AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File

The community of Deerfield, Illinois figured it was justified in trying to issue a total ban on so-called “assault rifles.” After all, to its anti-gun sensibilities, those guns are all “icky.”

However, it seems a judge spiked the ban like it was a volleyball.

A Lake County Circuit Court judge has ruled that Deerfield, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, cannot enact a blanket ban on “assault weapons,” leaving progressive gun activists at a loss as to how to ban the AR-15. According to WGN News, the Deerfield ordinance included a blanket ban on “assault weapons” and “high capacity magazines,” two terms that the gun rights groups who challenged the legislation said were inappropriately vague, as well as a ban on “semiautomatic rifles, semiautomatic shotguns and semiautomatic pistols with detachable magazines.” The ordinance fined anyone within the city limits of Deerfield $1,000 per day until they relocated their guns to a gun club or other holding facility outside the city. The same judge issued an order temporarily halting enforcement of the ordinance almost immediately after it was enacted by the Deerfield city council, and after two Illinois-based gun rights groups filed suit. The judge, Luis Berrones, issued a final, permanent injunction Friday preventing Deerfield from enforcing the ordinance, finding that the Deerfield gun owners had “a clearly ascertainable right to not be subjected to a preempted and unenforceable ordinance,” according to the Chicago Tribune.

Boom.

The truth was, Deerfield’s ban was ridiculous at every level. All it successfully did was signal to gun-owning residents that they weren’t welcome in town.

There’s no doubt in my mind that it knew exactly the type of weapon it wanted to ban. There’s no doubt in my mind that we all know what Deerfield was talking about in its ban. While the law may have been vague, its intentions weren’t. It wanted to ban pretty much anything that would allow someone to effectively defend themselves in a violent encounter.

I fully suspect it’ll sit down with Judge Berrones’s ruling, look at the objections, and try again.

My advice to gun owners living in Deerfield is to move. The county’s not going to stop coming after your guns. Nothing is going to stop it from coming after your guns again, not even the judge’s ruling.

Meanwhile, if Deerfield passes a different law–one it can make stick–don’t be surprised to see the county become a freaking battleground as the worst of Chicago spills over into an area where the citizens have no means to resist. If that doesn’t happen, it’ll only be because Chicago’s criminal class is too lazy to travel.

At some point, we’re going to have to take aim at communities like this. Right now, we’re engaged in larger battles, but sooner or later, we’ll have to deal with the Deerfields in this country.

You don’t get to take away people’s rights and pretend you’re doing it for their good. That’s not how rights work, and it’s time communities are reminded of that through lawsuits, donations to opposition campaigns, and similar efforts.

Stupid should hurt, after all.