A federal appeals court in Chicago just lifted the ban on concealed carry in Illinois.
Seizing on the precedent of rulings like McDonald v. Chicago and DC v. Heller, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the use and purpose of firearms has been clearly set forth in these previous decisions.
In the court’s majority, Judge Richard Posner wrote:
We are disinclined to engage in another round of historical analysis to determine whether eighteenth-century America understood the Second Amendment to include a right to bear guns outside the home. The Supreme Court has decided that the amendment confers a right to bear arms for self-defense, which is as important outside the home as inside.
Moreover, Posner added, “The theoretical and empirical evidence…is consistent with concluding that a right to carry firearms in public may promote self-defense.”
This puts the ban back into the hands of the Illinois legislature, which has 180 days to rework it so that it both imposes “sensible limitations” but allows “the carrying of guns in public.”
The NRA’s Todd Vandermyde responded to the decision thus: “The debate is over. We won. There will be state wide carry law in 2013.”
No word yet from Bloomberg.
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