Hundreds gathered inside the Marion Cultural and Civic Center Tuesday night for a Legislative Town Hall Meeting about the recently passed assault weapons ban and other issues.
Southern Illinois' two State Senators Terri Bryant and Dale Fowler were joined by House members Dave Severin, David Friess, Patrick Windhorst, Paul Jacobs and Charlie Meier.
They explained how it took 41 days for the gun ban legislation to be introduced and then ultimately signed by Governor Pritzker.
Williamson County is one of dozens of counties that have announced they will not enforce the new law.
"It's not the place for the Sheriff to cherry pick the laws we want to enforce or not," said Williamson County Sheriff Jeff Diederich. " But, when we know a law is unconstitutional, we have no business interjecting ourselves. We're busy fighting crime. We're busy trying to interdict narcotics, stolen property and making our communities safe. We're going to focus on that."
Capital News Illinois reports three gun owners and a firearms retailer in southeastern Illinois have filed the first two lawsuits against the new law.
Richard Pearson with the Illinois State Rifle Association said more groups are prepared to file lawsuits testing the constitutionality of the law as soon as Wednesday.
Representative Severin said he would be filing a bill to repeal the weapons ban, which drew a thunderous applause from the crowd.