Chambana Sun

Illinois state Rep. Dan Caulkins (R-Decatur) said state Attorney General Kwame Raoul is to blame for confusion caused by a series of court challenges to Gov. JB Pritzker's sweeping weapons ban.

The ban was to take effect in January but was put on hold by federal court injunction.

Caulkins and other Republican leaders claimed that Raoul failed in his responsibility to give specific mandates during the tribulation over the ban, which prohibits certain high-powered weapons and large-capacity magazines, the Chicago Tribune reported recently. A federal judge in the Southern District of Illinois issued an injunction on April 28 blocking enforcement of the law, but a U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that ruling on May 3, upholding the state ban.

"From the very beginning, I think the AG has failed to give advice to Illinois state police, and I think it was intentional, to make sure there is the most confusion among legal owners," Caulkins recently told the Chambana Sun.

Gun shop owners across the state resumed selling high-powered and semi-automatic weapons and high-capacity magazines after the federal judge's injunction. But when that ruling was reversed, those who bought the weapons during the injunction could no longer have them delivered or could not legally possess them if they were delivered.

Caulkins said gun owners cannot look to the attorney general's office for help.

"I think people need to seek their own legal counsel and be clear about what they should do," he told the Sun. "I trust in the end, the judicial system will do the right thing and overrule these bad policies."

The law, which was passed by Illinois’ Democrat-controlled legislature and signed by Pritzker, says that people who possessed the now-prohibited firearms when the law took effect on Jan. 10 will be able to keep them if they register them with the state by the beginning of 2024. That is not the case for those who bought them during that six-day window between court rulings, according to guidance posted by the Illinois State Police. Caulkins believes the confusion was a ploy by the AG's office.

"It’s shameful and I think it’s illegal," Caulkins said of Raoul's efforts. "It’s a woke, liberal agenda that a minority of people have inflicted on legal owners. It all comes down to people have thrown a lot of campaign money and bought enough polls to get their way legislatively."