From People v. Green, decided Thursday by the Illinois Appellate Court:
On November 20, 2012, around 3:15 p.m., Dan Svoboda, a teacher at Senn High School, observed a maroon van parked across the street from the school. Green was standing outside the van wearing a black security uniform. He appeared to be carrying a gun in a holster on his hip. Svoboda observed the gun twice over a 10-minute period.
Carter Carey, an assistant principal at Senn, also saw Green standing outside the van. Svoboda informed Carey that Green was carrying a gun. Carey then walked across the street to speak to Green, who had entered the passenger side of the van. Carey identified himself as the assistant principal of the school and stated that he had “some concerns.” He asked Green whether he was a police officer, to which Green replied that he was a security guard. Carey then walked back across the street….
The trial court found Green guilty of … possessing a loaded, accessible firearm in a vehicle … and on a public street. [That statute was later struck down by the Illinois Supreme Court on Second Amendment grounds.-EV] Because the court found that Green committed these offenses within 1000 feet of a school, he was sentenced to one year of probation as a Class 3 felony offender….
On February 1, 2018, our supreme court decided People v. Chairez, where it found … [law banning carrying] firearms within 1000 feet of a public park … unconstitutional….
Our supreme court has adopted a two-step framework for analyzing a second amendment challenge. First, we must consider whether the restricted activity is protected by the second amendment. If we answer this question in the affirmative [as the state concedes in this case -EV], only then do we proceed to the second step of the inquiry, which involves applying “the appropriate level of scrutiny” and considering the strength of the state’s justification for regulating or restricting the activity….
by Eugene Volokh
