Press Release 12-7-18
Gun Owners Win at our Expense
December 7, 2018: By passing HB228 the Ohio Legislators are once again taking the rights of the general population away in order to satisfy the gun lobby. Year after year people who are afraid of strangers and feel a need to be armed at all times convince the legislature that they need more privileges.
The Legislature has pre-empted many useful ordinances that Ohio cities used to control gun crime. As these police powers were pre-empted, no other state laws were passed giving municipalities the tools that they needed to keep their citizens safe from gun violence. Rosie Craig, OCAGV board member said “Governing bodies at the local levels also have a right and a duty to protect citizens from needless gun injury and death and this bill prevents them from doing that.” This law prevents cities from having any kind of restrictions on firearms. There are serious public health and safety concerns with this law.
Once again the legislators showed us that they think they are the only ones that have the wisdom to provide safety to Ohioans. First it was CCW and Preemption then it continued to give more and more privileges to gun owners and less and less to the rest of the Ohio population. Even though they wisely removed the Stand Your Ground provision we are watching them try to make it more difficult to put anything on the ballot for fear of outside sources helping and yet in HB 228 they added more pre-empted rights to include the manufacture, taxation, keeping, and reporting of loss or theft of firearms and the fines to penalize the cities even when challenged by outside sources.
There is a serious problem in our government and we should be worried when government takes our rights away to give them to gun owners and manufactures.
We are pleased that the Senate removed the Stand Your Ground provision in HB 228 but we need to remember that current law allows self-defense when there is a real threat. The duty to retreat when it is reasonable and safe does not increase the risk to the general public. “Research has shown that laws like this lead to increased homicide rates” said Faith DeNardo, OCAGV board chair. HB228 is contrary to the building of a safe and civil society.
Toby Hoover OCAGV Founder added “We believe these changes to Ohio law attempts to convince the public that it is a solution to a problem where one does not exist. It is dangerous public policy.”
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