COLUMBUS – The city is appealing a judge’s ruling that struck down its ban on bump stocks, which can be used to convert a semi-automatic firearm into one that mimics a fully automatic weapon.
Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein announced Tuesday he has formally appealed last month’s decision by Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge David Cain that bump stocks are considered firearms “components,” which state law prohibits cities from regulating, while the city considers them “accessories,” which are subject to local regulation.
“We remain confident that bump stocks are an accessory that we have the legal authority to regulate, Klein said.
In the wake of shootings in Las Vegas and at a high school in Parkland, Fla., and following a year which saw a record number of homicides in the city, the city council in May passed ordinances, which took effect in June, intended to tighten the city’s criminal codes related to firearms offenses.
The man who opened fire on a country music concert in Las Vegas from a nearby hotel, killing 58 people and injuring 851, used bump stocks so his semi-automatic rifle could fire at a rate similar to an automatic weapon.
Two gun lobby groups, Ohioans for Concealed Carry and the Buckeye Firearms Foundation, sued the city in June over two recently passed changes to Columbus regulations aimed at keeping violent criminals and those convicted of domestic abuse from having firearms and banning the use of “illegal rate-of-fire acceleration accessories such as bump stocks.”
While Cain upheld the weapons-under-disability statute, he struck down the ban on bump stocks.
“We made dozens of common sense changes to our gun laws to make our community safer, and all but one either went unchallenged or was upheld by a court,” said Klein.
Klein’s office has filed its appeal, citing six points “assignments of error” in Cain’s decision, with the 10th District Court of Appeals.
The provision that was upheld prohibits possession of a weapon by anyone convicted of domestic violence, who is currently the subject of a protection order or who was convicted of a federal crime that does not violate Ohio law.
Other measures prohibited brandishing or displaying imitation firearms in a public place and tightened restrictions on sales of firearms in residential areas.