(The Center Square) – The Illinois Supreme Court is considering whether to find a state firearms statute prohibiting open carry unconstitutional in the case Illinois v. Tyshon Thompson.
Thompson was found guilty of violating state law for having a firearm in a vehicle without a permit in 2020. Despite having a Firearm Owners ID card, he was sentenced to 30 months in prison.
Tuesday, Eric Castaneda with the Office of the State Public Defender urged the Illinois Supreme Court to find Illinois’ aggravated unlawful use of a weapons statute unconstitutional.
“Here, Mr. Thompson was convicted under a statute that completely prohibits the public open carry of a firearm in Illinois and that punishes the failure to undergo a double licensing regime under the [Concealed Carry License] Act,” he said.
Castaneda said Illinois law violates recent U.S. Supreme Court precedent on Second Amendment rights.
“We think that concealed carry and open carry are two categorically different conducts, one which is protected under the Second Amendment and the other which is not,” he said. “So the government can regulate concealed carry, you know, as it pleases. But the same doesn’t apply for open carry.”
Arguing for the state, Assistant Attorney General Garson Fisher disagreed.
“The court said in no uncertain terms that shall issue licensing regimes, including explicitly Illinois’, are constitutional,” Garson told the justices. “The defendant’s conduct here, the unlicensed carriage of firearms when the licensed carriage of a firearm is readily available to all ordinary law-abiding citizens, is not covered by the plain text of the Second Amendment.”
The justices took the case under advisement.
