Ohio Democrats join call for suspension of Second Amendment
During the runup to the March 16 primary, Democrat Senate candidate P.G. Sittenfeld staged a last-ditch effort to gain publicity for his underdog campaign by calling for a constitutional amendment to repeal Ohio's preemption law which prohibits cities from enacting laws that are more strict than state law.
As Buckeye Firearms Association and several news outlets have noted since Sittenfeld's primary loss, it is clear the proposal was nothing but a campaign PR stunt - the same kind of smoke and mirrors his gun ban extremist friends have become so known for.
It is clear that at least two Ohio politicians took note of the attention Sittenfeld got, though.
On Wednesday, July 20, State Senator Cecil Thomas (D-Cincinnati) announced he will introduce legislation to allow municipalities to restrict open or concealed carry of firearms during events of regional or national significance. The proposal comes in the wake of Steve Loomis, the president of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association, calling for Governor Kasich to suspend Ohio open carry laws during the Republican National Convention.
Two days earlier, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) also expressed his support for the unconstitutional proposal, saying "I would hope that the governor would listen to the police union and suspend conceal and open carry in Ohio, in Cleveland, during this convention."
Thomas and Brown will no doubt get their 15 minutes of fame, just as Loomis and Sittenfeld have done. But imagine for a moment if these Democrats were proposing to allow municipalities to abolish the First Amendment "during events of regional or national significance." Think that would play well with journalists who are so ready to support restriction of the Second Amendment?
The notion that local gun control can in ANY way be effective at prohibiting crime has been disproven by plenty of previous misguided attempts.
Back in 2002, the Toledo Blade reported that, in the three years since Toledo City Council banned the sale and possession of so-called "Saturday Night Specials," only two people had been convicted for a violation in the course of three years. A sunset provision had been inserted into the original ordinance, and the law was allowed to expire.
In 2006, a so-called "assault weapons" ban in the City of Columbus was exposed as impotent in a high profile way when former Ohio State running back Maurice Clarette was arrested with a banned rifle, yet was not charged for violation of the city's ban.
In late 2007 and early 2008, Buckeye Firearms Association published a two-part series entitled "The truth about Cleveland’s 'Assault Weapon Ban', " in which we reported that public records requests revealed that in all of 2006 there was not one single person charged with a violation of Cleveland's assault weapons ban. That's right, not even one.
Our investigation also found that, in 2007, only one person was prosecuted for a violation of Cleveland's bans. But the case never made it to trial because the Grand Jury returned a "no bill," meaning they couldn't even find enough evidence of a crime for the case to move forward to a trial.
So not only did the City of Cleveland not convict a single person under their so-called assault weapons ban in 2006 or 2007; they never even took one case to trial!
In Part II of that series, we reported on the case of Edward Lesure, which involved a perp committing gun crimes while under several felony disabilities. Despite having pending felony charges, he was charged instead by the City of Cleveland with misdemeanors, nearly all of which were eventually dismissed. You read that right - not only did the city not pursue the sitting duck felony charges for firearm under disability, they dismissed most all the misdemeanor charges from Lesure's assault case. Lesure wound up pleading to only a resisting arrest charge. No domestic violence, no assault, no aggravated menacing, no violation of the Cleveland assault weapons ban, no violation of the safe storage law - all of which the circumstances of his case suggest he could have been prosecuted for.
We conducted our investigation after months of calling on Cleveland-area media to ask these questions themselves. When we were done, we provided them with the facts, which they never bothered to published, perhaps because it weakened the case being made by Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson that passage of a bill enacting statewide preemption of local gun control laws would tie his hands.
The fact is there will NEVER be meaningful enforcement of local gun control, because anyone who commits a crime with a firearm should be charged with numerous felonies, and any conviction on the misdemeanor would, by law, be served concurrently with his felony time.
The idea that local gun control can be effective as crime prevention is, as Buckeye Firearms Association Executive Director Dean Rieck said at the time Sittenfeld's proposal was announced, "a ridiculous proposal. Preemption was a solution to a serious problem in Ohio where we had a patchwork of gun laws throughout the state. State law now says clearly that gun laws must be consistent in Ohio and that cites cannot ban something that state law allows."
"Preemption is settled law," said Rieck, "The City of Cleveland sued the State of Ohio over this issue and the Ohio Supreme Court ruled in a 5-2 decision that preemption is valid law.
"In addition, when Gov. Bob Taft vetoed HB 347, the bill that introduced preemption, the Ohio General Assembly voted to override the veto. This was a historic override. So the people have spoken on this issue.
"Quite literally, Sittenfeld was proposing a constitutional amendment to prevent the exercise of a constitutional right."
Rest assured that this ridiculous idea, which has nothing to do with local government and everything to do with Cecil Thomas, will see no further action.
Chad D. Baus is the Buckeye Firearms Association Secretary, BFA PAC Vice Chairman, and an NRA-certified firearms instructor. He is the editor of BuckeyeFirearms.org, which received the Outdoor Writers of Ohio 2013 Supporting Member Award for Best Website.
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