Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor has joined Attorneys General Raúl Labrador of Idaho and Todd Rokita of Indiana, and 25 other states, in filing a brief with the Unites States Supreme Court challenging Illinois’ unconstitutional ban of AR-15 rifles and their standard 30-round magazines.
“What the 7th Circuit has done with the Illinois’ ban on AR-15 rifles and magazines should frighten Americans,” said Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy. “They have decided to uphold this ban based solely on the appearance of these rifles, and have abandoned all facts concerning their use, function, and Constitutional protection. Unchallenged, what court will attempt to apply this logic to any other right we enjoy as Americans? Fighting this court decision now concerning Illinois’ assault on the Second Amendment is another step in preserving the rights of Alaskans and all U.S. citizens.”
“This ruling by the 7th Circuit is absurd at best,” said Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor. “The Second Amendment does not allow for the court to separate firearms that it deems as looking too ‘militaristic’ from the “arms” protected by the Constitution. Allowing this action by the 7th circuit to go unchallenged sets the precedent that any right in the Constitution can be diminished by mere wordplay. The Supreme Court has affirmed the second amendment repeatedly in recent years and I believe they will do so again here, given the ridiculous departure that the 7th circuit has taken from the plain language of the Constitution.”
In reviewing the law taking effect in Illinois, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision in Barrett v. Raoul found the gun ban constitutional. The Court held that the plain language of the Second Amendment and the term “Arms” does not apply to AR-15s because of their militaristic appearance. The 7th Circuit’s decision lacks any textual or historical basis. In fact, the arms the Second Amendment originally protected were those used in military combat. The 7th Circuit’s analysis bears no resemblance to the analysis prescribed by the Supreme Court of the United States.
The brief asks the Supreme Court to grant certiorari and correct the 7th Circuit’s erroneous decision, arguing that “[e]ven apart from having no basis in the text of the Second Amendment, the 7th Circuit’s artificial divide between ‘militaristic’ firearms and firearms used for self-defense is indefensible.”
This brief was also joined by Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming and the Arizona and Wisconsin Legislatures.
Original source can be found here.