Remembering legislature’s action on guns
Some Ohioans sincerely believe the Second Amendment trumps any attempt to regulate massacre-capable guns. Other Ohioans sincerely believe America’s Founders didn’t intend to guarantee the possession of massacre-capable guns.
Those are matters of opinion. But here’s a matter of fact: Late in 2006, Republican then-Gov. Bob Taft vetoed Substitute House Bill 347. It forbade cities and villages to regulate firearms and reserved that power to the legislature. Taft, in his veto, wrote that HB 347 would nullify “many local municipalities’ gun regulations ... including the assault weapons bans enacted by the cities of Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Toledo. This vast prohibition of local control is unwarranted and fails to consider the differing challenges and circumstances faced by different communities and regions of the State.”
The General Assembly didn’t care. It overrode Taft’s veto. So, if an Ohio community wants to regulate massacre-capable guns, its residents are powerless, thanks to HB 347 and legislators who overrode the veto. (That’s the super-competent legislature that, for 20 years and 11 months, has ignored a Supreme Court order to make a “complete systematic overhaul” of school funding, and the legislature that for nine years-plus has ignored a 2008 ballot issue – backed by almost 64 percent of the Ohioans voting on it – to limit payday loan APRs to 28 percent.)
Some Ohioans oppose regulation, by cities and villages – likely, by anybody – of massacre-capable guns. Other voters want to regulate such weapons. Either way, amnesia is an Ohio politi- cian’s greatest friend. So, as a brush-up:
The 2006 General Assembly members who voted to override Taft’s veto, and who are also running this year for statewide office, are Republican Rep. Keith Faber, running for state auditor; Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted (House speaker in 2006), running for lieutenant governor; and Republican Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor, running for governor. Two 2006 General Assembly members who voted to override Taft’s veto are now in Congress: Republican U.S. Reps. Jim Jordan and Bob Latta.
Members of this session’s General Assembly who were members in 2006 and voted to override Taft’s veto, and their current titles, are Republican Sens. Bill Coley; Matt Dolan; Randy Gardner; Jay Hottinger: and Scott Oelslager; Democratic Sen. Kenny Yuko (Senate minority leader); Republican Reps. Tom Brinkman; Jim Hoops; Jim Hughes (running this year for Franklin County Common Pleas judge); Tom Patton; Kirk Schuring (House speaker pro tempore); Tim Shaffer; and Bill Seitz. Seeking House comebacks this year are two Republicans who in 2006, as House members, voted to override Taft’s gun-law veto: Steve Reinhard and Jim Trakas.
When the state Supreme Court upheld House
Bill 347 in 2010, lameduck Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray hailed the ruling. “This is an important victory for every gun owner in Ohio,” Cordray said. He added that before HB 347, Ohioans “faced confusing patchwork of local (gun) ordinances.” If Ohioans can’t handle “patchworks,” why do both parties tolerate 3,800-plus local governments (the Census’s 2012 count) including more than 600 school districts? Maybe metastatic government is the closest thing to a “jobs” program Ohio’s crack legislature can think of.
Competing with Cordray for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination are Larry E. Ealy; former Cleveland Mayor Dennis Kucinich; former Supreme Court Justice William O’Neill; Paul E. Ray; and state Sen. Joseph Schiavoni, of suburban Youngstown. Competing with Taylor for the GOP’s gubernatorial nomination is Attorney General Mike DeWine (who unseated Cordray in 2010.)
Now’s the time to ask candidates questions, starting with this one: Why does Ohio forbid communities to regulate massacre-capable weapons?
Voters are entitled to an answer – if there’s a good one.
Now’s the time to ask candidates questions, starting with this one: Why does Ohio forbid communities to regulate massacre-capable weapons?