Today, the National Rifle Association and California Rifle & Pistol Association filed an amicus brief in a challenge to Illinois’s law prohibiting concealed carry licensees from carrying firearms on public transportation unless those firearms are unloaded and secured—essentially rendering them useless for self-defense.
NRA’s brief explains that the conduct at issue—carrying firearms in public for self-defense—is clearly covered by the plain text of the Second Amendment. Therefore, Illinois must provide a historical basis for its restriction, and there isn’t one.
First, there is no historical tradition of banning firearms on public transportation. While some private railroad companies barred passengers from carrying firearms, public regulations in the nineteenth century only regulated the discharge of firearms on public transit—not the mode or manner of carry.
Second, public transportation, even if owned and operated by the government, is not a “sensitive place” like a courthouse or legislature. It does not provide a core function of government deliberation, which was the historic basis for banning firearms at certain government locations. Moreover, the government does not provide for passenger security on public transit, as evidenced by the myriad headline-making incidents of violence in recent years on subways and at train stations.
Illinois’s regulation is therefore unconstitutional and cannot stand.
The case is Schoenthal v. Raoul. It is currently before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
Please stay tuned to www.nraila.org for future updates on NRA-ILA’s ongoing efforts to defend your constitutional rights, and please visit https://www.nraila.org/legal-legislation/current-litigation/ to keep up to date on NRA-ILA’s ongoing litigation efforts.
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