Chicago City Wire

A leading guns rights advocate has taken issue with a Chicago Tribune story saying that the Illinois Sherriff Association has flipped its position regarding the new law banning so-called assault weapons.

The recent Tribune story stated that “when a group of Democratic lawmakers in Illinois a decade ago proposed banning assault weapons with legislation that mirrors the state’s new gun law, the Illinois Sheriffs’ Association opposed the bill as it has now — but with one major difference. Back then, the sheriffs explicitly said the power to determine a law’s constitutionality lies exclusively with the courts, not themselves.”

Mandi Sano, spokesperson for the Illinois Gun Rights Alliance, told Chicago City Wire in an email that “as for the perceived 'flip' from 2013 to 2023, I see it as almost the same situation. In 2013, the sheriffs said it's up to the courts to determine constitutionality. In 2023, sheriffs are awaiting the court's determination of constitutionality.”

Dozens of sheriffs said they would not enforce the assault weapons ban signed into law on Jan.10 by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat. Under the law, Illinoisians are not permitted to purchase any of the more than 170 different semi-automatic firearms and magazines over a certain capacity.

The Tribune article said that the “the 10-year shift from county sheriffs respecting the courts’ role of determining a law’s constitutionality to now declaring themselves the arbiter of a law’s constitutional compliance represents an increasingly rightward tilt among law enforcement nationally toward what is known as the 'constitutional sheriff' movement."

But Sano noted that the sweeping ban in 2013 did not get signed into law, therefore the sheriffs did not have to make a statement.

“Though it seems the quote used in the statement would have been shockingly similar to what was released in January,” she said. “They believe it is unconstitutional on its face and await court rulings.”

She added that the Tribune article “seems to take bits and pieces and evolve it into a perceived flip by the sheriffs.”

The law has been hit with a barrage of lawsuits, including one from the Sheriff’s Association filed late last month in federal court.

Sheriffs’ Association Executive Director Jim Kaitschuk did not respond to a request for comment on the Tribune story but in a recent story published in The Center Square said that “many sheriffs across the state indicated their concern about this legislation passing and ultimately being signed into law and infringing upon the rights of those legal gun owners across the state.”

There are several elements of the law the sheriffs are concerned about, the Center Square story said, including a requirement gun owners register with Illinois State Police that they are in possession of a gun defined as an “assault weapon.” The registry begins on Oct. 1.