Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (AP Photo/John O'Connor, File)

Yesterday, we noted that over thirty Illinois sheriffs had publicly told Illinois’ illustrious Gov. J.B. Pritzker they refuse to enforce the new gun ban and registration bill he so gleefully signed into law. The effort reached critical mass as by the end of the day with ninety sheriffs, state’s attorneys and county boards communicating the same message.

Suddenly what J.B. might have thought would be a pillar of a possible presidential campaign announcement has morphed into a political embarrassment.

Far from being a statesman or effective executive destined for national office, Pritzker suddenly looks weak and impotent in the face of widespread resistance from county sheriffs—of both parties.

Many of these sheriffs have the full support of their local state’s attorneys and county boards as well.

H/T Rob Romano

Capitol News Illinois has the (almost) latest . . .

Dozens of county sheriffs in Illinois — approximately “80-ish,” per Illinois Sheriffs’ Association head Jim Kaitschuck — say they’ll refuse to enforce a provision of a new assault weapons ban that would require owners of such guns to register them with the state.

In the wake of Gov. JB Pritzker’s signature Tuesday on the law banning the sale and manufacture of assault weapons in Illinois, many sheriffs have written nearly identical letters expressing their unwillingness to enforce the law’s requirement for registering assault-style weapons with the state.

Beginning next year, a gun owner’s failure to provide the state police with the serial numbers for assault-style rifles they own prior to Jan. 1, 2024, will be a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to 364 days in prison. The degree of charges could increase based on the number of unregistered guns.

Two or more prohibited guns would be a Class 3 felony (3-5 years in prison), so that’s nice. And when gun owners find out just how many guns are actually covered by this thing — including virtually all semi-auto shotguns (think clay shooters) — even Illinois’ most ardent FUDDs may see the light.

Judging by the compliance rates in other states with registration mandates (see here, here and here), Illinois is about to have a lot of newly minted felons.

But Kaitschuck contended it would be impossible for local sheriffs to know who in their county owns assault weapons if those gun owners don’t voluntarily comply with the law, suggesting it would be ridiculous to go door-to-door to find out.

“We have no inventory of guns bought and sold that are available to local sheriffs,” Kaitschuck said of information partially available to the Illinois State Police. “We don’t have access to it — and I’m not asking for it either, by the way.”

That sheriff is one smart cookie.

On the other end of the spectrum is Champaign County Sheriff Dustin Heuermann.

Champaign County Sheriff Dustin D. Heuerman

via WCIA . . .

With dozens of sheriffs speaking out against the controversial assault weapons ban, at least one central Illinois sheriff said his department will enforce it.

Champaign County Sheriff Dustin Heuerman said he won’t weigh in on the constitutionality of a law.

“We will always follow the law until if and when a law is found unconstitutional,” Heuerman said. “It isn’t our job to interpret a law as unconstitutional – that is the court’s job.”

Lake County’s 4-star sheriff is saying the same thing.

Sheriff John Idleburg, courtesy Lake County Sheriff

From the Lake McHenry Scanner . . .

The Lake County sheriff says he strongly backs Illinois’ newly signed law banning “assault weapons” and called semi-automatic rifles “nothing more than killing machines.”

Pritzker’s response to all the pushback has been to threaten “consequences.”  From NBC5 Chicago . . .

In a statement, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office called the messages “political grandstanding at its worst,” and said that sheriffs and departments that refuse to enforce the ban are “in violation of their oath of office.”

“The assault weapons ban is the law of Illinois. The General Assembly passed the bill and the governor signed it into law to protect children in schools, worshippers at church and families at parades from the fear of sudden mass murder,” a spokesperson said. “Sheriffs have a constitutional duty to uphold the laws of the state, not pick and choose which laws they support and when…”

“Anybody who doesn’t comply, there are consequences for that,” he said. “You don’t get to choose which laws you comply with in the state of Illinois. The State Police is responsible for enforcement, as are all law enforcement all across this state. They will, in fact, do their job or they won’t be in their job.”

“You don’t get to choose which laws you comply with in the state of Illinois,” Pritzker said. That’s rich for a guy who routinely ignores federal immigration laws.

From the State Journal-Register last year . . .

Illinois will effectively end immigrant detention and further restrict local law enforcement’s ability to cooperate with federal immigration authorities under a plan Gov. JB Pritzker signed into law Monday.

The new law targets local government agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement allowing jails to house immigrant detainees awaiting court hearings. Current contracts must end by January 2022 and new agreements are prohibited.

And more recently . . .

We’ll see who bears the consequences of passage of this blatantly unconstitutional law.

 

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60 COMMENTS

      • I Haz a Question is neck and neck with the court challenge 😃 and now Illinois and the 3rd circuit have entered the mix so going to be a wild decade. At the very least I want to see ammo vending machines before I retire.

  3. When only three counties affirmatively state that they will enforce the law, it would seem that Pritzker will have little success in enforcing it. He will have to send out the State Police. But what data does the state have that would allow them to determine who possesses “assault weapons”? Does Illinois have a gun registry? (I don’t know, but I suspect not.) Without a registry, the only persons against whom the law can be enforced are those arrested while possessing such a firearm. Weak sauce. P.S.: As I recall, Illinois has a straight walled cartridge rule for hunting, so no one can complain that this law interferes with hunting, only recreational shooting. Home defense is unaffected if the firearm is “registered.”

    • “But what data does the state have that would allow them to determine who possesses “assault weapons”?”

      The law requires mandatory registration of such weapons, so there’s you’re database, right *there*.

      That make’s it simple – The cops find someone with a weapon, and if it’s not on their database, they are *busted*, arrested, tried (or pled out), convicted, and sentenced… 🙁

  4. “We will always follow the law until if and when a law is found unconstitutional,” Heuerman said.

    Huh. So if Illinois passed laws stating that ALL firearms are banned, slavery was starting up again, and if you spoke out against any of this you’d be thrown in jail with no trial, this sheriff would say – yes, sir!

    What a good little apparatchik.

  5. Champaign County Sheriff Dustin Heuerman Will make a perfect American Nazi – he will enforce the law, the Constitution being damned. Obviously, his allegiance is to the paycheck, not the Constitution.

    • Cool it’s up to 80’ish! Fat boy should be in jail himself for felony tax evasion(his highness ripped the toilets out of his gold coast mansion to save $330000 in taxes). The porcine one got 3rd in a couple election’s before he bought the guvnership in 2018 for $100000000). He also spent millions pushing Darren Bailey for the republican candidacy. Bailey is profoundly pro-2A leading the charge against Prickster and announced he would not comply. I guarantee the State Po-leece will not risk life & limb for this Prick-stir! He’s also a leader in baby butchery…

  6. Yep, and that’s the look we got whenever we loaded the hogs onto the truck.

    (see my post in the earlier thread on this topic)

    • Cool it’s up to 80’ish! Fat boy should be in jail himself for felony tax evasion(his highness ripped the toilets out of his gold coast mansion to save $330000 in taxes). The porcine one got 3rd in a couple election’s before he bought the guvnership in 2018 for $100000000). He also spent millions pushing Darren Bailey for the republican candidacy. Bailey is profoundly pro-2A leading the charge against Prickster and announced he would not comply. I guarantee the State Po-leece will not risk life & limb for this Prick-stir! He’s also a leader in baby butchery…

  8. If the State Attorneys don’t prosecute a case this law is DOA. The Illinois Attorney General’s Office would be hard pressed to fill the void.

    As the courts at both the state and federal level have previously ruled multiple times, “Prosecutorial Discretion” is lawful and well within the purview of State’s Attorney/Prosecuting Attorney/Circuit Attorney.

  9. Really does the heart good doesn’t it? Well done all. We preemptively did the same thing down here in NC, I forget how many of our counties it was besides most, called ourselves 2A Sanctuary counties and told all the authoritarian scum to suck it. The county I live in didn’t even ask us, no public forums or assemblies. And there wasn’t one iota of protest, even amongst the city folk.

  10. Champaign County Sheriff Dustin Heuermann proudly proclaims “I’m a member of the LGBTQ community”- Enough said on that.
    Here are the counties that are second amendment sanctuary counties:
    https://sanctuarycounties.com/2021/06/28/new-illinois-second-amendment-sanctuary-state-map-update-01june2021/
    Here are the Northern counties that signed the Will Not Comply Letter:
    https://preview.redd.it/0fcat418muba1.jpeg?width=1372&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=973be586063177512473f8ba15ef0caefd3939a0
    There is some crossover downstate, those counties are saying pound sand twice JB.
    There are 1800 sworn State Police ISP and 1.4 million FOID card holders.
    Their main job is to patrol the highways – they wont be trying to violate anyone’s 4th amendment rights.
    The ISP has no idea if a FOID card holder even has a gun.
    That’s why JB wants registration in 300 days, he has said “Lets find out how many of these guns are in Illinois”, the 4473 does not state specific type of gun.
    It’s either pistol or long gun and not all long guns are on the list.
    Some of he 1.4 FOID card holders don’t even own a gun.
    This bill / “law” is mess and judges will be laughing at it when they read it.
    JB messed up large and wont be holding any federal office.
    My bet is given his age,weight, and love of fried foods is that he doesn’t make 60.
    ISRA will likely be filing suit Tuesday, Monday is a holiday.
    This law will be overturned rather quickly.
    In his haste to sign it they left IL statutes that are in direct conflict.
    When is a law not a law?
    When there is another law on the books that says the opposite.

    • It’s actually around TWO point FOUR million FOID card holders. And when I bought a black rifle in Indiana I asked the pawnshop guy “did you say AR15? on the call”. He assured me no just a rifle. But kudos to you Rob S!

      • You are correct, it is 2.4 million.
        I was running late for work.
        It’s hard to keep your facts straight and type on TTAG, get dressed and think:
        Should I get a Big Mac for a buck to go with my 1/4 pounder?
        I ended up getting 2 1/4 pounders and gave one to a co worker.
        I have been reading TTAG for years but seldom post.
        Dacian and Miner49ers constant trolling are a distraction to me.
        I have better things to do then get into with those two.
        I enjoy the articles and find other peoples views extremely interesting.
        These comments are truly a cross section of pro 2A people across the USA.
        It’s just dealing with idiots for a 10 hour shift and then posting on here just to have one of those two clowns respond is waste of my time, so I don’t post but I do read.

        My advice to you is as tempting as it is, do not move to Hammond.
        It’s a nice place to visit but gets pretty “saucy” at night in sections.
        Also avoid using McColly as your agent when you are buying.
        I had literally the shadiest agent when I was looking years ago.
        He was screwing over everyone, buyers and sellers.
        Long story short, to put it politely he lost his license and a bit more.
        He screwed over a couple of builders that had all of their money tied up.
        Millions of dollars in a bunch of townhouses.
        They weren’t amused and dealt with him in a very bad way.
        I forget the details, it was a while ago.

  11. Anyone want a good laugh (or gag), look up Jennifer Pritzker. Now that is putting lipstick on a pig.

    • I looked that up and wished I hadn’t.

      I don’t know what hit Asian buffets harder, the covid lockdown and anti Chinese sentiment or when they reopened and he/she was beating down the door trying to get back to the trough.

  12. Expel Chicago from Illinois. The state would become a haven of peace, love and liberty overnight.

    Let that cancerous mole stay and the malignancy will kill you all.

  13. Attention: JB “Briskit” I sincerely hope you got the JAB and all it’s “mandatory” follow-up Boosters like you forced all Gub-ment employees to have to keep their jobs you oinker ! That holds true for “beattle-juice Lightfoot” Gubner Hochel and the rest of the “Blue-meanies” holding office across this magnificent country ! Where I work there have been A LOT of deaths in very young people (gov’t employees) and it’s a friggin’ shame/crime all FORCED to get the JAB’s….. fortunately my company doesn’t have that policy and I am grateful for that!

  14. 18 USC 242 DEPRIVATION OF RIGHTS UNDER COLOR OF LAW….it’s a federal crime to enforce unconstitutional law.

    but the court case are coming, so…

    I mean the SCOTUS already ruled previously such bans were unconstitutional… so…

  15. It vis NOT their function to ignore or make the law and in any DEMOCRATIC system the POLICE must above all OBEY THE LAW they administer. It is NOT the function of any Police Officer If they cannot inconcience do so they should RESIGN immediately. The POLICE are NOT judges and Jury and they do not make the law> that is the job of the ELECTED LEGISLATURE and if you disagee with it you have a regular opportunity to CHANGE THE LEGISLATURE. I can absolutely assure you that in all the democratic systems I know off if a POLICE OFFICER refuse to do his duty as defined by the law he or she would pay a very high price indeed. Only in the USA is such behaviour tolerated.

    • you really have no understanding of the U.S. Constitution do you. The Constituoon is the first and primary ‘law’ and above all others and all other laws are derived from it and to be called law must obey and abide by the constitution and if they do not it is a duty to not obey and enforce such a law. A county sheriff obeying the constitution and ensuring the rights granted under the constitution are protected is obeying and enforcing the law.

      of course in the U.K. you have nothing like that, no one on the people’s level in law enforcement to intervene to protect your rights as you only have the rights your government says you have and grants thus have no frame of reference because you live in a modern day version of feudal tyranny as basically a conquered people.

    • Heil Herr Hall! Auctung peasants! The gestapo is stealing your gun’s…time for a Warsaw uprising

    • Mr. Hall, you don’t know what you are talking about. I am retired state police, and that oath I took a long time ago was to uphold the Constitution first, and the laws of Illinois second. Even had that order been reversed, the Bill of Rights trumps all else, consequently, although I found a lot of people carrying weapons in a manner that violated Illinois statutes even when doing so was a felony, I never made a single arrest for doing so. My conscience, and my oath prevented that. Further, I certainly will not comply with this latest law, and will encourage others to defy it as well. As for yourself, I don’t know what your expertise is, but it does not extend to police work, so go comment on something you actually know about.

    • Albert L J Hall, here in the US we’re an independant kind. We will gladly follow a law which is legally drawn. You see, when a law is UNCONSTITUTIONAL that is a law that must NOT be followed.

    • ‘The Law is the Law.’ You would have been chasing slaves in America prior to the civil war and jews in europe during ww2, albert.

      Genocide can only work if them citizens are rule following types.

    • You sir Hall are an absolute moronic individual with the IQ of a snail. It was established in 1945-47 Nuremberg Germany that the phrase “I was just following orders” is no excuse for violating people civil rights. We were told in the military that violating the laws as set forth in the constitution was not protected. The Sheriffs are the top elected law enforcement person in a county and their oath is too that constitution not a politician. I suggest you hie yourself off to a country more in tune with your tyrannical fascist tendencies as it’s obvious you’re a petty self serving tyrant. I suggest Afghanistan, Cuba, or Venezuela you sad sack of excrement.

  16. Well theres always the National Guard and State Police.
    Illnoise Dictatorship cant let this opportunity vanish.

      • Even if not good luck making that happen when they would probably make up a sizable percentage of the intended victims.

  17. Do not obey this thing the governor is calling a ‘law’. Not only is it its prelude to confiscation of your personal property it is tyranny. Resist this tyranny.

    Its not about the Second Amendment its self, its about the Constitution now.

    This is exactly how the British started their confiscation and imposing their gun control that precipitated the American Revolution. A confiscation in order to impose their tyranny for plans to turn the colony’s into basically one big enslaved labor production point for England like they had done to other areas they had colonized. They enacted ‘rules’ (e.g. basically law by decree) requiring firearms and gunpowder to be ‘declared’ (e.g. ‘registered’). Once declared their knew exactly who had what. In 1774 they imposed an import ban on firearms and gunpowder, and in 1774-1775 confiscations of firearms and gunpowder started and it was an intentionally violent confiscation with British troops under the 1774 Parliament passed ‘Coercive Acts’. Reasoning with the crown did not work. And the confiscations of firearms and gunpowder was the turning point where it was basically either then or become a conquered people enslaved to the crown – so this confiscation was the event that changed a situation of political tension into a shooting war.

    I’m not saying that Illinois will enslave you physically if this unconstitutional abomination of law and perversion of justice is allowed to remain – but your citizens, gun owner or not, will become a ‘conquered people’ and ‘enslaved’ by becoming always subject to the next thing they want to ban or confiscate because special political interest ‘feelz’ once this precedent is set by allowing it to continue to exist.

    The governor of Illinois has implied use of force to enforce this law, by the use of armed State Police forces to enforce the law for ban and registration.

    From a friend in the Illinois National Guard I spoke with last night, a unit commander, he told me its been hinted to the state National Guard to ‘quietly’ brush up on their ‘civil disturbance’ plans and training. He doesn’t know the extent as its been ‘suggested by hint’. He said he would refuse such an order to help enforce this law as it would be an unlawful order because it very clearly and directly in writing and intent is unconstitutional thus not lawful.

    With 90% of the county sheriffs and states attorneys and county commissions declaring this unconstitutional and they will not enforce it, and with the county sheriffs being the highest law enforcement authority in the county, on a state wide basis there are not enough State Police so the needed man power will need to come from somewhere. And that leaves the state National Guard as that source of manpower if they comply. But remember also, even in the National Guard their first duty and oath is to the highest law of the land of the Constitution of the United States.

    Back to the American Revolution; The Patriots of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, resolved: “That in the event of Great Britain attempting to force unjust laws upon us by the strength of arms, our cause we leave to heaven and our rifles.” A South Carolina newspaper essay, reprinted in Virginia, urged that any law that had to be enforced by the military was necessarily illegitimate.

    Lets see what the courts do. Its going to be struck down as unconstitutional most likely, and besides there was already SCOTUS precedent that makes such bans and forced registrations unconstitutional.

    I’m not advocating violence. But this kind of tyranny is one of the reasons why the founders saw a need to include the Second Amendment because even back then our then new government had already started imposing control over the rights of the people and had started turning them into privileges they could decide for whom they applied and leaning in the direction of repeating the British tyranny being driven by special interest to do so. The Bill of Rights came at a very critical time and it affirmed and further defined the inalienable rights we have inherently and one of these is the Second Amendment.

    To borrow a few quotes:

    “Any law which violates the inalienable rights of man is essentially unjust and tyrannical; it is not a law at all.

    …. Maximilien Robespierre ‘Dèclaration des droits de l’homme’ 24 April 1793, article 6”

    Almost all the worlds’ constitutions are documents in which governments tell the people what their privileges are which they frame as ‘rights’ but they are not inherent like ours are and can be suspended or removed by their governments when ever their government decides and without any due process – like all over Europe especially in the U.K. where its another part of that modern day form of feudal tyranny they live under as a conquered people. Out of all those other constitutions in all those other countries, our Constitution is the only one that declares the people tell the government what it is allowed to do and that applies to the states as well. You Illinois citizens, gun owners or not, make your voices heard – phone, email, protest (peaceably), pen articles, sue the crap out of them, vote them out, publicly demand their resignations, keep them always having to pay attention to your protests in public and nothing else, hound them day and night about it, make it a political optics nightmare for them and let your tyrannical governor know you will not allow this tyranny.

    • You are well-informed, and I agree with your point. As retired state police, I am curious to see how this will be treated by that agency. I am long retired, and know none of the officers currently serving in this district, but when I was still active, the good men and women in my district would have ignored this law in any way they could get away with. Most police officers are realists, and so conservative by nature, and are going to be as appalled as you and I at its passage. Except the last year of my career, everything we did or said was not recorded, and it was easy to ignore unjust, unconstitutional laws, but now officers are monitored and controlled to a ridiculous extent, and so face a real risk of serious repercussions for refusing to obey. Being suspended without pay after all amounts to a five-figure fine, and the loss of a career that often takes years to get and months of brutal training to qualify in is no easy thing to surrender on principle, so currently-serving officers have my sympathy.

  18. Just what I’ve been saying for years.

    I’d have so many class As I’d be a felon.
    Treat me like one and I’ll act like one.

    I only need one body to write a crimson colored message for the world to see. And that is where you will push people if you label them as such.

    I will not comply. All tyrants deserve public execution.

    Maybe I shouldn’t be listening to gangster beats while reading dumb shit tyrants do… Brings out the boojahideen in me a lil too much…

  19. Is it just me or does Pritzker look like a cartoon version of a political “fat cat”? Typical, old-school, Illinois Pol?

  20. So let me get this straight. The governor of illonois is going to fire all the cops that don’t do as he says. Did I get that right?

    • He can’t fire the sherrif’s. They are elected by the public in their counties, the sheriffs don’t work for the governor. So as far as firing the sheriffs he can’t fire them.

  21. So Sad to see Champaign and Lake County Sheriffs trampling on the UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION, OFF COURSE WE NEW CROOKED COUNTY WOULD ENFORCE IT AFTER ALL CHICAGO (IN CROOKED COUNTY) IS A PAWN FOR THE PRICKSTER AND HIS GANGSTER STYLE ADMINISTRATION.
    THE GOOD NEWS THE REST OF THE COUNTRY SEES WHAT JABBA HITLER IS LIKE AS HE WANTS TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT, TO RULE LIKE HIS DADDY AL CAPONEiii

  22. So Sad to see Champaign and Lake County Sheriffs trampling on the UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION, OFF COURSE WE NEW CROOKED COUNTY WOULD ENFORCE IT AFTER ALL CHICAGO (IN CROOKED COUNTY) IS A PAWN FOR THE PRICKSTER AND HIS GANGSTER STYLE ADMINISTRATION.
    THE GOOD NEWS THE REST OF THE COUNTRY SEES WHAT JABBA HITLER IS LIKE AS HE WANTS TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT, TO RULE LIKE HIS DADDY AL CAPONE

  23. “to protect children in schools, worshippers at church and families at parades from the FEAR of sudden mass murder.”
    Sorry pussies, but you have no right to be protected from “fear”. That’s all in your head.

  24. Actually we have the right to nullify unconstitutional laws. Those we hire for any government position swear an oath to enforce the Constitution of the US. Only laws that pursue owning and carrying of any firearm by peaceable citizens pass that test.

    To deliberately violate the oath and work against the rights of the ones they serve, is tantamount to treason.

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