Published August 14, 2026 at 9:45 AM ET · Updated August 14, 2026 at 11:25 AM ET
Chicago gun training rules face renewed scrutiny after range restrictions
1 independent outlet is covering this story, first reported here by AmmoLand. Verification: Watching (how we verify). Every headline links to the original reporting.
Chicago's gun training rules are facing renewed scrutiny following restrictions on gun ranges. The city's training requirements are drawing attention in the wake of those range restrictions.
Patriot Watch first flagged this story 2 hr ago, when AmmoLand reported it. So far this remains a single-source report. The most recent report came 2 hr ago from AmmoLand.
⚖ The Constitutional Angle
McDonald v. City of Chicago made the Second Amendment applicable to Chicago through the Fourteenth Amendment. Bruen held that when conduct is covered by the Second Amendment's plain text, the government must justify its regulation with the Nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation. Chicago's training and range rules must clear that historical test; how such mandates fare under it remains unsettled.
McDonald v. City of Chicago, Illinois 561 U.S. 742 (2010)
Vote: 5-4 · Opinion: Alito
The Second Amendment right recognized in Heller is fully applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. A four-Justice plurality incorporated the right via the Due Process Clause as fundamental to the Nation's scheme of ordered liberty and deeply rooted in its history and tradition; Justice Thomas supplied the fifth vote via the Privileges or Immunities Clause. The Seventh Circuit's judgment upholding Chicago's and Oak Park's handgun bans was reversed and remanded.
New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Kevin P. Bruen, Superintendent of New York State Police 597 U.S. 1 (2022)
Vote: 6-3 · Opinion: Thomas
New York's requirement that applicants demonstrate 'proper cause' — a special need for self-protection distinguishable from the general community — to obtain an unrestricted public-carry license violates the Fourteenth Amendment by preventing law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms in public. The Court held the Second Amendment protects a right to carry handguns publicly for self-defense, and rejected the two-step means-end framework lower courts had applied after Heller.
Precedent facts from the PW Law Library — primary-source verified & independently audited
