Cleveland Defends Its Gun Laws

[mekender]

http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/co ... cs&sid=101

In an effort to maintain some local gun restrictions, Cleveland officials went to the Ohio Supreme Court yesterday to defend the city's assault-weapons ban and registration requirement for handguns.

Cleveland officials said their local regulations would not violate a 2007 state law that attempted to establish a uniform set of rules governing gun ownership in Ohio.

"Really what this law is trying to do is take Cleveland out of the business of regulating for the safety and welfare of its own citizens," Gary Singletary, Cleveland's assistant law director, told the justices.

Lawyers for the state, however, said the court couldn't uphold Cleveland's rules without running afoul of its own 4-3 decision in 2008 that struck down the northwestern Ohio town of Clyde's ban on guns in public parks. In that ruling, justices said lawmakers clearly intended for one statewide standard on firearms rather than a patchwork of local regulations.

State Solicitor Benjamin C. Mizer said the same principle applies in the Cleveland case.

"Indeed, that is the entire point of (the statewide law): to ensure that there is a uniform application of gun laws throughout the state," Mizer said.

Last year, an appeals court sided with Cleveland, concluding that the 2007 state law did not meet the standard of a "general law" wiping out any local restrictions.

Gun-rights advocates said yesterday that they expect the Supreme Court to rule the other way.

"Cleveland, instead of spending time and money and resources on the very real crime problem they have, is wasting their resources going after law-abiding citizens," said Jim Irvine, head of the Buckeye Firearms Association.

The Supreme Court is expected to rule in several months.