BELLEVUE, WA – Attorneys for the Second Amendment Foundation and its partners in one of three federal court actions challenging the ban on so-called “assault weapons” and their magazines in Illinois have filed a petition for rehearing before an en banc panel of the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The consolidated cases are known as Harrel v. Raoul, Barnett v. Raoul and Federal Firearms Licensees of Illinois v. Raoul. SAF is a plaintiff in the Harrel case, along with the Illinois State Rifle Association, Firearms Policy Coalition, C4 Gun Store and a private citizen, Dane Harrel, for whom the case is named. They are represented by attorneys Mark L. Shaw, Jennifer Craigmile Neubauer and Michael A. Danfore of Waukegan, Ill., and C.D. Michel and Anna M. Barvir of Long Beach, Calif, along with David Sigale of Wheaton, Ill., and David H. Thompson, Peter A. Patterson and William V. Bergstrom of Washington, D.C.
“In our petition,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb, “we note how the three-judge appellate panel essentially thumbs its nose at the Supreme Court’s ruling in Bruen. Without explanation, the 2-1 appeals panel majority arbitrarily found that modern semiautomatic rifles are apparently not protected by the Second Amendment even though they clearly are protected, primarily because they are in common use and are not considered ‘dangerous or unusual’ arms. The three-judge panel opinion cannot be allowed to stand.”
“Just because the appellate panel apparently disagrees with the Supreme Court on the Second Amendment,.” added SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut, “they cannot simply reject the high court’s rulings and make up their own by subjectively determining all guns on the banned list are suitable only for military purposes and therefore are not protected by the Second Amendment. We’re hopeful a full en banc panel will correct this error.”