By James B. Kelleher
CHICAGO, Dec 11 (Reuters) - A federal appeals court on
Tuesday struck down an Illinois law banning most people in the
state from carrying handguns in public, calling the restriction
"arbitrary" and "unconstitutional."
But the court stayed its ruling for 180 days to give
Illinois lawmakers the opportunity to amend the measure and
create a less sweeping ban on guns outside the home.
In the 2-to-1 ruling, the Court of Appeals for the Seventh
Circuit said the Second Amendment's guarantee of an individual's
right to keep and bear arms for personal self-defense "could not
rationally have been limited to the home" as required by the
long-standing Illinois statute.
Writing for the majority, Judge Richard Posner said such a
limit was impermissible because "the interest in self defense
extends outside the home."
"A woman who is being stalked or has obtained a protective
order against a violent ex-husband is more vulnerable to be
attacked while walking to or from her home than when inside,"
Posner wrote.
"She has a stronger self-defense claim to be allowed to
carry a gun in public than the resident of a fancy apartment
building (complete with doorman) has a claim to sleep with a
loaded gun under her mattress. But Illinois wants to deny the
former claim, while compelled [by a 2010 Supreme Court ruling]
to honor the latter."
Posner called the different treatment under Illinois law
"arbitrary," declared the measure unconstitutional and banned
the state from enforcing it.
He put the decision on hold for 180 days, however, "to allow
the Illinois legislature to craft a new gun law that will impose
reasonable restrictions, consistent with the public safety and
the Second Amendment as interpreted in this opinion, on the
carrying of guns in public."
A spokeswoman for Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan,
who had argued in support of the ban and was a defendant in the
case, said she would use the 180-day window to "review what
legal steps can be taken."
In her dissent, Judge Ann Claire Williams cited a recent
unanimous ruling by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New
York, which upheld a New York state law that required people who
want to carry a concealed handgun in public to prove to state
authorities that they had "proper cause."
Under the Illinois law, which Posner called "the most
restrictive gun law of any of the 50 states," only the police,
select security personnel and some hunters and members of target
shooting clubs are allowed to carry handguns.
Williams said she believed that restriction was permissible
because "the Illinois legislature reasonably concluded that if
people are allowed to carry guns in public, the number of guns
carried in public will increase, and the risk of
firearms-related injury or death will increase as well."
The cases, which were consolidated for oral argument before
the appellate court, are Michael Moore and Mary E. Shepard v.
Lisa Madigan, Attorney General of Illinois, 12-1269, 12-1788.
(Additional reporting by Terry Baynes)
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