Illinois gun owners are planning “the largest turn out of Right to Carry supporters Illinois” has ever seen, now that a federal judge has upheld the state’s law prohibiting concealed weapons.
In the case of Moore v. Madigan, in which a gun-rights advocate sued Attorney General Lisa Madigan to overturn the law, U.S. District Court Judge Sue Myerscough ruled that:
The United States Supreme Court and the Seventh Circuit (Appellate Court) have recognized only a Second Amendment core individual right to bear arms inside the home. Further, even if this court recognized a Second Amendment right to bear arms outside of the home and an interference with that right, the statutes nonetheless survive constitutional scrutiny.
The ruling was handed down exactly a month before Illinois Gun Owners Lobby Day, an annual Springfield gathering which is scheduled for March 7 this year. Gun fans will gather at the Prairie Capital Convention Center at 10:30 a.m., then march on the Capitol at 1:15 p.m.
Illinois is the only state that bans concealed weapons, and gun rights advocates are determined to bring it into line with the other 49. Their motto, in fact, is “49 Other States Can’t Be Wrong.”
Buses will be converging on Springfield from all over the state. As for the dress, code, “[b]usiness casual is suggested, dress up if you want. We suggest that you don’t wear any camo.”
If they can’t win their case in the General Assembly, gun advocates will continue to purse it in the courts. The Second Amendment Foundation has already appealed Myerscough’s ruling to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals:
“We look forward to winning this important case on appeal even if it means going back to the United States Supreme Court for a third time,” Executive Director Alan Gottlieb said in a statement. “The Second Amendment does NOT say, the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed except outside your home or that it only applies inside your house. We don’t check our constitutional rights at the front door.”
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