Ohio Supreme Court Issues Bad News for Gun Rights

Ohio is a preemption state. As you no doubt know, because you’re not just a regular reader, but an individual of culture and taste, preemption means local governments can’t enact their own gun control laws outside of particular parameters explicitly given in the preemption law. For example, Georgia allows local governments to prohibit the discharge of a firearm within the city limits. 

However, the city of Columbus wanted to go a lot farther. They passed measures that banned so-called high-capacity magazines and the “negligent storage” of firearms. 

Five citizens of the city went to court over it, and an injunction was issued. Columbus wanted to appeal the ruling, but couldn’t, and they took their fight to the state Supreme Court, which gave gun rights supporters in the state some bad news.

Columbus can appeal a trial court’s 2023 order temporarily blocking two gun-related local laws from taking effect, the Supreme Court of Ohio ruled today, finding the city had a right to seek immediate enforcement of its newly enacted laws.

In a 5-2 opinion, the Supreme Court found that a trial court’s preliminary injunction preventing a municipality from enforcing a new ordinance qualifies as a “final order,” which can be appealed. The decision reversed a Fifth District Court of Appeals decision that found it lacked jurisdiction to hear the city’s appeal until the trial court completed the case.

Five citizens anonymously challenged the constitutionality of two city ordinances passed by Columbus City Council in December 2022. One ordinance outlawed “large capacity magazines” that could hold more than 30 rounds of ammunition, and another prohibited the “negligent storage of a firearm.” A Delaware County Common Pleas Court judge blocked the ordinances from taking effect until further proceedings were conducted.

Writing for the Court majority, Justice Daniel R. Hawkins explained that the state and municipalities have a “sovereign interest” in passing and enforcing their laws. He stated that “a court’s order enjoining the operation of such laws causes irreparable injury to that sovereign interest,” which allows the court’s injunction to be immediately appealed.

This wasn’t an overturn of the injunction, mind you. It only said they can appeal the injunction.

It’s also not a ruling on the constitutionality of the preemption law, so that’s good news, too.

But it does mean that the fight will have to continue for some time, because Columbus will appeal the injunction, and then that fight will go on for who knows how long, only for a decision to be reached, which will then be appealed and fought out again, I’m sure.

All while violent crime in Columbus has dropped without either of these measures being enforced, and all without there being any hope of these two ordinances ever doing a damn thing except making life difficult for law-abiding gun owners in the city.

After all, they’re local ordinances. Violating the law cannot and will not ever make anyone disqualified to own a firearm because local governments generally don’t get to create felony charges. So, you’re looking at the most someone will get being less than a year in jail and a fine, but they can get out, leave the city, and immediately buy a magazine that’s illegal inside the city, and there’s nothing anyone can really do to stop it.

And “negligent” gun storage is problematic, too, because it’s a rather vague term. If you’ve got a lock box bolted to your car via a cable, but the wire is just a smidge exposed enough so someone can cut it, that could label someone as having negligent gun storage.

Plus, we also know that an awful lot of gun thefts happen outside of gun-free zones. That’s why people have to leave guns in the car, thus making them ripe for theft. Will people who decide their establishments are gun-free zones be held accountable for their role in the theft? No? Well, stop blaming the gun owners for being the victims of a crime.

Hopefully, the courts will ultimately recognize this and not just issue an injunction, but overturn the laws entirely.

Editor’s Note: President Trump and Republicans across the country are doing everything they can to protect our Second Amendment rights and right to self-defense.

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