US appeals court reverses lower court, approves Illinois ban on carrying firearms on public transit
Source: ABC News/AP
September 3, 2025, 4:04 PM
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- A federal appeals court has approved Illinois' ban on carrying firearms on public transit, reversing a lower court decision that found the prohibition violated the Second Amendment.
The 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals delivered its opinion on Tuesday. Judge Joshua Kolar wrote in the majority opinion for a three-judge panel that the Illinois restriction “is comfortably situated in a centuries-old practice of limiting firearms in sensitive and crowded, confined places.”
In August 2024, the Rockford-based U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois ruled in favor of four plaintiffs who argued that prohibiting guns on public buses and trains was unconstitutional. It relied on a pivotal 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling known as Bruen that decreed that restrictions on carrying guns in public must be “relevantly similar,” or consistent, with conditions that existed in the late 18th century when the Bill of Rights was composed. It said there were no analogous conditions that justified the transit ban.
The appeals court found the ban appropriate.
Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/us-appeals-court-reverses-lower-court-approves-illinois-125232556