By Dave Workman
Senior Editor
The Buckeye Firearms Association (BFA) is threatening legal action against the city and mayor of Cleveland if that municipality adopts a wide-reaching set of gun regulations proposed by Mayor Frank Jackson in June.
Those proposals, detailed by the Cleveland Plain Dealer, would, if adopted:
- Require “gun offenders” to register with the city’s public safety department within five days of either being released from prison, or within five days of moving to Cleveland. The offender would have to re-register every four years, under the proposal.
- Authorize police to seize a gun from someone who has been “drinking, disturbing the peace, threatening harm and the officer has reasonable cause to believe the deadly weapon may be used.”
- Prohibit the purchase or acquisition of more than one firearm during a period of 90 days.
- Prohibit the “negligent sale” of a firearm to someone who can’t legally own one.
- Leave a gun within access of someone less than 18 years old.
- Fail to report gun sales or ownership transfers to Cleveland police.
- Prohibiting the marketing, display or sale of “facsimile firearms.”
- Require gun owners to report a lost or stolen firearm within 48 hours of when he/she should have known the firearm was missing.
- Allow people to turn in “illegal firearms” with no questions asked thus not risking prosecution for possessing a firearm illegally.
- Outlaw the sale of brass knuckles or advanced martial arts weapons to anyone other than law enforcement.
In a lengthy report about the mayor’s proposals, BFA Secretary Chad Baus noted, “BFA President Jim Irvine and Legal Chair Ken Hanson let reporters know in no uncertain terms – if the city passes new gun control in violation of state law, we will sue.
“And we will win,” he added, “just as we won our last suit against the city, filed in 2009 after city officials had unlawfully continued to enforce 19 separate gun control ordinances in violation of state law. The state Supreme Court has ruled in our favor on this matter – twice.”
There is also language in the proposed 31-page ordinance outlawing “long-bladed pocket knives,” along with “pea shooters,” tear gas guns and “stench bombs.” Violations would be considered first-degree misdemeanors.
If the ordinance is adopted, Cleveland could be in for trouble, because other gun rights organizations in the state are rumored to also be preparing a legal fight. They have court precedent on their side.
Three years ago, the city was ordered by Common Pleas Judge Brian Corrigan to stop enforcing several anti-gun ordinances in an early BFA action. Cleveland had even challenged the state preemption statue, which failed in December 2010 when the State Supreme Court ruled against the city, Baus recalled.
