U.S. District Judge Stephen McGlynn says the law bans firearms covered by the Second Amendment and is not supported by historical precedent.

The ban was signed into law in January 2023 and prohibited the sale or transfer of assault rifles and high-capacity magazines in Illinois.

Officials in the state have already filed an appeal after the Trump-appointed judge’s ruling, which cites recent Supreme Court decisions on the Second Amendment.

The case went before the appellate court only four days after a conservative federal judge declared Illinois' statewide assault weapon ban unconstitutional.

The ruling increases the likelihood that the conservative-majority Supreme Court will one day consider whether the Second Amendment protects AR-15s.

A panel of federal judges is weighing whether to overturn a Cook County ban on semiautomatic weapons in a case that could upend other local bans and call into question the statewide prohibition on the controversial class of firearms.

SPRINGFIELD – A federal judge in East St. Louis on Friday struck down Illinois’ assault weapons ban on the grounds that it violates the Second and 14 th amendments to the U.S. Constitution and issued an order barring the state from enforcing it.

The Illinois ban on assault weapons has lost a major court battle. A judge for the U.S. District Court Southern District of Illinois Stephen McGlynn has ruled Friday afternoon the state’s ban on the sale of assault weapons is unconstitutional for gun owners.

A federal judge overturned Illinois‘s ban on semiautomatic weapons on Friday, but Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-IL) has promised to appeal the ruling and attempt to restore the ban. “Despite those who value weapons of war more than public safety,