Any mumbles in Ohio newspapers or websites from the opposition yet? Any sign of an attempted challenge?
Local gun laws fall as veto is rejected
Poll suggests move won’t be popular
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Jim Siegel and Joe Hallett
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Graphic
Local support
Even though most Ohioans consider it a bad idea, the Ohio Senate yesterday joined the House in overriding Gov. Bob Taft’s veto of a concealed-carry law that effectively wipes out Columbus’ assaultweapons ban and about 80 other local gun laws.
Without debate and with vital help from three Democrats, the GOP-controlled Senate voted 21-12 for the override.
The first legislative override in 20 years came on the same day a poll showed that by a 54-35 ratio, Ohio voters consider it a "bad idea" for the state to "have the power to override gun control laws passed by towns and cities."
The statewide Quinnipiac University poll of 1,027 Ohio voters from Dec. 4-10 and released yesterday showed that 35 percent of voters want "more strict" gun laws and 12 percent want "less strict" laws, while 46 percent say Ohio’s are "about right."
"There is a clear consensus that Ohioans don’t want to relax current gun control laws and don’t want to roll back the tougher laws passed by some cities," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute in Hamden, Conn.
The veto override, he added, "would be in conflict with what Ohio voters want."
Still, the override measure mustered the necessary threefifths vote in each chamber — 20 in the Senate and 60 in the House — to hand a stinging defeat to Taft less than a month before he leaves office.
"We do our best to respond to what the people of Ohio want," Senate President Bill M. Harris, R-Ashland, said.
"But by that same token, I have to run the Senate based on members of the Senate responding to their constituents and not what poll numbers say."
The Ohio House voted 71-21 last week to override, with 14 Democrats joining all but one Republican in attendance supporting the bill.
Bill supporters have argued that because the state issues concealed-carry gun permits, the state should be setting the laws that govern the sale and possession of those guns. They also argue that permit holders cannot be expected to know dozens, if not hundreds of local gun laws as they travel the state.
Taft said he could not support a bill that "exceeds the scope of a concealed-carry corrective bill by pre-empting local gun regulations."
Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman had urged lawmakers not to wipe out local gun laws.
"It just shows that once again there is a clear common sense vacuum in that the legislature can’t see the difference between urban crime guns and rural hunting guns," said Coleman spokesman Mike Brown.
Two Senators flipped their votes on the bill.
Sen. Kimberly A. Zurz, D- Green, voted against the bill two weeks ago but yesterday supported an override. She said her vote yesterday was "out of respect for the decision of the legislature," and born of frustration that Taft chose this bill, instead of others in the past, to voice concern about local control.
Meanwhile, Sen. Jeffry Armbruster, R-North Ridgeville, voted for the bill but against the override.
"It didn’t rise to the level of overriding a veto," he said, adding that after reviewing the debate about local gun laws, "quite honestly, we didn’t need to go that far."
All three Franklin County senators voted against the override.
The desire to enact the bill only increased when the Ohio Supreme Court ruled unanimously last week that, under current law, municipalities could enforce their own firearms restrictions.
Justices rejected a bid to throw out Cincinnati’s assaultweapons ban.
This is the first veto override since the legislature overturned the veto of a line item in a budget in 1986, according to Ohio Senate officials.
The Legislative Service Commission said it is the first override of an entire bill since 1977.
Taft spokesman Mark Rickel said the governor was disappointed by the override but that it wasn’t unexpected.
"The governor strongly believes his veto was the right thing to do and that our cities should have the right to protect their citizens through reasonable firearms regulations," Rickel said.
The concealed-carry bill tweaks a number of rules involving concealed handguns, such as no longer requiring permit holders in vehicles to carry guns in a locked container or in plain sight.
Dispatch reporter Mark Niquette contributed to this story.
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http://www.dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/12/13/20061213-A1-03.html
Bunchafrigginconartists... I'll have to check them out though, I haven't been there in years. I know their prices on jewelry were nice last time I was there, so it only makes sense they'd try to double their money on firearms. 
