U.S.A. – -(Ammoland.com)- “Richmond Heights City Council has passed an ordinance that adds further stipulations to misdemeanors surrounding firearms, including the forfeiture of weapons if convicted,” The News Herald reports. “The law was passed this past week in order to help combat the growing number of firearm violations.”
If they were firearm violations and the city knows about them, then there are already laws on the books making them illegal, for which known violators can be charged and prosecuted. Indeed, that’s the case here, with current misdemeanor charges applicable for illegal discharges, possession while intoxicated, and carrying a gun into an establishment posted as banning them, with the added proviso that doing so without a permit “is a felony.”
What the Richmond Heights ordinance does is require a violator’s gun to be forfeited.
What the city is doing is transparent: It is adding more punishments not included under Ohio law. This is unabashedly an in-your-face gun-grabber retaliation against Ohio’s recently-enacted “permitless carry” law. Think of it as “lawfare.” More appropriately, think of it as an act of “We’ll show you” revenge by spiteful bureaucratic gun-grabbers.
And they dictate the terms of gun owner surrender in no uncertain terms:
“Under this new legislation passed in Richmond Heights, the misdemeanor and fine will remain with the added stipulation that the weapon is forfeited. The forfeiture of these weapons under the new law cannot be contested, and the courts will not have discretion on the matter of the seizure.”
The thing is, Ohio is a preemption state. But Richmond Heights is counting on a legal workaround, or what could be called the “gun confiscation loophole.”
“The forfeiture laws were revised about 10 years ago and a municipality’s ability to create a forfeiture penalty was expressly reserved by the state to the municipalities,” City Prosecutor Michael E. Cicero claimed. “You could have a forfeiture for the misdemeanor and the state has reserved that for cities and villages.”
Click the link to read the whole article: Hole in Ohio Preemption Law
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