Guns Save Life, Inc. v. Ali

What the court held

A gun-rights group, a firearms retailer, and a Cook County resident challenged county ordinances imposing a $25 tax on retail firearm purchases and a per-cartridge tax on ammunition, raising Second Amendment, Illinois constitutional, uniformity clause, and preemption claims; the lower courts upheld the taxes. The Illinois Supreme Court reversed in part, holding the taxes invalid under the uniformity clause of the Illinois Constitution because the relationship between the tax classification and the use of the proceeds was not sufficiently tied to the stated objective of offsetting the costs of gun violence, and remanded for entry of summary judgment for the plaintiffs. Justice Michael Burke specially concurred, arguing the taxes also violate the state constitutional right to keep and bear arms.

Summarized from the court's opinion.

What this case is about

Cook County tax on retail purchases of firearms and firearm ammunition

GunMapUSA summary of the issue, not a quotation from the court.

Key Dates

• 2021-10-21 — Decided

Sources

• CourtListener — retrieved 2026-08-08