NEWS RELEASE
SAF APPLAUDS OHIO SUPREME COURT RULING ON CCW
BELLEVUE, WA – Today’s ruling by the Ohio Supreme Court that strikes down a ban on legal concealed carry in public parks was “a proper decision that upholds the state’s concealed carry preemption statute,” the Second Amendment Foundation said.
Ohio’s current concealed carry statute, adopted by the State Legislature in 2006, prohibits local governments from adopting more stringent gun control regulations than the state. The City of Clyde passed an ordinance banning legal concealed carry in city parks. The law was challenged by Ohioans for Concealed Carry.
“Anti-gun municipalities across the country have been cooking up ways to challenge state preemption statutes,” noted SAF founder Alan Gottlieb, “as a means of harassing legally-armed, law-abiding citizens. Today’s ruling by the Ohio Supreme Court struck a necessary blow in the Buckeye State for civil rights and the rule of law.”
The court ruled 4-3 against Clyde in a case that was being closely watched by both sides in the gun rights debate. It was a SAF-supported lawsuit against the City of Cincinnati that was the catalyst for concealed carry legislation in Ohio.
“The right of self-defense does not end on the sidewalk at the entrance of a public park,” Gottlieb observed. “The rights of law-abiding gun owners are not subject to the whims of anti-gun municipal governments that think they have the authority to ignore state statute. It’s because of city officials like those responsible for the Clyde ordinance that the State Legislature acted correctly two years ago and stripped them of the power to adopt such harassment laws.
“Ohio gun rights activists, and especially Ohioans for Concealed Carry, have every right to be proud,” Gottlieb concluded. “Ohio’s concealed carry statute is both sensible and responsible, and municipal governments have no business interfering with the lawful exercise of a constitutionally-protected civil right.”
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Last week the courts in Pennsylvania addressed Philadelphia's attempt to circumvent their state's preemption law:
"While we understand the terrible problems gun violence poses for the city and sympathize with its efforts to use its police powers to create a safe environment for its citizens, these practical considerations do not alter the clear pre-emption imposed by the Legislature," President Judge Bonnie Brigance Leadbetter wrote in the court's ruling.
Leadbetter noted that the state Supreme Court previously upheld the state's exclusive right to enact gun laws in a 1996 ruling that overturned Philadelphia's effort to ban assault weapons. A 1974 state law says that only the General Assembly can regulate guns.
See also Attention Anyone Convicted of Domestic Violence in Washington.
