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The latest nonsense in Springfield is stirring up groups that want to file lawsuits to challenge the constitutionality of the new semi-automatic firearm and high-capacity magazine ban.
Be aware. We are seeing groups asking for money and claiming to be mounting a “legal defense fund,” but how do you really know where your money will be going? More on this in a moment.
The ISRA’s Legal Assistance Committee (LAC) is a 501c3 organization that—for decades—has been mounting the MOST SUCCESSFUL legal cases supporting the 2nd Amendment (2A).
We have used this fund to file dozens of lawsuits, including but not limited to the following:
- McDonald vs. City of Chicago – where the Supreme Court applied the 2A to states and municipalities
- a lawsuit forcing former Attorney General Lisa Madigan to keep FOID card holders’ information confidential and not subject to FOIA laws
- Leading the charge on the Ezell v. City of Chicago firing range case
- Spearheading the Shepard/Moore v. Madigan concealed carry case
- Challenging the FOID and CCL application and appeals delays that ran rampant during COVID
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- The result: Forced changes at the Illinois State Police and legislative levels that have improved processing times to levels of statutory compliance and will ultimately make the appeal process fairer
ISRA has also supported legal claims regarding the FOID rights of individuals, sometimes where a larger issue is at stake, and sometimes where a message must be sent that the state cannot get away with mistreating an individual because otherwise, they can mistreat anyone. Simply put, no other group has been so involved in protecting firearm rights in the Illinois courts.
Donations you make to the LAC are donations you can trust.
If an organization other than the ISRA asks you for a donation to ensure your money will be genuinely used for legal purposes, ask if the donation is tax-deductible. If an organization has a legal defense fund, it should have formed a 501(c)3 charitable organization. Otherwise, you can only hope they use your hard-earned funds as intended, as these non-charitable defense funds are not subject to any legal scrutiny.
We at ISRA welcome anyone who wants to join us in lawsuits like the ones we have been filing for decades. We are also proud of the collaborative legal work we have done with such groups as the NRA, Second Amendment Foundation, and the Firearms Policy Coalition, to name a few. Some of those cases are mentioned above, while others are currently being fought, such as Meyer v. Raoul (challenging the 18-20-year-old CCL prohibition) and Schoenthal (challenge to ban on concealed carry-on public transportation).
We are encouraging our 2A friends and supporters to donate funds for the coming lawsuit on HB5471. While we at ISRA spend, on average, $70,000 per year to protect the rights of law-abiding firearm owners, taking this recent legislation to court could run upwards of $1M along with what our partners, the Second Amendment Foundation and the Firearms Policy Coalition, will spend.
David G. Sigale is the ISRA General Counsel for all 2A lawsuits. He has won 2A cases throughout the United States and even globally, including the ones mentioned above. Sigale has won the vast majority of lawsuits he has brought protecting various aspects of 2A rights for Illinois citizens, alone, and while partnering with other top-notch attorneys in Virginia and Washington, D.C. Sigale has also won numerous awards for his 2A work and legal practice. He will continue to lead us in this mounting legal fight while working with other of the best legal minds in the United States.
Be aware of any other group asking for your support in a 2A legal defense fund.
We are in this together.
Respectfully,
Richard A Pearson
Executive Director
Illinois State Rifle Association |
