It was reported recently by the ConservativeBrief earlier that The Illinois Supreme Court has delivered a significant victory for gun rights and 2nd Amendment advocates.
The state Supreme Court ruled that Cook County’s tax on guns and ammunition is unconstitutional and violates law-abiding citizens’ Second Amendment right to acquire firearms for self-defense.
In a 6-0 decision, Supreme Court Justice Mary Jane Theis wrote that the taxes violate the constitution’s uniformity clause, while also pointing out that the revenue from the generated tax isn’t directed toward funds or programs that reduce gun violence.
Chicago Sun Times elaborates that “While the taxes do not directly burden a law-abiding citizen’s right to use a firearm for self-defense, they do directly burden a law-abiding citizen’s right to acquire a firearm and the necessary ammunition for self-defense,” Theis wrote.
“Under the plain language of the ordinances, the revenue generated from the firearm tax is not directed to any fund or program specifically related to curbing the cost of gun violence,” she wrote.
“Additionally, nothing in the ordinance indicates that the proceeds generated from the ammunition tax must be specifically directed to initiatives aimed at reducing gun violence. Thus, we hold the tax ordinances are unconstitutional under the uniformity clause.”
That opinion, in the case of non-profit Guns Save Life Inc. versus Cook County, the county’s director of the department of revenue, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, partially reverses decisions from the Cook County Circuit and state appellate courts that upheld the taxes and sends the case back to the circuit court for summary judgment in favor of the non-profit.
Chief Justice Anne Burke took no part in the decision of the case, according to the opinion. In a separate opinion, Justice Michael Burke largely agreed with his colleagues but expressed concern that the majority opinion “leaves space for a municipality to enact a future tax — singling out guns and ammunition sales — that is more narrowly tailored to the purpose of ameliorating gun violence.”
