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Illinois asks court to keep banning most handguns in the state

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By James B. Kelleher

CHICAGO | Tue Jan 8, 2013 8:19pm EST

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Illinois asked an appeals court on Tuesday to reverse itself and allow a ban that prevents most people there from carrying concealed handguns in public.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, a Democrat, asked the full Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit to review the decision, saying it was not consistent with recent decisions by other courts.

Last month, three days before the mass shooting at a Connecticut school on December 14, the appeals court declared the Illinois concealed carry law unconstitutional, calling it the most restrictive gun law in the United States.

Until the ruling, Illinois was the only one of the 50 states to ban most residents from carrying concealed weapons.

The three-judge panel decided by a vote of 2-to-1 that the Second Amendment's guarantee of an individual's right to keep and bear arms for personal self-defense "could not rationally have been limited to the home" as required by the long-standing Illinois law.

Judge Richard Posner, writing for the majority, said the Illinois ban on most people carrying a weapon outside the home was "arbitrary" and declared the measure unconstitutional.

He called the Illinois law the most restrictive gun law of any of the 50 states, allowing only the police, select security personnel and some hunters and members of target shooting clubs to carry handguns.

The appeals court said its ruling would not take effect until early June to give state lawmakers time to amend the law and come up with less restrictive rules for gun possession outside the home.

A spokesman for the Illinois State Rifle Association did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Madigan's petition.

Madigan said on Tuesday that her petition for a rehearing did not affect that deadline.

The cases, which were consolidated for oral argument before the appellate court, are Michael Moore and Mary E. Shepard v. Lisa Madigan, Attorney General of Illinois, 12-1269, 12-1788.

(Reporting by James Kelleher)
U.S.
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Comments (2)
PatrickZ wrote:
If the law is the same as when I lived in Illinois, 30 years ago, it doesn’t ban carrying pistols as long as they are visible. IE, in a holster on the outside of your clothes. It only banned concealed weapons, unless you had a permit. One of my jobs while in college was driving a cab. As it was considered a dangerous job, as long as you had a clean record, you could get a ‘concealed’ permit (I never did it though).

Jan 08, 2013 9:38pm EST  --  Report as abuse
Wassup wrote:
How is the most restrictive gun law in the country working out for Illinois? Criminals, the insane, the cartel and drug pushers don’t care if you pass more laws like you already have on the books. Just go out there and restrict guns from law abiding citizens with the idiotic conclusion it will stop the carnage. Lack of common sense for the good of political expediency is par for the course it appears both in Illinois, New York, the Executive Office and in the office of the buffoon working on the gun control project due at the end of the month.

Jan 08, 2013 11:00pm EST  --  Report as abuse
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