Here Are The New Columbus Gun Laws And What You Should Know

COLUMBUS, OH — The Columbus police chief in December declared a "call for action, and a call for peace" in hopes of reducing killings in Ohio's capital city. Police recorded 143 homicides in 2017 in Columbus alone, breaking the all-time record of 139 in 1991, which coincided with the nation's crack cocaine epidemic.

On Monday, city officials tried to do something about the city's increasingly common gun violence problem. City Council passed four local laws that officials say will help curb shootings by closing the gap between state and federal weapons laws, protecting all victims of domestic violence and keeping dangerous weapons out of neighborhoods.

Here the new laws:

• Pulling a fake gun near other people is now banned. It's illegal now to pull an imitation firearm in public and selling them to youths is no longer allowed. It's also unlawful to pull out the orange plugs that make it clear the gun isn't real.
• Businesses, such as a nightclub, that have seen multiple shootings can be shut down. The council amended the city's nuisance code and gave itself the power to close businesses where gun violence has been a problem.
• Domestic violence laws now include boyfriends and girlfriends. The law is no longer limited to family members and spouses.
• Bump stocks are banned. The device, which allow semi-automatic weapons to fire rapidly like automatic firearms, is now outlawed, along with similar devices. Gunman Stephen Paddock used the device to slaughter 58 people and injure hundreds of others at Las Vegas concert last year.

Council President Shannon G. Hardin said in a statement that the latest measures are a good start, but more is needed.

“While these ordinances are a step in the right direction, we must continue our push at the state and federal level for the commons sense firearm safety measures we need," he said.

Hardin says guns accounted for more than 80 percent of the homicides in the city.

“And so we felt it was important as a community as a city and as a council to have a conversation about how do we keep our neighborhood safe.”

But the ultimate fate for at least some of the new ordinances remains cloudy. Multiple gun rights groups threatened to sue Columbus over the regulations and state law bans local governments from enacting stricter gun control measures.

City Attorney Zach Klein says the local laws use federal language though so as not to violate the state laws.

These four ordinances are designed to close the gap between state and federal weapons laws, protect all victims of domestic violence, and keep dangerous weapons out of neighborhoods. #CCC4U pic.twitter.com/Lgf9ZfGP5r
— Columbus Council (@ColumbusCouncil) May 14, 2018

Photo credit: Shutterstock / O_Solara