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Ill ruling: are "assault weapons" firearms in "common use"

In Wilson v. State, at 15-19 (I have the link open in one window, but it doesn't work in another), the Illinois Supreme Court remands to the lower court to determine that and a number of other questions. It notes that Cook County's AW ban is not like a handgun ban, in that handguns are the quintessential self-protection weapon, nor can it say from the record whether they are or are not "“dangerous and unusual weapons” that are “not typically possessed by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes.”" So it remands for a hearing on these issues. It's very interesting that the court repeatedly notes there is no uniform definition of "assault weapon," so that statements about "assault weapons" in general are mostly meaningless, and that the court discusses whether the "dangerous or unusual weapon" concept was meant to be broad or narrow ("no flamethrowers allowed").

All this indicates the court is taking the right to arms issue quite seriously; if otherwise, it could just have brushed everything off with "this only bans assault weapons, which we all know must be terrible things, or they wouldn't have a name like that."

Hat tip to Gene Hoffman of CalGuns.

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