The Illinois State Rifle Association, along with other plaintiffs, has filed a federal lawsuit in southern Illinois challenging the state's new assault weapons ban.
At a Legislative Town Hall Meeting Tuesday night in Marion, Rifle Association executive director Richard Pearson announced the pending filing and said the organization is prepared to take its fight to the Supreme Court.
"Our attorneys have been going through this bill since it was signed. We actually started three weeks before this bill came around. We started looking at all the parts of it looking at the various places we thought were unconstitutional...which is most if it."
Kelvin Curtis announced at the town hall meeting that his organization, the National Rifle Association, is also preparing to file a lawsuit against the bill.
A flurry of lawsuits are already being filed challenging the constitutionality of the new assault weapons ban.
During a Legislative Town Hall Meeting Tuesday night in Marion, several southern Illinois lawmakers talked about the efforts to protect Second Amendment rights.
State Senator Terri Bryant of Murphysboro said laws like the gun ban that challenge the Constitution are a slap in the face to all Americans.
"A lady sent me a note this past week and said, 'well the Constitution is over 200 years old and it's an old document.' I sent back to her, ' there's a process for changing the Constitution if there are enough U.S. citizens that believe that.' But, what's happening right now, our elected officials are trying to go an end run around the U.S. Constitution. We can't have it."
Bryant said there are aspects of the newly approved reproductive rights expansion bill in Illinois that could be up for litigation because they violate the U.S. Constitution and federal law.
