Restoration of Rights bill (HB54) passes House committee

HB54, sponsored by Representatives Ron Maag (R-Lebanon) and Jarrod Martin (R-Beavercreek) has passed out of the House Committee on Criminal Justice.

The committee, which is chaired by BFA "B*" -rated Rep. Lynn Slaby, passed HB54 with a 8-3 mostly party line vote (one Democrat Rep. Connie Pillich [D-28] joined seven Republicans in support of the bill). Three Democrats, Reps. Garland (D-20), Weddington (D-27), and Wilburn (D-40) voted against it. Reps. Lou Blessing (R-29) and Sandra Williams (D-11) were absent.

Due to a U.S. Supreme Court decision, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) has stopped accepting Ohio's court orders restoring a citizen's right to own firearms. The purpose of this bill is to update Ohio's statutes to address this issue and protect Ohio citizens' legal rights under the law.

"Someone who has been legally buying firearms, in some cases for many years after they received a legal Ohio restoration, may suddenly discover that he or she is back under a firearm disability because Ohio's restoration of their firearm rights was not deemed complete by Federal authorities," said Hanson. "The proposed bill realigns Ohio's law with new Federal enforcement rules to effectively get the same result that has been working in Ohio for years."

Read the legislation here:
http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/bills.cfm?ID=129_HB_54

The bill now moves to the full House, where a floor vote is needed before it moves over to the Senate.

Meanwhile, we are now well into the second month of Senate inaction on its version of restaurant/ car carry rules fix legislation, SB17, and on Sen. Jason Wilson's (D) SB61, which contains identical language to HB54. The Senate passed bills with identical language in the last session by significant bi-partisan majorities.