Brady Center urges federal courts to throw out challenges to Illinois’ restrictions on carrying guns in public
Online Staff Report
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence intends to file two amicus briefs in federal courts this week in Illinois urging dismissal of two gun lobby lawsuits challenging the validity of Illinois law restricting the public carrying of firearms.
Illinois is the only state in the nation that has yet to legalize a form of concealed carry of firearms.
“The people of Illinois have made the reasonable decision to keep deadly semi-automatic weapons off the streets,” said Brady Center Acting President Dennis Henigan. “Courts have wisely rejected the gun lobby’s argument that the Constitution provides a right to carry loaded handguns in public, and the Second Amendment does not require people to be subjected to the grave risks of more loaded guns in our communities.”
The Brady Center’s briefs highlight the alleged severe danger posed by concealed weapons, with studies showing that the carrying of firearms in public is not a useful or effective form of self-defense and, in fact, repeatedly has been shown to increase the risks that one will fall victim to violent crime.
The first brief is in the case Shepard v. Madigan, filed by the Illinois State Rifle Association and one individual plaintiff in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois. The second brief, which the Brady Center intends to file this week, is in the case Moore v. Madigan, filed by the Second Amendment Foundation, Illinois Carry, and four individual plaintiffs in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois. In both cases, plaintiffs argue that the Second Amendment gives them the right to carry loaded guns in public.
Since the Supreme Court’s Second Amendment ruling three years ago in District of Columbia v. Heller, numerous courts have held that the Second Amendment grants only a limited, narrow right to possess handguns in the home for self-defense. Courts around the country have overwhelmingly rejected gun lobby arguments that there is a right to carry hidden, loaded firearms in public.
The Brady Center’s briefs were written by attorneys with the Brady Center and the firm Hogan Lovells US LLP.
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A couple of courts have held that there is no right to carry a weapon concealed. The US Supreme Court in the Heller decision (2008) said that the right is to openly carry a firearm.
Illinois does not just make it a crime to carry a firearm concealed, it is also illegal to openly carry a firearm in public in the state.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA v. HELLER
Opinion of the Court
Likewise, in State v. Chandler, 5 La. Ann. 489, 490 (1850), the Louisiana Supreme Court held that citizens had a right to carry arms openly: “This is the right guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States, and which is calculated to incite men to a manly and noble defence of themselves, if necessary, and of their country, without any tendency to secret advantages and unmanly assassinations.”
Few laws in the history of our Nation have come close to the severe restriction of the District’s handgun ban. And some of those few have been struck down. In Nunn v. State, the Georgia Supreme Court struck down a prohibition on carrying pistols openly (even though it upheld a prohibition on carrying concealed weapons). See 1 Ga., at 251. In Andrews v. State, the Tennessee Supreme Court likewise held that a statute that forbade openly carrying a pistol “publicly or privately, without regard to time or place, or circumstances,” 50 Tenn., at 187, violated the state constitutional provision (which the court equated with the Second Amendment). That was so even though the statute did not restrict the carrying of long guns. Ibid. See also State v. Reid, 1 Ala. 612, 616–617 (1840) (“A statute which, under the pretence of regulating, amounts to a destruction of the right, or which requires arms to be so borne as to render them wholly useless for the purpose of defence, would be clearly unconstitutional”). It is no answer to say, as petitioners do, that it is permissible to ban the possession of handguns so long as the possession of other firearms (i.e., long guns) is allowed. It is enough to note, as we have observed, that the American
people have considered the handgun to be the quintessential self-defense weapon. There are many reasons that a citizen may prefer a handgun for home defense: It is easier to store in a location that is readily accessible in an emergency; it cannot easily be redirected or wrestled away by an attacker; it is easier to use for those without the upperbody strength to lift and aim a long gun; it can be pointed at a burglar with one hand while the other hand dials the police.
If you have questions about the CWP law or need training contact http://www.e2c.us or 1-866-371-6111 and the Instructors at Equip 2 Conceal will be happy to help you. We are offering classes for the Florida non-resident permit which will give you 31 States in Illinois.