This week Illinois became the ninth state to ban "assault weapons." What are those? Gov. J.B. Pritzker's triumphant press release about the new law does not say, because the explanation would reveal the futility of trying to reduce gun violence through arbitrary restrictions that leave mass murderers and other criminals with plenty of equally lethal alternatives.
In Pritzker's press release, Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch (D–Westchester) describes the guns targeted by H.B. 5471, a.k.a. the Protect Illinois Communities Act, as "weapons of war." That phrase suggests Welch is talking about selective-fire rifles like those carried by U.S. soldiers, which can fire automatically.
