Rock Island Today

Rock Island County Sheriff Darren Hart will not be enforcing the state’s sweeping gun ban.

He joins a long list of names of sheriffs who vowed to uphold the constitution by not implementing HB 5471 approved by the governor. 

"As Sheriff of Rock Island County, I would like to provide our citizens my position on the recent passage of Illinois House Bill 5471, also known as the Protect Illinois Communities Act,” Hart said in a statement. “Like Sheriffs across Illinois, I am disappointed and oppose the recent passage and enactment of HB 5471 that further regulates and limits the purchase of a variety of firearms for lawful gun others.” 

Hart said he is 'extremely concerned by the ongoing and escalating violence' that continues to occur in the county and Illinois. Mentioning he "will always support new tools, techniques and laws that assist in preventing and holding those that inflict harm and violence on others accountable," Hart assured he "will continue to advocate on behalf of all Rock Island County residents and our dedicated law enforcement officers.” 

“I understand our nation has witnessed frequent tragedies involving gun violence," Hart added. "I am in no way attempting to minimize the impact these events have had. However, I believe we should not limit the protections that have been guaranteed to law-abiding citizens in both the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of the State of Illinois. I will continue to work with members of the Illinois Sheriff's Association, and our elected legislators, to establish laws to address the many issues we face without infringing upon protections guaranteed in the Constitutions. Undoubtedly, there will be legal challenges to this new law at all levels. I will support any constitutional challenges that may occur.”

Nearly 90 percent of the county sheriffs have said they will not enforce the ban due to constitutional violations.

The Protect Illinois Communities Act HB 5471 redefined all semi-automatic weapons as so-called “assault weapons.” The ban affects 170 types of guns commonly available in the state. The law requires that included firearms be registered for $50 apiece. As many as five million firearms and ten million magazines in the state may be affected. Gun rights advocates have begun litigation against the state noting it is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment, Chicago City Wire reported.

Effingham County Judge Joshua Morrison issued a temporary restraining order last week. That means the law will not be applied to the 866 plaintiffs represented by Greenville attorney Thomas DeVore until it can be heard in court. “We will see if the state wants to appeal. If not, we’ll work on getting this pursued to a final ruling so we can get to the merits of these issues, sooner rather than later,” DeVore told The Center Square. The plaintiffs included 862 Illinois citizens from more than 80 counties and four licensed firearms dealers.

The Center Square has reported more Illinoisans are fighting the gun ban with another 1,690 plaintiffs joining a second lawsuit headed by DeVore’s after the Effingham County ruling. “How many plaintiffs in the second case? … I don’t want to give that away,” DeVore said. “I’m going to let the governor hang in suspense and he’ll find out … when we file this thing. I’m really pleased with the support because we’re going and we’re going to go off into federal court and we’re going to get the governor's attention in a bigger way than we’ve already got.” Of the nearly 1,700 plaintiffs across 92 counties in the second case, 62 are gun stores.

The Illinois State Rifle Association, the Firearms Policy Coalition, Inc., the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), and several gun owners from across Illinois have filed joint action in federal court against the State of Illinois over the sweeping gun ban enacted early this month. "The Second Amendment Foundation has filed a motion for preliminary injunction in its federal court challenge of the recently-signed ban on modern semiautomatic rifles and their ammunition magazines. The case is known as Harrel v. Raoul," SAF said in a news release. "Joining SAF are the Illinois State Rifle Association, Firearms Policy Coalition, C4 Gun Store LLC, Marengo Guns, Inc. and a private citizen, Dane Harrel, for whom the case is named. They are represented by attorney David Sigale of Wheaton, Ill. The motion was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois."