Attorney General and gubernatoral candidate Mike DeWine seeks to join fight against Columbus/Cincinnati gun control

The Columbus Dispatch is reporting that Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine is siding with gun-rights groups suing to overturn local restrictions on firearms enacted in Columbus and Cincinnati.

DeWine is asking Franklin County and Hamilton County judges to allow him to join the lawsuits filed in Franklin County Common Pleas Court last week.

Click here to read the proposed briefs.

From the article:

DeWine’s office is seeking to file amicus or friend-of-the-court briefs in the actions brought by Ohioans for Concealed Carry and the Buckeye Firearms Foundation.

The attorney general’s proposed filings contend that both cities’ ordinances violate state law that requires uniform laws throughout Ohio regulating the ownership, possession and purchase of guns, related components and ammunition. The city measures create a forbidden and “confusing patchwork” of gun restrictions, the filing states.

Columbus’ ordinance (as well as Cincinnati’s) bans bump-stocks — which effectively convert a semi-automatic rifle to fire as a full automatic — and made carrying a gun while under disability a misdemeanor. Other parts prohibited brandishing imitation firearms in public, selling such items to minors and removing orange barrel plugs meant to distinguish them from real guns, among other changes.

DeWine’s office declined to comment on his filings, which were welcomed by Ohioans for Concealed Carry.

“We are thrilled that the Ohio attorney general’s office sees the need to defend the legislature’s intent and the state of Ohio’s interests in this regard. Their help in defending this critical state law from local politicians who are spending taxpayer money grasping at straws looking for ways to circumvent the rule of law is greatly appreciated,” it said in a Friday email to its members.

The article goes on to note that, as attorney general, DeWine has supported expansion of concealed-carry rights and joined other Republican attorney generals’ lawsuits around the nation in their legal fights to overturn gun restrictions.

Chad D. Baus is the Buckeye Firearms Association Secretary and an NRA-certified firearms instructor. He is co-founder of BFA-PAC, and served as its Vice Chairman for 15 years. He is the editor of BuckeyeFirearms.org, which received the Outdoor Writers of Ohio 2013 Supporting Member Award for Best Website.