COLUMBUS – Columbus City Council on Monday approved four ordinances that city officials say will help reduce gun violence, after the city saw a record number of homicides in 2017, many caused by guns.
READ MORE: In The Columbus Dispatch
The legislation – part of a package of 11 proposed changed unveiled in March – were approved by a unanimous vote.
Among the provisions, the new ordinances prohibit brandishing imitation firearms in public, selling them to minors and removing orange plugs that are supposed to help distinguish them from real guns.
City code also is changing to include people in a dating relationship as part of those who can commit or be victims of domestic violence. That widens existing provisions that would now prohibit people who commit abuse on someone there are dating from owning a firearm and would allow victims to receive protections orders from judges.
Columbus is joining other cities, including Cincinnati, in banning bump stocks, which can be installed on a semi-automatic weapon to allow the user to fire it in bursts, like an automatic weapon.