Pritzker Slaps Back at Cops Who Won't Enforce Gun Ban
Governor JB Pritzker speaking in Quincy Thursday.
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More than 80 county sheriffs across the state have said they won’t enforce the gun registry provisions in the recently enacted assault weapon ban.
In some fashion, most said they can’t enforce what they believe is unconstitutional.
"I believe this is not just my moral duty, but my constitutional duty to defend the citizens' right to keep and bear arms," Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell told the State Journal-Register yesterday.
Speaking at an event at the Quincy Veterans’ Home yesterday, Pritzker took law those sheriffs to task for refusing to follow the law.
“They took an oath of office to uphold the law. As law enforcement, that’s their job and I expect them to do that job,” Pritzker said. “You can have all the resolutions and declarations you want, the reality is that the laws that that are on the books, you don’t get to choose which ones people are going to follow. If you don’t like it, then go petition for a change in the legislation or in Springfield. But as it is, you don’t get to decide that [you’re] going to drive 150 miles per hour on the highway and there should be no consequences. The same thing is true about carrying out the assault weapons ban and a ban on high capacity magazines.”
Both the Illinois State Rifle Association and another outside group have promised lawsuits as early as next week challenging the constitutionality of the new law. ISRA was even looking for plaintiffs yesterday. It isn’t clear yet if law enforcement will file suit as well.
Pritzker defended the law.
“We did the right thing. It was a consensus,” he said. “There were even [two] Republican votes for it and overwhelming support across the state of Illinois, including in downstate Illinois, for this kind of a ban. Nobody’s guns are getting taken away from them. There are plenty of other weapons that aren’t covered at all by this ban. This ban is really focused on the kind of weapons that were banned by the federal government for ten years and we saw a significant downdraft in the number of people who were shot and killed as a result of the passage of that assault weapons ban. We expect the same thing to happen here in Illinois.”
It likely will be up to the courts in the end.
