These supersede local statutes and nullify them, ensuring that there is no patchwork quilt of gun rights from one town to the next.
An important appeals court ruling in Ohio last week reestablished the state’s right to protect personal liberties. The City of Cincinnati had sued the state government over the 2007 preemption statute despite an earlier ruling that confirmed its legality.
The law simply states that local ordinances may not interfere with Ohioans’ fundamental rights to “own, possess, purchase, sell, transfer, transport, store or keep any firearm, part of a firearm, its components and its ammunition.”
Simple enough, but gun-grabbing city leaders were not happy with the state protecting the Second Amendment.
Cleveland sued Ohio officials in 2010 using the same arguments that Cincinnati trotted out in this most recent case. Critics of preemption argued that it violated principles of separation of power and home rule.
They also dubiously claimed that First Amendment freedom of speech protections for cities were also trampled by preemption.
Cleveland’s arguments were rejected by the Ohio Supreme Court then, and Cincinnati’s recent case was also struck down by the appellate court. This came after a trial court ruled in the city’s favor and preliminarily enjoined state amendments to the preemption law that further protected citizens’ rights.
The First District Court of Appeals instead ruled that the original law and the recent amendments comply with the Ohio Constitution, meaning preemption remains the law of the state.
Michael Jean, counsel for the Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation, expressed his surprise that the case reached the appellate court. “It should have been thrown out for the same reasons that the City of Cleveland’s case was fourteen years ago.”
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