Biden administration commends new assault weapon ban in Illinois

Illinois joins eight different US states, together with California and New York, in banning the sale of military-style firearms.

The ban comes after seven individuals had been killed in a mass capturing throughout the Fourth of July vacation at Highland Park, Illinois [File: Nam Y. Huh/AP Photo]

Illinois has turn out to be the ninth state in america to ban the sale of assault weapons, a transfer hailed by the administration of President Joe Biden, who referred to as on different states to move related bans.

Chatting with reporters on Wednesday, White Home Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre mentioned Biden “commends the management” of Illinois’s governor and legislators. The ban was handed by the state Senate on Monday, with Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signing the invoice into regulation the following day.

Jean-Pierre mentioned that Biden has “continued to press for extra motion to maintain our properties, colleges and communities protected, together with federal legal guidelines requiring background checks for all gun gross sales and a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines”.

“Within the meantime, the president continues to induce different states to hitch California, New Jersey, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Delaware, Washington, DC and now Illinois to ban assault weapons on the state stage to save lots of lives.”

The Biden administration’s efforts to handle gun violence within the US have been centered on the sale of the military-style weapons, that are designed to quickly hearth and are sometimes coupled with high-capacity magazines.

“The thought we nonetheless enable semi-automatic weapons to be bought is sick. Simply sick,” Biden mentioned in November. “I’m going to attempt to do away with assault weapons.”

Assault-style weapons have been utilized in a number of high-profile mass shootings lately, together with the final Might’s elementary college capturing in Uvalde, Texas, the place the gunman used an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle.

A federal ban on assault-style weapons had been enacted in 1994 below former President Invoice Clinton however the regulation expired in 2004. Since then, efforts to reform gun legal guidelines have repeatedly stagnated within the US legislature.

Final June, nevertheless, the Biden administration signed into regulation the most vital gun security laws in many years. It strengthened background checks, funded legal guidelines to take away firearms from individuals thought of to be a risk and closed a loophole that allowed some individuals accused of home abuse to personal weapons.

Gun management advocates broadly praised the laws, whereas noting it fell far wanting wider-reaching reforms.

Underneath the brand new Illinois regulation, the sale of a number of sorts of weapons that routinely load the following bullet after a shot, together with semiautomatic rifles and pistols with removable magazines, are banned. The regulation lists dozens of in style gun manufacturers made by US gunmakers.

Additionally banned are rifles that maintain greater than 10 bullets and pistols that maintain greater than 15. Promoting rapid-fire attachments and .50-calibre weapons is forbidden below the regulation, too. Residents who already personal such weapons will have the ability to maintain them however should register them with state police.

“No Illinoisan, regardless of their zip code, ought to need to undergo life fearing their cherished one might be the following in an ever-growing listing of victims of mass shootings,” Pritzker, a Democrat, mentioned in a press release after he signed the invoice into regulation.

He referenced the mass capturing at a July 4 vacation parade in Highland Park, Illinois, final 12 months, through which a person with a semiautomatic rifle killed seven individuals and wounded dozens of others in the midst of a couple of minutes.

Professional-gun teams have lengthy maintained that assault-weapon bans violate the “proper to maintain and bear arms” enshrined within the US Structure’s Second Modification.

🚨BREAKING: @GovPritzker swiftly signed the Shield Illinois Communities Act, which features a ban on assault weapons and huge capability magazines, amongst different gun security reforms.

This can be a main victory for Illinois! #ILLeg#HaltTheAssaulthttps://t.co/Y2EV0UU0Ya

— Brady | United In opposition to Gun Violence (@bradybuzz) January 11, 2023

Richard Pearson, govt director of the Illinois State Rifle Affiliation, mentioned the regulation impacts almost 2.5 million gun house owners within the state and that his group would sue to reverse the ban.

“Problem accepted,” the affiliation mentioned in a press release.

Brady, a nationwide group advocating in opposition to gun violence, mentioned the ban would save lives, calling it a “main victory for Illinois”.

The Gun Violence Archive, a gun violence tracker, reported 648 mass shootings within the US in 2022, outlined as firearm incidents with 4 or extra victims, not together with the shooter. The organisation documented 690 mass shootings in 2021 and 610 in 2020.

Final 12 months, the Federal Bureau of Investigations reported there had been 61 “energetic shooter” incidents within the US in 2021, up 52 % from 2020 and the best on report.

The division outlined an “energetic shooter” as somebody engaged in killing or making an attempt to kill individuals in a public area in a seemingly random style. About one in 5 “energetic shooter” incidents in 2021 had been additionally mass killings.