Plain Dealer on preemption: We were for it before we were against it

By Chad D. Baus

On August 7, in an editorial entitled "Chose your weapon", the Cleveland Plain Dealer endorsed the need for statewide preemption of local gun control laws as provided in HB347.

From the editorial:

This page continues to look skeptically on concealed carry, but consistency in the form of statewide, uniform standards makes more sense than a confusing patchwork of local contradictions.

Less than four months later, Plain Dealer editors have reversed themselves (without noting or explaining the reversal).

By taking away local governments' ability to regulate the sale and possession of guns, the legislature tramples the principle of home rule more egregiously than ever.

The statewide preemption language passed by the legislature this week is the exact same language contained in the bill on August 7.

Throwing out the possibility that the group of people who make up the editorial board suffer from a collective form of multiple-personality disorder, there can be only two explanations for these two opposing editorials.

Either the editors wrote the August 7 piece without having read the bill (unprofessional, to say the least), or they are now allowing emotional anti-gun rhetoric to overcome rational thought (also extremely unprofessional). In either case, the reversal should have been recognized in this latest editorial, and explained.

Click here to ask Plain Dealer editors to explain their seemingly irrational behavior.

Chad D. Baus is the Northwest Ohio Chair of Buckeye Firearms Association.