SAF Challenges ‘Assault Weapon’ Ban in Cook County, Illinois

BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation today filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois challenging a prohibition in Cook County against the possession, acquisition, gifting, transfer or carrying of so-called “assault weapons.” The case is known as Viramontes v. Cook County.

SAF is joined by the Firearms Policy Coalition and three private citizens, Cutberto Viramontes, Rubi Joyal and Christopher Khaya, all Cook County residents. Named as defendants are Cook County, Toni Preckwinkle, president of the Cook County Board and the county’s chief executive officer; Kimberly M. Foxx, state’s attorney and Sheriff Thomas Dart, in their official capacities. Plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Christian D. Ambler of Stone & Johnson. CHTD in Chicago and David H. Thompson, Peter A. Patterson and William V. Bergstrom with Cooper & Kirk, PLLC, Washington, D.C.

“The county has enacted and enforced a prohibition on semiautomatic modern sporting rifles, which they erroneously describe as ‘assault weapons,’ even though such firearms are in common use all over the country,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “As a result, the county is denying our individual plaintiffs their rights under the Second Amendment to keep and bear arms.”

The “Blair Holt Assault Weapons Ban” was adopted in November 2006 and revised in July 2013, according to the SAF complaint. It criminalized possession of so-called “assault weapons,” forcing owners of such firearms to remove them from the county, make them permanently inoperable or surrender them to the sheriff. The ban also deems such firearms “contraband” and requires the sheriff to seize them.

“This ordinance bans any semi-auto rifle that can accept a magazine of more than ten rounds, if it has any one of various cosmetic features that have nothing to do with how the firearm functions,” Gottlieb explained. “It lists a number of firearms banned under the law and the list looks like someone just scanned a bunch of scary-looking guns and added them to the roster.

“The guns on the ban list are commonly owned and used all over the country for all kinds of legitimate purposes including hunting, target shooting, competition, predator control and recreation,” he said. “Citizens have a right to own such firearms, and to ban them is an affront to the Constitution.”

The Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) is the nation’s oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 650,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control.