The Illinois ban on carrying weapons on the state’s public transit system will remain in place for the foreseeable future.
The Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed a lower court decision on Tuesday, holding that these decade-old restrictions do not contravene the Second Amendment.
‘Sensitive places’ were carved out in Illinois over a decade ago where the right to armed self-defense does not apply
Illinois became the last state in the Union to allow concealed carry of firearms in public in 2013. At the same time, lawmakers passed sweeping restrictions on exactly where citizens could keep and bear arms.
Among those were “sensitive places” such as hospitals, public arenas—and the state’s trains and buses.
Therefore, even with the requisite criminal background check and endless flaming hoops law-abiding citizens must jump through in Illinois, the right to armed self-defense still ends when the individual steps onto a train or bus.
Courts disagreed on the existence of a historical tradition of such gun control
Judge Joshua Kolar wrote the majority opinion that the prohibition aligns with “a centuries-old practice of limiting firearms in sensitive and crowded, confined places.”
“The Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to self-defense,” Kolar declared before unfortunately continuing. “It does not bar the people’s representatives from enacting laws—consistent with our nation’s historical tradition of regulation—that ensure public transportation systems remain free from accessible firearms.”
Kolar added that the Founding Fathers never envisioned metropolitan mass transit systems and thus there was no Second Amendment violation.
In its reversal, the appeals court majority further wrote: “We hold that [the law] is constitutional because it comports with regulatory principles that originated in the Founding Era and continue to the present.”
Four plaintiffs brought suit against the law, and the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois found last year that it was unconstitutional.
Directly countering Judge Kolar’s later argument, the district court ruled that there was no “historical tradition of firearm regulation” that justified the Illinois law. That standard is clearly established by 2022’s U.S. Supreme Court Bruen decision.
The Rockford-based court believed the Illinois law was not “relevantly similar” to Founding Era statutes.
“When the Second Amendment’s plain text covers an individual’s conduct, the Constitution presumptively protects that conduct,” the district court wrote last year in favoring gun rights. “To justify its regulation, the government may not simply posit that the regulation promotes an important interest. Rather, the government must demonstrate that the regulation is consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation. Only if a firearm regulation is consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition may a court conclude that the individual’s conduct falls outside the Second Amendment’s ‘unqualified command.’”
A comprehensive and succinct summary, but not enough for the Seventh Circuit.
The plaintiffs are weighing the next step in the ongoing battle to preserve and restore gun rights, though it is all but sure that the decision will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Plaintiffs’ attorney David Sigale told The Center Square that options are being considered, including the highest court in the land.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if the high court were to address this issue and at least a couple of different circumstance,” Sigale revealed. “We’ve seen a much more interested court in the last couple years on Second Amendment issues, and with the number of petitions that are almost sure to come before it, I can see the court taking the opportunity to address some of these.”
Indeed, several cases challenging Illinois’ controversial gun control regime are advancing toward the Supreme Court.
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