West Cook News

Cook County Commissioner Sean Morrison is urging Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker to delay enforcing a new statewide assault weapons ban until the matter has been ruled on by the state Supreme Court.

"There is a strong chance that Illinois’ laws as well as the eight other states with similar weapons bans will be ruled to be unconstitutional,” Morrison said in a recent press release posted on his Facebook page. “Cases are already working their way through the federal court system, and it is only a matter of time before the Supreme Court considers these cases. Aggressively enforcing a law that is found to be unconstitutional will expose Cook County to considerable civil liability risks."

The ban, which was hastily signed into law by Pritzker after being approved in both chambers of Congress by a nearly 2-1 margin, imposes a statewide ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines.

Stressing that lawmakers have long been battling the gun lobby to enact stricter legislation, Pritzker added that while most attention has gone to "weapons of war" such as AR-style rifles like the one used in Highland Park, many mass shootings have also involved handguns modified by switches that turn them into automatic weapons.