North Cook News

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

The law, approved in both chambers of Congress by a nearly 2-1 margin, imposes a statewide ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines.

Morrison argued that the ban is likely to be ruled unconstitutional by the state high 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," he said in a recent press release posted on his Facebook page.

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; a recent CBS News report said.

Currently, the statewide gun law is under debate. Morrison commented that enforcing the law in the court system will only expose the Cook County area to considerable civil liability risks.

"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," he said in the press release. "Aggressively enforcing a law that is found to be unconstitutional will expose Cook County to considerable civil liability risks."