Recently I have been pondering the ins and outs of this idiotic assault weapons ban in Columbus. I want to preface what follows by saying that I am not being defeatist but I am looking for answers.

1) Cleveleland, Toledo, Dayton, Cincinnati, etc all have AWBs in place already. Why has the state not stepped in before now to do something about these bans? What makes the Columbus ban different?

2)  I assume these bans have been challenged and since these bans have held up against challenges, isn't it only a matter of time before Columbus gets the wording right so their ban holds up as well?

3) Phil Harmon is approaching his suit from the registration perspective focussing on the lack of options if the owner of a registered weapon dies, etc. There is a clause in the new ban that states "If any section, subsection, clause, sentence, or paragraph of this chapter or the application thereof to any person or circumstances shall be held unconstitutional or otherwise invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, such holding shall not affect the other provisions of this chapter that can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to this end the provisions of this chapter are declared to be severable." Doesn't this pretty much say that even if he wins the ban stays and Columbus City Council  just writes an amendment to clarify this section?

All this comes about because I do not see why the state has not done anything to pre-empt these laws up to now and why these other bans have stayed in place as long as they have. We need to work hard as members of this group and as NRA members,  as individuals,  to support the state in getting the pre-emptive legislation in place to return our 2nd amendment rights. Keep pounding on your representative's doors, send them letters (yes the real kind) and emails. Make phone calls. Recruit new members to the NRA in order to help them make their efforts. If we don't fight this through to the end we deserve to lose. Then we can see what rights they decide we don't need next.

Just thinking,
David

Quoted: 1) Cleveleland, Toledo, Dayton, Cincinnati, etc all have AWBs in place already. Why has the state not stepped in before now to do something about these bans? What makes the Columbus ban different?

The political climate right now is very favorable to the gun-rights argument.  It was not when those previous bans were put in place. I don't know about the other bans but I believe the Cleveland ban simply names several firearms by name (AR's and AK's).  The proposed Columbus ban would effectively ban all semi-automatic firearms which makes it much easier to paint as unreasonable.  It doesn't hurt that Columbus is also the state capital so you have a lot of conservative state lawmakers in a pretty liberal city.  Also, the state has traditionally been hands-off with local governments.  Ohio has a pretty large variety of communities so lawmaking is usually best left to the more local establishments.  

Quoted: 1) Toledo,.... (has) AWB in place already.

Ummm.. NO!

To my knowledge the only thing T-Town has outlawed are "Saturdaynight specials" (i.e. most CCW firearms with BBL under 3") and magazines over 10 rounds.  Nothing to do with AW's as far as I know.

Quoted: The proposed Columbus ban would effectively ban all semi-automatic firearms which makes it much easier to paint as unreasonable.

This is not true.  Read the 9 page thread about the ban.  In the end, the final text of the ban was tweaked and became more focused on "evil black rifles".  It is much more defined and will be very hard if not impossible to defeat.

The actual text of the ordinance can be found HERE