7th Circuit to Hear Oct. 28 Arguments on Illinois Suppressor Ban

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals is set to hear oral arguments October 28 in Anderson v. Raoul, the case challenging Illinois's suppressor ban, with proceedings held at NIU College of Law in Dekalb.

Key points

• The statute in question is 720 ILCS 5/24-1(a)(6), which remains enforceable while the case plays out.
• Illinois's legal argument is narrow: suppressors are accessories, not firearms, so the state claims they fall outside Second Amendment protection entirely.
• Plaintiffs counter that suppressors serve legitimate purposes like hearing protection and noise reduction, and that Bruen (2022) bars the ban absent a historical tradition of restricting them.
• Context favoring the ban's challengers, per Guns Save Life: 42 states allow private suppressor ownership, and the ATF recently dropped federal tax and registration requirements for them.
• Headwinds remain, since the Seventh Circuit upheld Illinois's assault weapon and magazine bans back in July, though the Supreme Court has agreed to hear a related Cook County assault weapons case this fall.

Quick take

Guns Save Life isn't optimistic about this panel, and the track record backs that up. But the state's "it's just an accessory" argument is a thinner legal hook than the complete-weapon bans the court already upheld, and a Supreme Court ruling on the Cook County case could reshape the landscape before this one is even decided. Worth watching, not betting on.

Read the full story: gunssavelife.com