Gun rights advocates can pursue challenge of Cook County assault weapons ban

The state’s top court declined to rule Thursday on Cook County’s assault weapons ban, allowing a challenge to the ban to proceed before a lower-court judge.

In a written opinion issued Thursday morning that was a victory for gun rights advocates, the Illinois Supreme Court said that it “cannot be said conclusively whether ‘assault weapons’ as defined by the ordinance fall within or outside the scope of the rights protected by the Second Amendment.”

Justices said lower courts shouldn’t have dismissed a challenge to the law and sent the issue back to a lower court to reconsider. They said they want a judge to hear evidence on whether assault weapons should have the same Second Amendment protections as handguns.