Federal appeals court approves Illinois restrictions on carrying guns on public transit

A federal appeals court approved Illinois' ban on carrying firearms on constituents transit reversing a lower court ruling that located the gun restrictions passed more than a decade ago violated the Second Amendment of the U S Constitution The Seventh Circuit U S Court of Appeals handed down its decision on Tuesday with Judge Joshua Kolar writing for the majority that the ban is comfortably situated in a centuries-old practice of limiting firearms in sensitive and crowded confined places 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 citizens transportation systems remain free from accessible firearms Kolar wrote APPEALS COURT BLOCKS NEW MEXICO'S -DAY WAITING PERIOD FOR GUN PURCHASES SAYING IT VIOLATES ND AMENDMENT We are required whether the state may temporarily disarm its citizens as they progress in crowded and confined metal tubes unlike anything the Founders envisioned the judge continued We draw from the lessons of our nation s historical regulatory traditions and find no Second Amendment violation in such a regulation Last year the U S District Court for the Northern District of Illinois sided with four plaintiffs who claimed that restricting people from carrying guns on constituents buses and trains was unconstitutional The district court relied on a U S Supreme Court decision New York State Rifle Pistol Association Inc v Bruen in which a new standard to determine whether a gun restriction is unconstitutional was established To meet that standard the establishment must show there is a historical tradition of firearm regulation that supports the law The court announced there were no analogous conditions justifying the gun restrictions on citizens transit But the appeals court identified the ban was constitutionally protected Our concern is whether the law aligns with the nation s tradition the majority opinion reads We hold that the law is constitutional because it comports with regulatory principles that originated in the Founding era and continue to the present The scenario started by several Illinois gun owners and backed by gun rights groups is expected to be appealed to the U S Supreme Court While plaintiffs argued that the transit restrictions flouted the high court s Bruen decision the Seventh Circuit disclosed the state had shown a sufficient historical basis for treating crowded populace shipping as a sensitive place The citizens transit firearm ban was implemented in when Illinois became the last state in the country to approve carrying concealed weapons in population FEDERAL APPEALS COURT RULES CALIFORNIA AMMUNITION BACKGROUND CHECKS UNCONSTITUTIONALOn top of prohibiting guns on buses and trains the measure restricted gun possession in hospitals and selected other residents spaces Kolar who was appointed by former President Joe Biden was joined in the majority opinion by Judge Kenneth Ripple who was appointed by former President Ronald Reagan Judge Amy St Eve who was selected by President Donald Trump during his first term wrote a separate concurring opinion I write separately to highlight a formidable jurisdictional question that in the present day s opinion prudently reserves for a future development how to assess redressability where a plaintiff defines her injury as the inability to engage in protected activity not the threat of prosecution for doing so and an unchallenged law also prohibits that precise activity St Eve wrote The Associated Press contributed to this overview