East Central Reporter

In an April 11 Facebook post, Rep. Brad Halbrook encouraged his constituents to let him know what they thought of striking down the state's gun and magazine ban.

"About a third of Illinois’ state’s attorneys want to see the Illinois Supreme Court strike down the state’s gun and magazine ban. Let me know what your thoughts are..." Halbrook wrote. 

Halbrook shared a link to a Center Square article regarding the state attorneys and the gun ban challenge. 

Madison County State’s Attorney Thomas Haine, who is part of the amicus brief in support of overturning the ban, was quoted on the matter. 

“It’s not a political issue from our perspective,” Haine told The Center Square. “We are attorneys. We are prosecutors. We took an oath to be objective about the law. From an objective legal standpoint, there is just no basis to attempt to ban the kinds of firearms that are used by literally millions of Americans in their day-to-day lives for law-abiding purposes.”

In addition, the article highlighted Rep. Dan Caulkins, who filed a lawsuit to overturn the gun and magazine ban. In late January, Caulkins announced his intent to file a suit to keep the state's ban on assault weapons and magazines from going into effect. 

“Many of my constituents who I saw and spoke with over the weekend asked me how they could get the same privilege,” Caulkins said. “I know that there’s a lot of FOID cardholders who would like to have those same protections. I would suspect that we’ll see lawsuits pop up all over Illinois in the near future.”

Halbrook protested the assault weapon and magazine ban in December when he expressed it as "a direct attack on the Constitutional rights afforded to citizens of the United States."

“A sweeping new gun control effort by Democrats has been introduced in the Illinois General Assembly and may be voted on in a Lame Duck Session in early January,” Halbrook said.

Currently, the Second Amendment protects American citizens' rights to bear arms, and Halbrook believes the ban infringes upon those constitutional rights. 

“Second Amendment Rights of legal gun owners would be severely limited under HB 5855," Halbrook said. "Within the bill, Democrats have created a new definition of 'assault weapon' to include almost every kind of semi-automatic weapon currently available to law-abiding citizens."

"This legislation represents a direct attack on the Constitutional rights afforded to citizens of the United States to protect themselves, their families, and their property.”