Judge Rules Columbus, OH Can’t Make Own Gun Control Laws

I mentioned earlier today how preemption is almost constantly under attack in some corner of the country. Local officials seem to ignore the plain text of such laws entirely, instead trying to come up with whatever excuse they can as to why the law doesn’t apply in a specific case.

It’s stupid, but it keeps happening.

And, time and time again, these local governments keep being smacked down over it.

The latest? Columbus, Ohio.

A Franklin County judge has sided with the state, ruling that Ohio can restrict Columbus and other cities from passing local gun regulations.

This is the latest development in a multi-year and multi-case legal battle between the Republican-controlled state government and the Democrat-controlled Columbus government over whether the city can pass local gun restrictions.

Columbus has challenged the state’s “Firearms-Uniformity Law,” which prevents local governments from regulating guns. In turn, the state has challenged Columbus for passing a package of gun-control legislation in late 2022.

Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Mark Serrott, a Democrat, granted the state summary judgment in a decision filed on Aug. 19. He ruled against Columbus’ argument that the state law violates the home rule amendment of the Ohio Constitution that allows municipalities to enact laws to protect the safety of their residents.

Of course, state officials are celebrating this, while the city’s attorney suggested that they will appeal this ruling. I don’t know that it’ll get anywhere, though.

See, the way I read the home rule amendment they have in Ohio is that local municipalities can enact laws so long as they don’t conflict with state law. Preemption is state law, so gun control at the local level conflicts with that law.

I understand a previous judge ruled otherwise, but I honestly don’t see how.

Granted, I’m not an attorney, and I’m most definitely not one in Ohio, especially as I’ve only spent about three days in the state. I might be reading this completely wrong, but that also seems to be Judge Serrott’s ruling, too, so that’s unlikely.

Columbus is likely to end up disappointed if they continue to fight this, as well as wasting a lot of taxpayer money. The issues with violent crime in the state’s urban centers aren’t because of guns, but violent people. The sooner the so-called leaders in these cities understand this, the sooner they can address it and make meaningful strides at protecting citizens.

Unfortunately, that’s not what they want to do. They’d much rather pretend the state is at fault.

In fact, the city’s attorney made a comment about state leaders lacking the “political will” to pass gun control, but that suggests they’re only opposed to it because of politics, rather than the fact that it just plain doesn’t work.

This is nothing but deflecting the city’s failures and trying to pin the blame on someone else.

We’ve seen and heard this song and dance so many times that it’s downright pathetic. I’m glad the court wasn’t playing around on this one, read the home rule amendment and applied it properly, and knocked this one down.

Unfortunately, what do we expect from anti-gun officials?

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