from enforcing any provision of the 2018 Ordinance relating to the ownership, possession, storage or transportation of assault weapons or large capacity magazines within the Village of Deerfield.
Now that temporary order has been made permanent. Deerfield traveled down a tough and expensive road to keep their beloved disarmament ordinance. And while they’ve lost in court again, it seems likely they will continue to spend taxpayer money to defend the indefensible on appeal.
Meanwhile, the law-abiding gun owners in Deerfield won’t have to worry about a knock on their door from the village police. For now at least.