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Washington Gun Law’s President, William Kirk, recently highlighted a bizarre legal scenario brewing in Illinois, leaving residents tangled in the state’s complex gun laws.
In a video update, Kirk joked that Illinois, often the “silver medal platform when it comes to crazy gun laws,” could soon see its Protect Illinois Communities Act temporarily lifted by an impending injunction.
However, Illinoisans who lawfully purchase firearms during this injunction period could still find themselves in legal jeopardy if the injunction is later stayed.
Under Illinois law, residents must register any “assault weapon” purchased after January 10, 2023. Kirk explained, “The minute that injunction is stayed, you are actually in violation of the Protect Illinois Communities Act.”
SEE ALSO: Defiant Stand: Illinois’ ‘Assault Weapon’ Registration Sees Low Turnout
He emphasized the legal trap residents could face: if they bought a firearm during an injunction, the law would still require them to swear under penalty of perjury that they owned it before January 10, a clear legal dilemma.
“Obviously, you cannot sign that under penalty of perjury if you came into possession of it even though you came into possession of it lawfully sometime in October or November of 2024,” Kirk noted.
Kirk predicts a cycle of “win, stay, appeal” for the Illinois cases, expecting injunctions to be brief and subject to rapid reversal.
Should a gun owner lawfully obtain a firearm in this window, Kirk said, “Illinois may let you buy it legally but not own it legally,” underscoring the state’s complex restrictions and legal ambiguities.
Compliance is another challenge for the state, with only an estimated 1-11% of Illinois gun owners reportedly registering their firearms, despite Governor J.B. Pritzker’s claims of higher numbers.
SEE ALSO: Illinois’ Assault Weapon Registration: A Marked Failure
Kirk’s analysis found most residents are reluctant to reveal their firearms to the state—a sentiment tied to concerns about future confiscation.
“One of the biggest mountains of material that we’ve ever had to work with on this channel was, of course, the weekly updates on how many fools were actually out there in Illinois registering their firearms,” Kirk added, bluntly summarizing the compliance issue.
For Illinois residents, the choices are tricky: comply with a law they don’t believe in or risk legal consequences even if they act within the bounds of a temporary injunction.
Kirk suggests this won’t be his last video on the subject.
He encouraged gun owners in Illinois to stay updated as the legal battles evolve, expecting “things are going to move very fast and furious” in the coming months.
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What happens when the owner of registered firearms in Illinois eventually becomes deceased? Or those exempt from PICA like current and retired Illlinios LEO’s pass away? How is the executor of an estate required to proceed within the law?
Not sure how inheritence issues works with NFA but I suspect that there are huge legal gaps in the both these laws. How can any law, without provisions, for legal transfers stand a legal challege? PICA is such a bad law on so many levels and so it seem to me that NFA is worse since it has stood for so long..
my guess is that the guns will be taken by the state and the heirs will not have the guns…..gun control by attrition!
If Pritzker could, he would have a LE joint task force follow the family home from the burial service to serve a warrent on the next of kin.
With NFA weapons that have a CLEAR WILL stipulation, you are supposed to be able to transfer them to the person that the WILL lists for free. I think it is a form 5 ( Firearm is being transferred to a lawful heir or by operation of law ) With the Illinois law, that will depend on the wording of the law itself. In NY, any registered “assault weapon” is YOURS, if you die, it must be either surrendered to LE, or signed into a FFL dealer. It can NOT be transferred to anyone else in the state other than a LEO ! SO, you can not will it to your next of kin. SO, their fears may be well founded ! NY only had about 43,000 registered out an ESTIMATED 1 million or more !
In Illinois supressors, short barrel rifles, short barell shot guns and full auto rifles are restricted to a point statistical insignificance. Still, there are people that have some in IL that have full auto weapons but cannot come in from the cold. That might be the case with the unregistered PICA items unless the owners become residents of another state or the USSC strikes down the Act.