Law-abiding gun owners who legally purchased a firearm that is subject to Illinois’ recent firearms ban – during the federal court injunction between April 28 and May 4 – are being told by the Attorney General and the Governor’s Administration that beginning Jan. 1, they have to either surrender those firearms or risk becoming a criminal.
On April 28, a federal judge placed an injunction on the state’s recently enacted “assault weapons ban,” which opened a period of time where it was again lawful to sell and purchase these “banned firearms.”
On May 4, a federal appeals court lifted the injunction against the ban. The Attorney General then released guidance, claiming that those firearms (which were included in the ban), but then purchased and picked up during the window between the rulings, would be illegal on Jan. 1, 2024 – the date on which firearms subject to the ban are required to be registered.
The registration process includes an affidavit where the owner is required to attest that the affected firearm was purchased prior to Jan. 10, 2023. To rectify the issue and to prevent law-abiding citizens from being turned into criminals, Amendment 1 to Senate Bill 1073, which updates the affidavit requirements to include firearms purchased during a period in which a court issued an injunction on the law. This would allow individuals who purchased “banned firearms” during