BELLEVUE, WA – The plaintiffs in a case financially backed by the Second Amendment Foundation challenging an Illinois ban on concealed carry on public transportation have filed a memorandum supporting their earlier motion for summary judgment in the case.
The memorandum was filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Western Division. The plaintiffs in the case are Benjamin Schoenthal, Mark Wroblewski, Joseph Vesel and Douglas Winston. All are residents of counties in northern Illinois in the Chicago metropolitan area, and all are members of SAF. They are represented by attorney David Sigale of Wheaton, Ill. The case is known as Schoenthal vs. Raoul.
The defendants are Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and State Attorneys Rick Amato (DeKalb County), Robert Berlin (DuPage County), Kimberly M. Foxx (Cook County) and Eric Rinehart (Lake County). ), all in their official functions.
According to the memo, Illinois prohibits law-abiding citizens, who are licensed to carry firearms under Illinois law, from carrying their firearms for self-defense “in or on . . . [a]any bus, train, or form of transportation paid for in whole or in part with public funds, and any building, real property, and parking area under the control of a public transportation facility paid for in whole or in part with public funds.” They maintain that the ban on public transportation is unconstitutional.
“The State will not be able to demonstrate that the ban on public transportation is consistent with the historical tradition of firearms regulation,” said SAF Founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “We support this case because it is the right thing to do, and these plaintiffs rely on public transportation to travel to and from various locations, including work, and should be able to carry firearms for their personal protection during transit. However, current laws, regulations, policies and practices imposed by defendants have made that legally impossible.
“Buses and commuter trains are public places, but they are not sensitive places,” he added. “This ban amounts to disarmament public policy for which there really is no historical foundation.”
The Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) is the nation’s oldest and largest tax-exempt legal action, research, publishing, and education group focusing on the constitutional right and inheritance to own and own guns. fire privately. Founded in 1974, the Foundation has grown to more than 720,000 members and supporters and runs many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control.