Kendall County Times

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is defending the state's sweeping new gun laws as a step toward making streets safer while also predicting that the new law will survive all the legal challenges it now faces.

The law bans the sale of high-capacity ammunition magazines along with so-called "switches" that allow semi-automatic firearms to fire rounds automatically, a recent CBS News report said. It also expands "red flag" laws that pave the way for judges to restrict the access to firearms from people deemed to pose a danger.

"There is a great deal of investment that we've over the last two years made in crime prevention that is in in violence prevention on the streets, lots of programs to put kids to, to work during the summers and so on," Pritzker said. "So, we're doing quite a lot. What makes me think that we're going to have a diminution of crime in our state is we're doing all of those things. You can't just do one."

Similar legislation has recently been struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, including a case in which an Effingham County judge temporarily blocked a law amid claims that it violates the state constitution. Currently, there are at least two other legal challenges to the law, an additional one in state court and another in the federal branch.

Pritzker has blasted Republicans he argues "talk an awful lot about mental health and say what we really need to do is not pass the assault weapons bans" but chose to vote against such legislation every time it came before them for a vote.