Public Defender Asks Illinois Supreme Court to Rule for 2nd Amendment to Oppose CCL Act

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Greg Bishop | The Center Square

(The Center Square) – The Illinois Supreme Court is considering whether to find a state firearms statute prohibiting open carry of a weapon unconstitutional, studying the case of Illinois v. Tyshon Thompson.

Thompson was found guilty of violating state law for having a firearm in a vehicle without a permit in 2020. Tyshon Thompson was also convicted of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon (AUUW) regarding his alleged possession of a gun the night that the gun was used to shoot at another vehicle on I-290, and when a bullet fired from that gun grazed a victim inside the car. Tyshon Thompson had a Firearm Owners ID (FOID) card, but not a Concealed Carry License (CCL). He was sentenced to 30 months in prison.




Besides currently challenging prohibition of open carry as unconstitutional, Tyshon Thompson also previously lost an appeal of the AUUW conviction. Thompson claimed that the State failed to prove him guilty of AUUW beyond a reasonable doubt. The Illinois Appellate Court affirmed the decision of the Circuit Court of Cook County.

Tyshon Thompson had been arrested on March 25, 2020, and subsequently was charged by indictment with two counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm and one count of AUUW. The court declared a mistrial on the aggravated discharge of a firearm counts.

In July 2021, Forest Park Police Officer Benito Marti testified that at approximately 10:30 p.m. on March 25, 2020, he was on duty with Officer Jose Flores and Officer John Reilly when he received a call for a shooting near Harlem on Interstate 290. An offender in an SUV or van allegedly chased three victims after a disturbance at a gas station in Forest Park. Someone in the chasing vehicle pulled out a firearm, and at least two shots were fired. A victim was grazed by a bullet, but refused medical treatment. The victim could not identify Thompson as the shooter. The victim’s vehicle was discovered with a bullet hole through a passenger side rear door, and a projectile was discovered in the seat. Two fired shell casings were also discovered.

Police also located Thompson in the vicinity in a vehicle that matched the description reported in the shooting. Thompson was identified as the driver of the vehicle — a Nissan Rogue. Investigators testified that both of Thompson’s hands had been in the environment of a discharged firearm. In the Nissan Rogue, a silver handgun was discovered in the glove compartment with blood on the trigger. DNA analysis concluded the defendant Thompson could not be excluded as a major contributor of the blood on the trigger. The blood was apparently drawn during the disturbance at the Forest Park gas station — a Thornton’s.

The recovered shell casings and fired bullet matched the firearm recovered from the Nissan Rogue.

After the mistrial declaration of the two counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm, the prosecution moved to drop pursuing those counts.

Tuesday, January 14, 2025, 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.




Eric Castaneda with the Office of the State Public Defender, and Assistant Illinois Attorney General Garson Fisher argue a case challenging state firearms laws in front of the Illinois Supreme Court.

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.

Eric Castaneda with the Office of the State Public Defender, and Assistant Illinois Attorney General Garson Fisher argue a case challenging state firearms laws in front of the Illinois Supreme Court (America’s Talking Network). YouTube Tips ⓘ

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