Appeals court upholds Illinois ban on concealed firearms on public transit
A federal appeals court has upheld an Illinois law banning concealed firearms on public transit, finding it does not violate the Second Amendment.
A panel of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a ruling last year from a federal judge in Rockford, who had declared the law unconstitutional. That ruling had applied only to four gun owners who had sued over the law, and so the ban had remained in effect for everyone else.
"The Second Amendment protects an individual's right to self-defense. 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," 7th Circuit Judge Joshua Kolar wrote in overturning the earlier ruling. "We are asked whether the state may temporarily disarm its citizens as they travel in crowded and confined metal tubes unlike anything the Founders envisioned. We draw from the lessons of our nation's historical regulatory traditions and find no Second Amendment violation in such a regulation."
Four people filed a federal lawsuit in 2022 because they couldn't take a concealed firearm on the CTA or Metra. They claimed it violated their right to self-defense, and as a result they didn't use public transportation as much as they would have liked.
But the appeals court determined the law banning concealed carry on public transit in Illinois is similar to other bans on carrying firearms in "sensitive and crowded, confined places," such as courthouses, state capitol buildings, airplanes, and schools.
"The Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized that 'laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings' are consistent with the Second Amendment," the court ruled.
It was not immediately clear if the plaintiffs in this case planned to appeal the latest ruling to the full 7th Circuit Court of Appeals or the U.S. Supreme Court.