The Illinois Supreme Court has just ruled in the case of
Alberto Aguilar v. The People of the State of Illinois. Click here for the
brief. Click here to read the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence’s brief
arguing that “the carrying of firearms in public places creates serious public
safety risks.” Click here for the Illinois Supreme Court’s ruling. As follows:
“The principal issue in this case is whether section 24-1.6(a)(1), (a)(3)(A) of
the Illinois aggravated unlawful use of weapons (AUUW) statute (720 ILCS
5/24-1.6(a)(1), (a)(3)(A) (West 2008)) violates the right to keep and bear
arms, as guaranteed by the second amendment to the United States Constitution
(U.S.Const., amend. II). We hold that it does.” In other words, they’ve turfed
the law against bearing weapons outside the home. As you’d expect, the court’s
decision cites Heller and McDonald Supreme Court rulings and tips its
proverbial hat at Moore . . .
As the Seventh Circuit correctly noted, neither Heller nor
McDonald expressly limits the second amendment’s protections to the home. On
the contrary both decisions contain language strongly suggesting if not
outright confirming that the second amendment right to keep and bear arms
extends beyond the home. Moreover, if Heller means what it says, and “individual
self-defense” is indeed “the central component” of the second amendment right
to keep and bear arms (Heller, 554 U.S. at 599), then it would make little
sense to restrict that right to the home, as “[c]onfrontations are not limited
to the home.” Moore, 702 F.3d at 935-36. Indeed, Heller itself recognizes as
much when it states that “the right to have arms *** was by the time of the
founding understood to be an individual right protecting against both public
and private violence.” (Emphasis added.) Heller, 554 U.S. at 593-94
The only fly in the ointment: the Illinois justices did NOT
quash Mr. Aguilar’s conviction for underage possession. Once again, that Heller
bit about “reasonable restrictions” has come home to roost.
“Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment
is not unlimited. From Blackstone through the 19th-century cases, commentators
and courts routinely explained that the right was not a right to keep and carry
any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.”
Heller, 554 U.S. at 626.
From there, the Court went on to emphasize that “nothing in
our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the
possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying
of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or
laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.”
Id. at 626-27. The Court then immediately added, by way of footnote, that “[w]e
identify these presumptively lawful regulatory measures only as examples; our
list does not purport to be exhaustive.” Id. at 627 n.26.
Bottom line: it’s legal to prohibit minors from possessing
firearms, but not to ban adult Americans from carrying a firearm outside the
home—subject to certain provisions. A Pyrrhic victory then? Probably,
generally, no. Time will tell.
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