Testimony continues in 2nd Amendment challenge to Illinois’ assault weapons ban

EAST ST. LOUIS – An engineer who spent decades designing weapons for one of the world’s leading gun manufacturers testified Tuesday that the assault-style weapons now banned in Illinois are intended only for civilian use and cannot be easily converted into military-grade firearms.

James Ronkainen, a former engineer for the Remington Firearms, said the AR-style rifles and many other weapons that are now heavily restricted under the Protect Illinois Communities Act, are classified in the industry as “modern sporting rifles,” or MSRs, and he said ordinary users of such weapons cannot easily convert them into fully automatic weapons.

“I don’t think they can,” he said.

Ronkainen testified during the second day of a bench trial before U.S. District Judge Stephen McGlynn in a case challenging the constitutionality of the assault weapons ban.

Read more: What to know about Illinois’ assault weapons ban

In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in District of Columbia v. Heller that the Second Amendment protects the right of individuals to keep and bear the type of arms that are commonly used for lawful purposes such as self-defense. But it also said not all firearms are protected under the Constitution, including certain “dangerous or unusual” weapons.

Ronkainen testified that the AR-style weapons restricted under the Illinois law are widely popular with consumers and that they are intended for legal purposes, including self-defense, hunting and target shooting.

During cross examination, Gretchen Helfrich, of the Illinois attorney general’s office, pointed out that the demand for AR-style rifles and other MSRs only began to rise in 2004, following the expiration of a federal assault weapons ban.

She also noted that as recently as 2013, Remington included MSRs in the same category of weapons as those it marketed to the military and law enforcement agencies. She also pointed out that bump stocks – devices that allow a semiautomatic weapon to function like an automatic weapon by using the weapon’s recoil to increase the pace of fire – are readily available to civilian consumers.

In 2018, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives enacted a regulation to ban bump stocks by classifying them as “machine guns.” But in February, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down that rule, saying ATF had overstepped its statutory authority.

Read more: Trial begins in challenge to assault weapons ban

The attorneys for the state also said they will argue that the way gun manufacturers market and sell their products to consumers should not determine whether the weapon is protected under the Constitution.

The trial is scheduled to continue through Friday, but attorneys in the case have suggested it could wrap up as early as Wednesday or Thursday.

Editor’s note: This story was updated Tuesday afternoon with further details from the afternoon’s court proceedings.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is distributed to hundreds of newspapers, radio and TV stations statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, along with major contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation and Southern Illinois Editorial Association.