These 2018 candidates put guns over local rule
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 massacrecapable 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 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, led by Taft’s fellow Republicans, 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. And that shows what matters to the legislature: For 20 years and 11 months, it’s ignored a Supreme Court order to make a “complete systematic overhaul” of school funding. And for nine years-plus it has ignored a 2008 ballot issue — backed by almost 64 percent of the Ohioans voting on it — to limit payday-loan annual percentage rates to 28 percent.
Amnesia is an Ohio politician’s greatest friend. So, here’s a brush-up:
General Assembly members who voted to override Taft’s veto in 2006, and who also are 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 the 2017-18 General Assembly who were also members in 2006 and voted to override Taft’s veto, with their current titles, are Republican Sens. Bill Coley, Matt Dolan, Randy Gardner, Jay Hottinger, Scott Oelslager and Joe Uecker; Democratic Sen. Kenny Yuko (who’s Senate minority leader); Republican Reps. Tom Brinkman, Jim Hoops, Jim Hughes (running this year for Franklin County Common Pleas judge), Tom Patton, Kirk Schuring (who’s House speaker pro tempore), Tim Schaffer and William Seitz.
Seeking House comebacks this election year are two Republicans who in 2006, as House members, voted to override Taft’s veto: Steve Reinhard and Jim Trakas.
When the Ohio Supreme Court upheld House Bill 347 in 2010, Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray, a Democrat, hailed the ruling. “This is an important victory for every gun owner in Ohio,” Cordray said. He added that before HB 347, Ohioans “faced a 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 legislators can think of.)
Competing with Cordray for this year’s 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 of both parties questions, starting with this: Why does Ohio forbid communities to regulate massacre-capable weapons?
Voters are entitled to an answer — if there’s a good one.