A federal appeals court has upheld Illinois’ ban on carrying firearms on public transportation, reversing a lower court ruling that found the restrictions violated the Second Amendment.
On Tuesday, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in its majority opinion that the law “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 public transportation systems remain free from accessible firearms,” Judge Joshua Kolar wrote.
“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,” he 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, a district court sided with plaintiffs who argued that restrictions on carrying firearms aboard buses and trains violated the Constitution. That court relied on the 2022 Supreme Court ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, which requires state gun laws to align with historical traditions of firearm regulation. The lower court determined there was no justification for prohibiting guns on public transit.
The appeals court disagreed, concluding that, “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 case is expected to be appealed to the Supreme Court, according to a report by Fox News.
