A federal judge in southern Illinois on Friday issued an injunction blocking enforcement of the state’s new ban on many higher-powered firearms and large-capacity ammunition magazines, just days after a counterpart in Chicago ruled the opposite way.

The ruling came in a case that consolidated lawsuits brought by a variety of groups, including the Illinois State Rifle Association, against the law passed in the Democratic-controlled General Assembly and signed by Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker in January in response to the deadly mass shooting at last year’s Fourth of July parade in north suburban Highland Park.

Writing that “a constitutional right is at stake,” U.S. District Judge Stephen McGlynn found that the plaintiffs in the case showed that the law caused an “irreparable harm” by denying them the ability to “purchase their firearm of choice” and “exercise their right to self-defense in the manner they choose.”

[Ooooh! I like the cut of his jib! ~ Beege]