I had occasion to look over the definitions section of Illinois’ new assault weapon ban bill, and I noticed some odd stuff.

First, Illinois achieved a first-in-the-world prize: semiautomatic “assault rifles.”

Knowledgeable types understand that “assault rifle” has long had a specific meaning: a shoulder-fired, selective-fire weapon chambered for an intermediate power cartridge.

Not in Illinois now.

“Assault shotgun or rifle” means any of the following or a copy, regardless of the producer or manufacturer:

The “following is a long list of specific manufacturers’ firearms. It does include “AR15,” but…

“AR-15” (note the dash) is a registered trademark held by Colt. The patents expired, but the trademark lives on. That’s why other companies tend to call their AR variants “XXX-15” or the like. So any AR-pattern firearm made by a company not on that list would appear to have dodged a bullet, and would seem to be still legal in the state (not really, but I’ll get to that).

Some notable AR-pattern manufacturers didn’t make the list. Daniel Defense, for instance.

Farther down in the bill, “assault weapon” gets defined. That’s an “assault pistol” (similarly defined as assault rifle), assault shotgun, assault rifle, and…

(C) A semiautomatic, centerfire rifle that can accept a detachable magazine and has at least one of the following:

The list of characteristics includes the usual: folding or telescoping stock, pistol grip, flash suppressor, and grenade launcher(?). It also lists certain types of grips. Read this very carefully.

Any grip of the weapon, including a pistol grip, a thumbhole stock, or any other stock, the use of which would allow an individual to grip the weapon, resulting in any finger on the trigger hand in addition to the trigger finger being directly below any portion of the action of the weapon when firing.

That’s any stock — pistol grip or no pistol grip — that lets you grip the rifle and still reach the trigger. Should any sheriff other than Cook County try enforcing this monstrosity, I think some hunters will be very surprised to learn their hunting rifles are now assault weapons, which must be registered.

Y’all have fun with that.

Here’s a puzzler. The law has an overly inclusive definition of “assault weapon” which includes “A semiautomatic, centerfire rifle that can accept a detachable magazine and has at least one of the following.”

But it also has that separate and — overly — specific definition of “assault rifle”: “”Assault shotgun or rifle” means any of the following or a copy, regardless of the producer or manufacturer.” Every firearm listed in that section would already qualify as an “assault weapon” under the broader definition.

Why the two definitions? Did the idiot legislators (or whoever drafted the bill for them) think they were banning actual automatic assault rifles, in addition to darned near every other semiauto rifle, despite the fact that 720 ILCS 5/24-1 already banned automatic weapons?

I’ve asked Rep. Bob Morgan about this. We’ll see if I get a coherent response.

 

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