Columbus rushes to pass some gun-control measures after favorable county court ruling

Columbus city officials said Wednesday that they intend to act quickly to pass new gun-control legislation after a Franklin County judge last week blocked part of a state law that prohibited cities from having more-stringent restrictions than the state, saying it violated the state's constitution.

The proposed new city restrictions would prohibit large-caliber ammunition magazines containing more than 30 rounds by ordinary citizens, require the safe storage of firearms when minors could reasonably be in danger of handling them, and prohibit "straw men" gun sales, where people who can legally purchase firearms do so for those who can't.

City Council President Shannon Hardin said the Democrat-controlled council plans to hold hearings and pass legislation in the near future.

"Even if the window is brief, we will be damned if we don't use it," Hardin said.

Meanwhile, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, a Republican who was reelected Tueday, and firearms organizations are pushing appeals in an attempt to reverse the Nov. 2 decision of Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Stephen L. McIntosh granting a preliminary injunction against the state law.

Minutes after the news conference by Columbus city officials announcing the plan Wednesday afternoon, the pro-gun Buckeye Firearms Association issued a statement saying the city's aim was "to ban AR-15 type rifles, limit magazine size, mandate gun locks, impose universal background checks, pass red flag laws, and more."

City Council spokesperson Nya Hairston said that was incorrect, saying the city's focus is on only the three measures, which officials repeatedly called "common sense" public safety measures.

"We don't trust them to be very careful and just do a couple things," said Dean Rieck, executive director of Buckeye Firearms Association.

A spokesperson for Mayor Andrew J. Ginther, Melanie Crabill, said "however, we are contemplating legislation to restrict the sale, purchase, brandishing, or any other use of assault-style weapons for the near future. We are not contemplating a complete ban to my understanding, but are exploring as many restrictions as possible so long as they do not conflict with the U.S. or Ohio Constitutions, the (Ohio Revised Code), or any other applicable law."

Rieck said that state lawmakers have been clear that they didn't want a "patchwork" of city firearms laws, just as they don't want nonstandardized traffic laws. Rieck said the city is broadly interpreting McIntosh's ruling to mean they can pass gun-control laws, while the association's attorneys believe the city is limited to how zoning laws interact with gun manufacturing operations.

"They are trying to signal to everybody that pre-emption (or the state's ability to limit local government codes) is gone" as it relates to guns, Rieck said.

"I think storing firearms safely is a great idea," and the association encourages it, Rieck said. But only the state can make laws mandating storage, and to date it hasn't, he added.

"We need to stand up against the madness that is ruling the Statehouse," Hardin said a day after Republicans swept all statewide offices in Ohio and expanded their legislative majority.

"This is our moment," Ginther said at the announcement at the City Hall campus, adding that firearms supporters would have the public believe that the nation's founding fathers and framers of the U.S. Constitution "intended mass murder."

"It is the time to act and Columbus will lead the way," Ginther said.

To bring the message home, Columbus officials invited a trauma surgeon, Dr. Keshav Deshpande, to speak at the press conference. He described a recent gunshot victim who arrived at OhioHealth Grant Medical Center, Downtown.

"He turned around and he looked right at me, clear-minded, just as any of us here in this room," Deshpande said. "And he said, 'Please, don't let me die. I have to get home to my son'."

Then his pulse stopped, Deshpande said. The doctor opened his chest, and instantly several liters of blood poured out, "all over the bed, all over the floor." The bullet had filled his chest and lungs with blood, and his heart was damaged.

Minutes later, Deshpande pronounced him dead.

"That day, I witnessed a wife in complete disbelief, a mother that was just shaking from hundreds of emotions I'm sure, a cousin that was just so mad at the world," Deshpande said.

"And off to the side there, a little boy, who couldn't have been more than two years old, sitting on his grandma's lap, completely clueless that daddy wasn't going to be there tonight at bedtime."

wbush@gannett.com

@ReporterBush

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus moving to pass "common sense" gun-safety measures