Kendall County state’s attorney calls weapons ban unconstitutional

Kendall County State’s Attorney Eric Weis is calling the new state semi-automatic weapons ban unconstitutional and will not prosecute any cases arising from violations of the law until its legality has been decided.

“Professionally, I believe that portions, if not all of the new law, are infringements on the constitutional rights of Illinois residents and are therefore unconstitutional,” Weis declared in an open letter addressed to Kendall County chief law enforcement officers.

“It is clear that litigation on this issue will be inevitable,” Weis said, noting that unlike the pretrial provisions of the SAFE-T Act, the weapons ban became effective immediately, without judicial review.

“Therefore, until the constitutionality of this law is decided, any investigation requesting criminal charges solely based on a violation [of the new law] will be stayed indefinitely,” Weis advised local police.

“If the law is found to be unconstitutional, the investigation will be closed and no further action taken. If the law is found to be constitutional, then each investigation will be reviewed as would any other criminal investigation,” Weis said.

Weis ended his statement with a line which made clear the political tightrope that elected law enforcement officials are walking: “I do not wish to make criminals out of law-abiding citizens.”