Just days after Illinois became the ninth state to ban assault rifles, the state has already hit a roadblock to implementing the law: defiant sheriff's offices.
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Assault-style rifles now banned for sale in the state are displayed at Freddie Bear Sports on Jan. 11, 2023, in Tinley Park, Illinois.The Illinois Sheriffs Association issued a statement Wednesday expressing continued opposition to the law. Simultaneously, dozens of sheriff's offices began to post nearly identical messages promising they would not check for compliance with the law or arrest offenders of the law.
"That is not a charge that is provided to us, or mandated to us in the bill that passed and was signed by the governor," he said. "I understand that our nation had witnesses frequent tragedies involving gun violence and I am in no way attempting to minimize the impact these events have had," St. Clair County Sheriff Richard Watson wrote in a statement, in which he said he opposed the law but did not promise to defy it.
"The fact is that yes there are of course people who are trying to politically grandstand, who want to make a name for themselves by claiming that they will not comply," he said. "But the reality is that the state police is responsible for enforcement, as are all law enforcement all across our state and they will in fact do their job or they won't be in their job."
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