Chicago City Wire

The Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA) will petition the U.S. Supreme Court to take up a Seventh Circuit decision that reversed a lower court ruling and upheld the state’s ban on concealed carry on public transportation.

ISRA Executive Director Richard Pearson told Chicago City Wire that they were not surprised at the Seventh Circuit’s ruling, and the petition to the Supreme Court would be imminent.

“We expected it all along,” Pearson said of the ruling. “But they are violating Second Amendment rights, and they are wrong.”

Judge Joshua Kolar | Wikipedia

The 2013 state law permitting concealed carry—enacted after a 2012 Seventh Circuit decision struck down the state's ban—excluded public transportation, government buildings, parks, schools, and bars.

Pearson said the public transportation carve-out turns buses, trains, and platforms into a "hunting ground" for bad guys.

“The day they approved the law in Springfield there were 32 armed robberies on public transportation,” Pearson said. “The bad guys know where the people aren’t armed.”

In its Sept. 2 ruling, the three-judge panel said that Illinois was right to ban concealed carry and unsecured weapons on trains and buses and in stations, bus stops and adjacent parking areas. They reasoned that firearms are especially dangerous in crowded and confined public environments.

"We must not lose sight of the modern target of Illinois’s public transit firearm restriction: systems comprised of metal tubes traveling quickly, carrying hundreds of passengers at a time, and relied upon by millions for their basic transportation," Judge Joshua Kolar wrote. "The Founding and Reconstruction generations had no corollaries for a space where bullets will ricochet and kill innocents and first responders during a shooting, where the very nature of the space facilitates a quick escape by criminals, or where a terror attack could paralyze free movement throughout a city."

The ban has also led to a recent rash of gun thefts from cars in the South Loop, gun rights advocates say.

For an earlier story, Mandi Sano, spokesperson for the Illinois Gun Rights Alliance, told Chicago City Wire that law abiding citizens with Concealed Carry Licenses (CCL) will leave their guns in the cars before entering a building with a “no carry” sign.

“I suspect if we look at the area of the thefts there is a congruence of a place where CCL holders may be and a location where CCL is disallowed," Sano said in an email. "Thus creating a target rich environment for thieves looking for guns, or looking for unarmed victims."

She added that the stolen guns will almost certainly end up being used in a crime since “the vast majority of guns used in crime on the street come from theft. I suspect these guns get cycled through the criminals on the street over and over again."

Yet, nearly all gun control proposals in Illinois target law-abiding citizens, not criminals.