Illinois attorney general recognizes challenges in defending gun control laws

(The Center Square) — In defending gun control laws in Illinois and other states, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul recognizes the challenges posed by recent U.S. Supreme Court precedent on the right to keep and bear arms.

Raoul’s office is defending the state’s gun ban in federal court. Illinois is not the only place Raoul is defending gun control laws. He’s filed friends of the court briefs in other federal courts supporting gun control laws in Massachusetts, Minnesota and beyond.

“I spend a lot of time with my colleagues, my attorney general colleagues in other states, both Republican and Democrat, and we try to work collectively on issues,” Raoul told the Center Square.

Raoul and a coalition of other attorneys general filed an amicus brief Wednesday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in support of a federal statute that prevents individuals from transferring or receiving firearms outside the state where they reside, except through a federally-licensed firearms dealer, importer or manufacturer.

Earlier this month, Raoul joined 18 other attorneys general with a brief for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit urging the court to revisit an opinion striking down a Minnesota law prohibiting individuals under the age of 21 from carrying concealed handguns in public.

“There’s always a balancing act that we need to do and certainly public safety is important in that balance,” Raoul said.

But recent U.S. Supreme Court precedent on the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms in the 2022 New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen case says gun laws must comply with the text, history and tradition of gun rights, not a balancing of interests.

“Obviously the decisions that come down from the Supreme Court create a common law structure that we must follow in our arguments and our policy making,” Raould said. “Whenever we pass a law that … touches upon the Second Amendment, we have to deal with the construct that the Supreme Court gives us and so the arguments that we make and the pleadings that we file make arguments within that construct.”

A bench trial in the case challenging Illinois’ gun ban is set for Sept. 16 in East St. Louis. Plaintiffs there argue Illinois’ ban violates the right to keep and bear commonly owned firearms protected by the Second Amendment.