Ohio justices to hear arguments on gun bans in public parks

Early last month, we posted the Ohio Supreme Court's Notice of Oral Argument, in which it was announced that The Supreme Court of Ohio will hold an oral argument on the merits in Ohioans for Concealed Carry Inc. et. al v. City of Clyde et. al. [Case No. 07-0960] on Wednesday, April 9, 2008.

The Ohio media has finally caught on. Links and excerpts from some of the media coverage follow.

• Associated Press - Local controls on guns debated

  Ohioans have the right to ban hidden guns from their homes and places of business, but if the landlord is a city or county, that right evaporates under a new section of Ohio law, a group that wants it overturned says.

  The Ohio Supreme Court hears arguments in the case Wednesday -- the day after the fourth anniversary of the state becoming the 46th to allow residents to carry a concealed weapon.

  From April 8, 2004, through 2007, Ohio sheriffs issued 108,868 licenses to carry hidden guns. The licenses of 482 people were revoked because the holders no longer were eligible.

  The court is hearing a bid by a gun-rights group to eliminate a ban that Clyde in northwest Ohio imposed on carrying concealed weapons in its parks. The legislature in 2006 passed a concealed-weapons law stripping local governments of the authority to pass gun laws tougher than the state's law, which doesn't ban guns in parks.

• Hanna Report - High Court to Hear Concealed Carry Lawsuit
  

  A right-to-carry lawsuit launched more than three years ago will get its big day in court Wednesday when the city of Clyde and Ohioans for Concealed Carry give oral arguments before the Supreme Court of Ohio. With Cleveland mounting its own case for local control of state gun laws, attorneys for the Sandusky County community hope to bounce back from an appeals court decision overturning its ban on guns in city parks.

• Lorain Morning Journal - OUR VIEW: Concealed handguns don't belong in parks, or assault rifles in city
  

  While the United States Supreme Court is deciding whether the Second Amendment grants individuals the right to possess firearms for personal protection, the Ohio Supreme Court this week will hear arguments on whether cities can ban concealed handguns from public parks as well as entirely ban assault weapons.

  Since April 8, 2004, Ohio has permitted carrying of concealed handguns for those who meet the requirements in state law.

  But the law forbids carrying concealed guns in certain places, among them are buildings, or parts of buildings, owned or leased by governments. However, public parks were not among sites where concealed guns were specifically forbidden.

  Dissatisfied, the city of Clyde in Sandusky, banned guns in its parks. But in 2006, the state legislature passed a law canceling such localized guns laws. The gun rights group Ohioans for Concealed Carry has challenged Clyde's ban on guns in parks. On the other side of the coin, Cleveland is fighting the 2006 law because it erased that city's ban on automatic weapons.

  Now it is up to the state Supreme Court to decide whether communities can extend the limits on weapons beyond what is written in state law.

• Toledo Blade - Ohio justices to enter fray over gun laws
  

  [On Wednesday] the Ohio Supreme Court will wade into a thorny issue that has the National Rifle Association, Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann, and Ohioans for Concealed Carry aligned against cities. The court must decide whether the state can tell local governments whether they can regulate guns on their own property, the latest battle in the wider war over local home-rule authority.

  ...The Toledo-based 6th District Court of Appeals struck down Clyde’s ordinance, finding that it conflicts with the state law that legalized the carrying of hidden weapons by law-abiding, licensed Ohioans except for a patchwork of places where guns would be forbidden. Public parks are absent from the off-limits list.

  Clyde appealed its loss, and the winners — the state and Ohioans for Concealed Carry — entered into a rare alliance with the city in urging the high court to take up the case.

  “By accepting jurisdiction, the court can resolve statewide a question that has been, and continues to be, an important statewide concern,” the attorney general’s office wrote.

  The Ohio Municipal League filed a brief with the court to support Clyde that Toledo, Cincinnati, and a number of other cities signed on to.