We Started This Fight — And We're About to Win It

In September of 2022, before most people had even heard of the Protect Illinois Communities Act, Law Weapons & Supply and I — Robert Bevis — walked into federal court and filed the first challenge to Naperville's assault weapons ordinance. We didn't wait. We didn't ask permission. We saw an unconstitutional law being used to strip the rights of law-abiding gun owners in Illinois, and we acted.

That case — Bevis v. City of Naperville — became the lead case in what is now the most significant Second Amendment legal battle in Illinois history. Every challenge you hear about today, every lawsuit filed against PICA, every court ruling on Illinois' gun ban — it all traces back to what we started at Law Weapons.

How We Got Here

When Illinois passed PICA in January 2023, banning the sale, purchase, and transfer of commonly owned semi-automatic firearms and standard-capacity magazines, we were already in court. Our case had already been filed. Bevis v. Naperville was consolidated with the other PICA challenges and became the vehicle through which the entire constitutional question was litigated before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

The 7th Circuit ruled against us in November 2023. It was a setback — but it was never the end. The ruling became the very precedent that other courts in this circuit were forced to follow, which is exactly why Justice Alito wanted to grant cert when the Supreme Court had the chance, and why Justice Kavanaugh wrote separately to put the legal world on notice. Kavanaugh said there is "a strong argument that AR-15s are in common use by law-abiding citizens and therefore are protected by the Second Amendment" — and that SCOTUS "should and presumably will address the AR-15 issue soon."

That statement didn't come out of nowhere. It came because of the fight Law Weapons started.

Where the Battle Stands Today

The consolidated case — now known as Barnett v. Raoul at the 7th Circuit — had its oral arguments on September 22, 2025. That hearing was historic. Not only did the plaintiffs argue that PICA is flatly unconstitutional under the Supreme Court's Bruen standard, but the Trump administration's Department of Justice stood up in that courtroom and argued alongside us.

The DOJ's Civil Rights Division had already filed a 34-page amicus brief calling PICA "flatly unconstitutional." Then they went further and participated in oral argument using five minutes ceded by the plaintiffs to make the federal government's case directly to the judges. That is a level of support for Second Amendment rights that we have never seen from the federal government in Illinois — and it would not have happened without the years of litigation that Bevis v. Naperville helped drive.

U.S. District Judge Stephen McGlynn — after a full four-day bench trial — already ruled that PICA is unconstitutional and issued a permanent injunction against it in November 2024. That injunction is stayed while the state appeals. The 7th Circuit panel's decision could come down any day now.

SCOTUS Is Watching

While we wait on the 7th Circuit, Viramontes v. Cook County is sitting at the Supreme Court right now. That case arises directly from the 7th Circuit upholding Cook County's gun ban based on the precedent set in Bevis. The petition has been distributed for conference multiple times, most recently March 6, 2026. Every week it stays on the docket is another signal the justices are taking it seriously.

What Law Weapons Is Fighting For

Every day that PICA remains in effect, law-abiding citizens in Illinois are denied their constitutional rights. Dealers like Law Weapons cannot sell the most popular rifles in America. That is the real-world cost of an unconstitutional law — and it is exactly why we have been in this fight since day one.

Law Weapons is not just a gun store. We are on the front lines of protecting your Second Amendment rights, in the courts and in the community, every single day. We started this fight for every gun owner in Illinois and across the country, and we are not stopping until the job is done.

Stay tuned — the 7th Circuit's ruling in Barnett v. Raoul is coming, and when it does, you will hear about it here first.

— Robert Bevis, Law Weapons & Supply