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A federal judge ruled that an Illinois law banning the concealed carry of firearms on public transportation is unconstitutional.
“U.S. District Judge Iain D. Johnston in Rockford ruled last Friday with four gun owners who filed a lawsuit in 2022 contending that their inability to carry weapons on buses and trains violated their Second Amendment right to self-defense,” the Associated Press reports.
“After an exhaustive review of the parties’ filings and the historical record, as required by Supreme Court precedent, the Court finds that Defendants failed to meet their burden to show an American tradition of firearm regulation at the time of the Founding that would allow Illinois to prohibit Plaintiffs—who hold concealed carry permits—from carrying concealed handguns for self-defense onto the CTA and Metra,” Johnston wrote.
Federal Court Rules Against Illinois Ban on Carrying Guns on Public Transportationhttps://t.co/OEs5jA6j8M
— Bearing Arms (@BearingArmsCom) September 4, 2024
The judge cited the Supreme Court’s 2022 landmark decision from N.Y. State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen.
“The parties also can’t escape that this case requires navigating the murky waters of Bruen. Plaintiffs’ proposed conduct—carrying concealed handguns on public transit for self-defense—falls within
the presumptive ambit of the Second Amendment, shifting the burden to Defendants to show that the Firearm Concealed Carry Act’s ban falls within the historical tradition of firearm regulation in this country. On the record before the Court in this case, Defendants have failed to meet their burden,” Johnston wrote.
The Epoch Times reports:
Under the Supreme Court’s 2022 standard for seeing whether firearms regulations fall under the Constitution, the government must demonstrate that the measure is within U.S. historical traditions.
Treating “any place where the government would want to protect public order and safety as a sensitive place casts too wide a net … [and] would seem to justify almost any gun restriction,” Johnston wrote.
He also rejected Illinois state attorneys’ arguments that the Bruen test did not apply in this case because the state, which owns the property, can regulate what individuals take onto its property.
“[I]ndividual rights isn’t nullified on public property,” he wrote.
FPC WIN: An Illinois federal judge has ruled that the state’s public transportation carry ban is unconstitutional as applied to the plaintiffs in an FPC-supported lawsuit: https://t.co/RAeQMT54dG pic.twitter.com/5Rwwx7doUE
— Firearms Policy Coalition (@gunpolicy) August 30, 2024
From the Associated Press:
Illinois became the nation’s last state to approve concealed carry in 2013. The law established a number of places that were off limits to guns, such as public arenas, hospitals, buses and trains.
Attorney General Kwame Raoul said through a spokesperson that he was reviewing the decision and would likely appeal.
He noted that until there’s a final judgment in the matter, gun owners should continue to abide by concealed-carry provisions; Johnston’s ruling currently applies only to the four plaintiffs who brought the lawsuit.
Read the full ruling HERE.