Illinois generally prohibits a person from knowingly carrying or possessing a firearm in any vehicle except in the person’s own home, land, fixed place of business, or as an invitee on the land or in the legal dwelling of another person as an invitee with that person’s permission.¹ The statute does not apply, however, to the transportation of firearms that are:

1. broken down in a non-functioning state;
2. not immediately accessible; or
3. unloaded and enclosed in a case, firearm carrying box, shipping box, or other container by a person with a currently valid Firearm Owner’s Identification card.²

Under Illinois’ Concealed Firearm Carry Act, enacted in 2013, a person who is issued a valid concealed carry license is permitted to keep or carry a loaded or unloaded concealed firearm on or about his or her person within a vehicle.³ While the owner of private real property of any type may prohibit the carrying of concealed firearms on the property under his or her control, state law allows a person to store a firearm or ammunition concealed in a case within a locked vehicle or locked container out of plain view within the vehicle in the parking area of the owner’s property and other areas where the carrying of firearms is prohibited.⁴

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1. 720 Ill. Comp. Stat. 5/24-1(a)(4).[↩]
2. Id. In People v. Diggins, 919 N.E.2d 327 (Ill. 2009), the Supreme Court of Illinois reviewed whether the center console of a vehicle was a “case” for the purposes of the lawful containment of a firearm in a vehicle, within the meaning of 720 Ill. Comp. Stat. 5/24-1.6(a)(1), which imposes an additional penalty for publicly carrying a firearm if it is uncased. The court found nothing in the overall statutory scheme to suggest that the legislature intended for the various types of receptacles to be firearm specific, and concluded that the center console of the vehicle fell within the ordinary definition of a “case.”[↩]
3. 430 Ill. Comp. Stat. 66/10(c)(2).[↩]
4. 430 Ill. Comp. Stat. Ann. 66/65(b).[↩]