LTE: Cities have no business messing with gun laws

October 13, 2007
Columbus Dispatch

In reference to the Sunday Dispatch editorial "City vs. state," I would like to point out a few facts that the liberal who wrote this editorial left out.

Click 'Read More' for the entire letter to the editor of the Columbus Dispatch.

You can argue all you want, but the truth of the matter is that the people of the United States are a free people who have the right to keep and bear arms. No one -- no mayor, no city council or government -- has the right to take away these rights. To do so is a crime.

Law-abiding citizens do not commit crimes, nor do they use guns to harm other people, unless they are defending themselves or another person.

Our liberal mayor, Michael B. Coleman, and City Council decided to ignore the Second Amendment and pass what they called an assault-weapons ban, which banned not only assault weapons but also many firearms used for self-defense, hunting and sporting purposes. With the enactment of this unlawful law, citizens who had previously purchased and lawfully posessed firearms could become criminals overnight, and stand to lose their freedoms, their livelihoods and their right to bear arms if caught with a firearm that they lawfully purchased and kept for years without incident.

As if this gun ban wasn't bad enough, Coleman decided to impose his radical left-wing agenda on the citizens again and tried to ban people who had concealed-carry permits from carrying their firearms in city parks. This is the place where people are often targeted or victimized by criminals.

Coleman's actions triggered action by our state legistature, which voted to do away with all local gun laws. The legislature felt that having one consistent gun law that was uniform throughout the state would allow law-abiding citizens the opportunity to know what was right and what was wrong and would prevent lawful citizens from being ensnared into becoming criminals for posessing firearms in cities with politically motivated gun laws.

It's time for the liberals to realize that the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. A recent poll in The Dispatch's Hot Issue section showed that 83 percent of people believed that cities should not have the right to make their own gun laws.

Nothing in the U.S. Constitution or the Ohio Constitution gives the cities rights to make laws that restrict any person's freedoms.

When are people in this city going to realize that if the Second Amendment is taken away, the rest will follow shortly. Liberals need to stop trying to rewrite the Bill of Rights and should quit trying to impose their fascist ideals and ways on the rest of us.

If they want to ban something, then ban the criminals who commit crimes and use firearms illegally. Lock them up and throw away the key.

Chris Vickers
Columbus