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Local government bans on carry in parks and bans on certain types of firearms stuck down.
City gun ban trumped
State concealed-carry law takes priority, Ohio Supreme Court rules
By James Nash
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
The state law giving Ohioans the right to carry concealed weapons, even in parks, overrules a city’s ability to regulate firearms, the state Supreme Court said yesterday in a ruling that wipes out local gun ordinances.
The court’s 4-3 decision struck down a Sandusky County city’s ban on firearms in municipal parks, but it also is expected to invalidate assault-weapons restrictions in other cities, including Columbus and Cleveland.
The majority of justices said lawmakers were within their rights in 2004 when they stripped away dozens of local gun ordinances — including the assaultweapons bans in Ohio’s largest cities, a registration requirement in Cleveland Heights, a waiting period for purchases in Dublin and a trigger-lock requirement Akron — in favor of a statewide standard.
As the state law drew multiple challenges, lawmakers passed another measure in 2006 reaffirming their intention to have a uniform statewide policy on firearms. Then-Gov. Bob Taft vetoed the law, but the legislature overrode him.
The court decision was a victory for Ohioans for Concealed Carry, which had challenged the city of Clyde’s ban on firearms in its five parks as running afoul of the 2004 state law.
“This has basically vindicated the legislature’s efforts and ours, which were to make gun laws consistent statewide,” said Jeff Garvas, president of the grass-roots group. “There’s no way a city can pass a local gun law, which is an exercise of police powers, and not skirt this decision. It’s not just parks.”
Leaders in many cities had argued that they needed tougher gun restrictions to deal with factors specific to urban living, such as high population density and gang violence.
They also said Ohio’s homerule tradition gives local leaders broad authority to protect the well-being of their constituents.
Like Cleveland, Dayton and Toledo, Columbus passed an assault-weapons ban but has not been enforcing it, pending the outcome of the Supreme Court case.
“This puts a pretty good crimp on what the city can do on the regulation of firearms,” said Columbus City Attorney Richard C. Pfeiffer Jr., a former state lawmaker. “We believe in home rule, but four votes (on the Supreme Court) win every time.”
He said prospects for Columbus upholding its assaultweapons ban appear “pretty dim.”
Unlike Columbus, Cleveland has filed legal challenges to the statewide gun law. City officials there did not respond to questions about whether they plan to drop those challenges.
The Clyde case split the all-Republican Supreme Court nearly down the middle. The majority of justices said local gun regulation crosses the line from self-government into the area of police power, where statewide regulations trump local ones.
Justice Terrence O’Donnell, who wrote the ruling, noted that the state’s concealed-carry law did not declare parks gunfree zones.
“Thus, the statute permits a licensed gun owner to carry a concealed handgun in a Clyde city park — indeed, in any municipal park across the state — the very conduct prohibited by the Clyde city ordinance,” O’Donnell wrote.
He was joined by Justices Maureen O’Connor and Evelyn Lundberg Stratton, who are up for re-election in November, and Justice Robert R. Cupp.
Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer and Justices Judith Ann Lanzinger and Paul E. Pfeifer dissented.
Moyer noted that the state law allows private-property owners to prohibit concealed firearms.
“The different treatment of public and private property is patently arbitrary and unreasonable; it affects one class of land solely on the basis of ownership, which has little to do with the relative safety of allowing concealed handguns on a particular type of property,” he wrote.
Rep. James Aslanides, RCoshocton, the sponsor of the concealed-carry law, said a statewide standard is necessary because gun owners can’t be expected to navigate a hodgepodge of local regulations as they travel from city to city. He also said there’s good reason to allow guns in parks.
“Parks are places where people particularly need to be able to defend themselves, because we don’t want users of a park to be victims,” Aslanides said. “As long as the criminal knows that potentially someone could have a gun in a park to defend themselves, the intent is to deter that crime. As a result, we’ll all be safer in parks.”
Although he supports the concealed-carry law, Rep. Dan Stewart, D-Columbus, said cities should be able to address gun issues that are specific to them.
“With crime, it’s a different kind of situation in a city like Columbus, where we have a lot of shootings,” Stewart said.
The Ohio Supreme Court ruling is the second highprofile court victory in three months for gun-owners in the state. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a handgun ban in the District of Columbia, declaring that gun ownership is a fundamental American right under the Second Amendment.
City gun ban trumped
State concealed-carry law takes priority, Ohio Supreme Court rules
By James Nash
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
The state law giving Ohioans the right to carry concealed weapons, even in parks, overrules a city’s ability to regulate firearms, the state Supreme Court said yesterday in a ruling that wipes out local gun ordinances.
The court’s 4-3 decision struck down a Sandusky County city’s ban on firearms in municipal parks, but it also is expected to invalidate assault-weapons restrictions in other cities, including Columbus and Cleveland.
The majority of justices said lawmakers were within their rights in 2004 when they stripped away dozens of local gun ordinances — including the assaultweapons bans in Ohio’s largest cities, a registration requirement in Cleveland Heights, a waiting period for purchases in Dublin and a trigger-lock requirement Akron — in favor of a statewide standard.
As the state law drew multiple challenges, lawmakers passed another measure in 2006 reaffirming their intention to have a uniform statewide policy on firearms. Then-Gov. Bob Taft vetoed the law, but the legislature overrode him.
The court decision was a victory for Ohioans for Concealed Carry, which had challenged the city of Clyde’s ban on firearms in its five parks as running afoul of the 2004 state law.
“This has basically vindicated the legislature’s efforts and ours, which were to make gun laws consistent statewide,” said Jeff Garvas, president of the grass-roots group. “There’s no way a city can pass a local gun law, which is an exercise of police powers, and not skirt this decision. It’s not just parks.”
Leaders in many cities had argued that they needed tougher gun restrictions to deal with factors specific to urban living, such as high population density and gang violence.
They also said Ohio’s homerule tradition gives local leaders broad authority to protect the well-being of their constituents.
Like Cleveland, Dayton and Toledo, Columbus passed an assault-weapons ban but has not been enforcing it, pending the outcome of the Supreme Court case.
“This puts a pretty good crimp on what the city can do on the regulation of firearms,” said Columbus City Attorney Richard C. Pfeiffer Jr., a former state lawmaker. “We believe in home rule, but four votes (on the Supreme Court) win every time.”
He said prospects for Columbus upholding its assaultweapons ban appear “pretty dim.”
Unlike Columbus, Cleveland has filed legal challenges to the statewide gun law. City officials there did not respond to questions about whether they plan to drop those challenges.
The Clyde case split the all-Republican Supreme Court nearly down the middle. The majority of justices said local gun regulation crosses the line from self-government into the area of police power, where statewide regulations trump local ones.
Justice Terrence O’Donnell, who wrote the ruling, noted that the state’s concealed-carry law did not declare parks gunfree zones.
“Thus, the statute permits a licensed gun owner to carry a concealed handgun in a Clyde city park — indeed, in any municipal park across the state — the very conduct prohibited by the Clyde city ordinance,” O’Donnell wrote.
He was joined by Justices Maureen O’Connor and Evelyn Lundberg Stratton, who are up for re-election in November, and Justice Robert R. Cupp.
Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer and Justices Judith Ann Lanzinger and Paul E. Pfeifer dissented.
Moyer noted that the state law allows private-property owners to prohibit concealed firearms.
“The different treatment of public and private property is patently arbitrary and unreasonable; it affects one class of land solely on the basis of ownership, which has little to do with the relative safety of allowing concealed handguns on a particular type of property,” he wrote.
Rep. James Aslanides, RCoshocton, the sponsor of the concealed-carry law, said a statewide standard is necessary because gun owners can’t be expected to navigate a hodgepodge of local regulations as they travel from city to city. He also said there’s good reason to allow guns in parks.
“Parks are places where people particularly need to be able to defend themselves, because we don’t want users of a park to be victims,” Aslanides said. “As long as the criminal knows that potentially someone could have a gun in a park to defend themselves, the intent is to deter that crime. As a result, we’ll all be safer in parks.”
Although he supports the concealed-carry law, Rep. Dan Stewart, D-Columbus, said cities should be able to address gun issues that are specific to them.
“With crime, it’s a different kind of situation in a city like Columbus, where we have a lot of shootings,” Stewart said.
The Ohio Supreme Court ruling is the second highprofile court victory in three months for gun-owners in the state. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a handgun ban in the District of Columbia, declaring that gun ownership is a fundamental American right under the Second Amendment.
