The Bellevue-based Second Amendment Foundation today scored another victory for concealed carry when the entire Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals let stand a December ruling by a three-judge panel that forces Illinois to adopt a concealed carry statute.
The SAF case, known as Moore v. Madigan, was actually decided in December with Judge Richard Posner writing the majority opinion. In the process, the judge affirmed that the right to bear arms exists outside the home. That ruling now stands, leaving the Illinois legislature no alternative but to write a statute that enables citizens to carry outside the home, without a lot of red tape, for their personal protection. This column earlier covered the ruling, which also applies to a similar case filed by the National Rifle Association called Shepard v. Madigan.
It’s a particularly sweet development for SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb. Chastised by some gun activists earlier this week for having spoken with some state lawmakers in Olympia about background check legislation, this time he’s knocked one out of the park.
While the case applies to Illinois, it has some major implications for the entire country. Here’s what Posner noted about self-defense and carry outside the home: “The right to ‘bear’ as distinct from the right to ‘keep’ arms is unlikely to refer to the home. To speak of ‘bearing’ arms within one’s home would at all times have been an awkward usage. A right to bear arms thus implies a right to carry a loaded gun outside the home.”
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