Champaign County Sheriff weighs in on assault weapons ban

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WAND)- Champaign County Sheriff Dustin Heuerman has released a statement on the recently signed assault weapons ban in Illinois.

Sheriff Heuerman released the following statement on Friday:

“Regardless of my personal beliefs as a firearm owner, I don't believe it's the role of a Sheriff to arbitrarily decide what law is or isn't Constitutional. That is the job of our judicial system.That sets a dangerous precedent to enforce laws based solely on personal opinion of them. The Sheriff's Office will continue to use the Illinois Compiled Statutes as a guide when determining the need for enforcement action of any law unless the Courts find that law unconstitutional. With that said, I have no intentions of limiting the discretion of my deputies with enforcing this specific law, just as I don't limit their discretion when enforcing with any other law when they are in the best position to evaluate the totality of circumstances of an incident. My deputies will not be going door to door searching for violations of this law. As Sheriff, my goal continues to be to get guns out of the hands of people who want to use them maliciously so we can increase the safety of all of us who live here.”

Sheriff Heuerman's response comes days after Governor JB Pritzker signed the assault weapons ban into law on Tuesday.

In the days following the signing of HB5471, several Sheriff's departments surrounding Champing and across Illinois have released nonsupporting statements of the passage of the bill.

The bill passed in the Illinois Senate 34-20 on Monday night and 68-41 in the House on Tuesday afternoon.

When the bill goes into effect, it would immediately end the sale, delivery, and purchase of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. The legislation also required to register them with the Illinois State Police but they would not have to surrender them.