Does Illinois Have an Assault Weapons Ban?

Illinois section 24-1.9 combines named firearm families with feature tests. For a semiautomatic rifle that accepts, or can readily be modified to accept, a detachable magazine, one listed feature is enough: a pistol grip or thumbhole stock, a protruding grip for the non-trigger hand, a folding, telescoping, thumbhole, or detachable stock or one that otherwise folds or adjusts to reduce its size, a flash suppressor, a grenade launcher, or a barrel shroud. A semiautomatic rifle with a fixed magazine holding more than 10 rounds is covered separately, except an attached tubular magazine designed for and operating only with .22 rimfire ammunition.

A threaded barrel appears only in the semiautomatic pistol test, not the rifle test. A muzzle brake is not a listed feature; the Illinois State Police explain that most brakes do not reduce flash, so a brake counts only if it actually functions as a flash suppressor.

The retained-possession provisions require an Illinois State Police endorsement affidavit and confine possession to the locations listed in the statute, including specified private property, repair premises, ranges, competitions, and unloaded enclosed transport between authorized places.

On July 9, 2026 the Seventh Circuit upheld the act in Barnett v. Raoul, reversing the district court's judgments for the challengers. Their deadline to petition the Supreme Court has been extended to December 4, 2026. Separately, the Supreme Court hears argument on December 2, 2026 in Viramontes v. Cook County, a challenge to Cook County's assault-weapons ordinance, consolidated with Connecticut's Grant v. Higgins.

There has been no federal assault weapons ban since the 1994 ban expired in 2004; no feature restrictions apply federally to semi-automatic rifles or pistols. The 2023 ATF pistol-brace rule was vacated by the courts and is not enforced, but federal SBR classification for a brace-equipped firearm still turns on whether the specific weapon is designed and intended to be fired from the shoulder. Garland v. Cargill (2024) held that a bump stock is not a machine gun under federal law. Feature bans are entirely a matter of state law.

Federal baseline verified 2026-10-20. Scope: State laws restricting semi-automatic rifles, pistols, and shotguns by configuration features: threaded barrels, pistol grips, folding or telescoping stocks, flash suppressors, forward grips, and similar. Magazine capacity limits are tracked as a separate class.