In a split decision, a three-judge panel of the Seventh Federal Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld Illinois recently enacted gun ban, consolidating conflicting decisions from other courts and handing Democratic Illinois Governor J.D. Pritzker a victory for a law passed in the wake of a 2022 mass shooting in Highland Park.

The law makes a differentiation between guns used for personal defense and those that can be used by “trained professionals” such as assault weapons like the AR-15. “There is a long tradition, unchanged from the time when the Second Amendment was added to the Constitution, supporting a distinction between weapons and accessories designed for military or law-enforcement use and weapons designed for personal use,” Judge Diane Wood said in the opinion. “The legislation now before us respects and relies on that distinction.”

Per the Associated Press, the case unites four suits from the Southern District of Illinois, one from Chicago, and one from a Naperville gun shop owner being supported by the National Association for Gun Rights.  The panel concluded that the plaintiffs in this case were not lucky to succeed in overturning the state ban on high-powered weapons.  In their case, NARG and gun store owner Robert Bevis made an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court to block the implementation of the law, but the Court declined in an unsigned notice.

The Illinois State Police has already started a campaign to get gun owners compliant with the law, which requires owners of certain weapons and accessories banned from sale in the state to register them with state police by January 1st or face a misdemeanor charge.  Residents could start registering their guns October 1st.  The law allows people who currently own specific banned items to keep them so long as they are registered with the state, but they cannot sell or trade the weapon.