Another Illinois Gun Control Fail as Teen Arrested for Armed Robbery in ‘Gun-Free Zone’

Under Illinois law you must have a Firearms Owner ID card in order to keep a gun in your home, and a concealed carry license to bear arms in public. Neither of those permits are generally available to those under the age of 21, though young adults can apply for a FOID card so long as they have the consent of a parent or legal guardian who’s willing to assume responsibility for the actions of the FOID holder. 

The Illinois legislature has also designated a number of publicly-accessible places as “gun-free zones”, prohibiting even those who do have a state-issued Second Amendment permission slip from exercising their right to bear arms in those spaces.

Despite all of those restrictions, as well as the state”s “universal” background check law that’s aimed at preventing criminals and other prohibited people from acquiring a firearm, police in Chicago have arrested a 17-year-old who allegedly found a way around the state’s gun control regime and committed a string of violent crimes throughout the Windy City in recent days. 

The suspect, apprehended on Thursday, faces a litany of charges, including three felony counts of armed robbery with a firearm, two felony counts of robbery, one felony count of aggravated vehicular hijacking with a firearm, and one misdemeanor count of obstructing identification. 

CPD said the teen’s crime wave began on March 13, when he allegedly forcibly stole property from two men, a 25-year-old and a 38-year-old, while they rode a Blue Line train near the Western station, 430 South Western Avenue.

The attacks continued on March 21. At approximately 9:10 p.m., the boy displayed a firearm to rob a 16-year-old girl and a 17-year-old boy of their belongings on a Blue Line train near the Racine stop.

Both the Chicago Transit Authority and the state of Illinois prohibit firearms on public transportation; a restriction that’s currently being challenged in federal court. And while a district court judge has ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, the carry ban remains in effect for everyone else, ensuring a target-rich environment for those who choose to disregard the law. 

Violent crime on the city’s public transportation system is so commonplace that I’ve quit trying to cover each and every incident, but this particular arrest stands out; both because of the age of the suspect and the prolific nature of his alleged offenses, which not only includes the armed robberies on the light rail system but a carjacking on the city’s west side, where the teen is accused of robbing a 57-year-old man of his vehicle and belongings about an hour after the Blue Line robbery on March 21. 

If a 17-year-old can easily (and illegally) get a gun and bring it onto public transportation, why on earth is the state (and the CTA) continuing to deny lawful gun owners the ability to protect themselves against predators? If officials believe these policies are effective at preventing crime all they have to do is read the Sun-Times, Tribune, or websites like CWB Chicago for a week and they’ll be confronted with plenty of evidence to the contrary. And this prohibition doesn’t just stop concealed carry licensees from bearing arms on CTA property. It prevents them from carrying before and after they set foot on a bus or enter a train station too, essentially denying everyone who depends on public transit to get around from exercising their Second Amendment rights throughout their day.

There’s no way the Democratic majority in Springfield is going to fix this. They don’t even see the status quo as a problem. Hopefully, however, the courts will continue to correctly treat Illinois’ edict for what it is: a blantant violation of our Second Amendment rights.