Back to the original proposition: It's never "okay" to ignore the law. That way lies arrest, followed quickly by conviction and sentencing, because ignorance of the law is no excuse.

Obviously, Bruce's question is about disobedience, not ignorance.

Civil disobedience is the risky tactic of publicly acting in defiance of the law in order to compel the authorities either to enforce it in the glare of public scrutiny, or admit that the law is unenforceable for reasons ranging from morality (e.g., Jim Crow segregation) to pragmatism (e.g., cannabis prohibition). California's sanctuary declaration looks remarkably like state-level civil disobedience to me.

The internal-to-Illinois gun thing looks more like a campaign in the culture war (kulturkampf) that I see as the most salient feature of 21st-century American life.

It goes like this: You have your way of doing things, we have ours, and our way is better for us so you can pound sand. Besides, you're not boss of us -- oh, wait, you are. Well, we don't care -- oh, wait, we do care, because you hold the purse-strings on all kinds of stuff we need, such as infrastructure funding and the education budget. So we intend to shriek indignation and kick and scream and make such a hell of a racket and fuss that you will leave us alone because dealing with us is just too much of a pain in the judicial neck. You have been warned.