Three CTA Gun Arrests Show Who Actually Ignores Chicago's Transit Ban

Three loaded guns, three arrests, one hour, all on Chicago Transit Authority property that's supposedly off-limits to firearms entirely.

Snapshot

Bearing Arms reports that on November 2, Cook County Sheriff's Police and Chicago PD arrested three men within about an hour of each other at CTA Red Line stations, each found carrying a loaded gun during unrelated stops. The piece argues the busts show Illinois' transit gun ban deters the wrong people while doing nothing to stop criminals from carrying anyway.

Key points

• First arrest: Joseph Tillman, 42, was taken into custody at the 69th Street platform around 4:20 p.m. for playing a speaker; a search turned up a loaded gun and suspected crack cocaine, leading to felon-in-possession and weapons charges.
• Second arrest: Brandon Brown, 25, was stopped roughly 30 minutes later for smoking on a Red Line platform; police found a loaded handgun, brass knuckles and ecstasy, and he had neither a carry permit nor a FOID card.
• Third arrest: George Salas, 32, was stopped about an hour after Tillman, also for smoking; he allegedly had a loaded gun and a revoked FOID card, and now faces an aggravated unlawful possession charge plus disorderly conduct.
• Not proactive gun stops: Bearing Arms notes none of the three were caught because officers spotted a firearm — all three encounters started over unrelated conduct that led to searches.

Quick take

Bearing Arms frames this as more evidence that CTA's "gun-free" designation mainly disarms the law-abiding, since the Supreme Court declined to take up a challenge to the carry ban earlier this year. The outlet argues legally armed Chicagoans remain defenseless on transit while people ignoring the law keep getting caught only incidentally.

Read the full story: bearingarms.com