Council to back assault gun bill [Cincinnati]

Cincinnati Post ^ | 5-26-2004 | Kevin Osborne

[Gun142]

Council to back assault gun bill

By Kevin Osborne
Post staff reporter

Cincinnati City Council is set today to endorse a pending state bill that would place a ban on assault weapons permanently into Ohio law, and eliminate existing loopholes that allow gun manufacturers to operate around the ban in some instances.

As part of its endorsement, City Council also will lobby Congress to extend a decade-old federal ban that ends in September.

State Rep. Tyrone Yates, a former City Council member, proposed the bill earlier this month.

Council's law committee voted 4-1 Tuesday to recommend the full group support Yates' effort, and that approval is likely this afternoon.

Council Member David Crowley led the effort. Semi-automatic weapons serve no legitimate purpose in civilian life, he said.

"These weapons are weapons of war," Crowley said. "If they're allowed on the streets of Cincinnati and New York and Chicago, the killings we've seen will continue.

"They're killing weapons, and our police will be outgunned and overpowered if they're allowed."

Other Council members who supported the bill during the committee vote were Democrats John Cranley and David Pepper, and Charterite Jim Tarbell. The sole opponent was Republican Pat DeWine.

Because local officials have no authority over enacting a state ban or extending a federal ban, Council's non-binding resolution is "a waste of time," DeWine said.

In the past few years, City Council has debated several resolutions involving state and federal issues. They included opposing the death penalty, the war in Iraq and so-called partial birth abortions, and supporting an end to the embargo on Cuba.

"They do nothing but get attention for the people who promote them," DeWine said. "If we want to reduce violence, let's do something that will have an impact. Let's focus on crime and violence in Cincinnati."

But some people with first-hand experience with gun violence supported the measure.

Dr. Rebecca Brown, a trauma surgeon at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, said the emergency room has been flooded with young gunshot victims in the past few years.

"America's youth face an unrelenting gun epidemic," Brown said.

Almost every day on her job, Brown sees young people wheeled in on stretchers, bleeding from gunshot wounds. The weapons too easily fall into the wrong hands, and allowing semi-automatic guns will worsen an already bad situation, she added.

"What I see, I cannot forget," Brown said. "Frankly, I don't like what I see. It disturbs me."

Local resident Carol Cannon also urged Council's support. During the past two years, her only two sons were shot and killed by assailants. Innocent people are endangered by the guns wielded by gang members and drug dealers that roam city streets, she said.

"I'm here today because I'm outraged," Cannon said.

Gun rights supporters, including the National Rifle Association, have said efforts such as weapon bans are misguided and infringe on Second Amendment rights.

Resources should be spent instead on catching the criminals who misuse guns, they said.

Pepper, the law committee's chairman, supports the ban but concurred with DeWine that such resolutions wield little clout in the debate.

In the past, Pepper has refused to vote on resolutions involving state and federal issues that come before Council, but he is worried such an action may be misinterpreted in the future.

"I don't want someone seven or 10 years from now saying I opposed a weapons ban," Pepper said. "I just don't want to be tagged with an opinion that's not my own.

"I'm going to vote for it, but I think bringing these forward confuses the public about who controls what, and just wastes our time."

Although President Bush and Senate Democrats -- including presumptive presidential nominee John Kerry -- support renewing the federal ban, it's unlikely the GOP-controlled House of Representatives would pass such a bill.

In March, the U.S. Senate voted to kill a GOP-sponsored bill that would have given gun makers liability protection against lawsuits after Democrats amended it to include the federal ban's renewal.

The provisions irked the NRA, which withdrew its support and prompted GOP leaders to shelve the measure.

If the federal ban isn't extended, the industry could resume making, importing and selling 19 different types of weapons.

Yates, a Democrat, concedes that his bill will have a difficult time getting passage in the Republican-controlled Statehouse, but said a growing public groundswell favoring the ban could change the outcome.

Publication Date: 05-26-2004

[Gun142]

.

[gortklattu]

a Permanent ban? There should be no permanent law against anything 'cept crimes against persons.

[Noumenon]

Domestic enemies bump

[Corporate Law]

""If they're allowed on the streets of Cincinnati and New York and Chicago, the killings we've seen will continue."

The Village Idiots, aka City Council, has already done more than enough to allow the killing that is going on to continue to grow. This city is run by (expletive deleted) idiots.

[lowbridge]

"These weapons are weapons of war,"

So is this musket from the civil war.

[lowbridge]

Local resident Carol Cannon also urged Council's support. During the past two years, her only two sons were shot and killed by assailants

Who used handguns, not assault weapons:

Mrs. Cannon lost two sons to guns. In 1995, her 26-year-old son, Johnny Cannon Jr., was shot 11 times in the head in Over-the-Rhine. Two years later, her second son, Derrick, 26, was shot to death in front of a crowd at the Imperial Club on Woodburn Avenue in East Walnut Hills.

She is among those who want gun makers to pay, claiming guns could be made safer and are marketed too freely and recklessly.

“The only people profiting are the gun manufacturers, the prisons, the funeral homes and the cemeteries,” the Evanston woman said. “I've lost two sons from illegal handguns. I have been fighting a losing battle.”

http://enquirer.com/editions/1999/02/07/loc_should_cincinnati.html

[lowbridge]

bump

[Long Cut]

""These weapons are weapons of war," Crowley said."

Uh, Mr. Crowley, the military uses FULLY-AUTOMATIC weapons for war, not semi-autos.

You also mentioned the police being "outgunned". The police ALSO use fully-automatic weapons.

Why do police need such "weapons of war"?

[Long Cut]

" "If they're allowed on the streets of Cincinnati and New York and Chicago, the killings we've seen will continue."

Uh, Mr. Crowley, how have the killings been "continuing" in the first place, since there IS a ban in effect now?

[Long Cut]

""America's youth face an unrelenting gun violence epidemic," Brown said."

Fixed. Logic, Ms. Brown? Guns are not a virus, dear. Do calm down.

[Long Cut]

""I don't want someone seven or 10 years from now saying I opposed a weapons ban," Pepper said."

Yes, God forbid that you should be seen as supporting the US Constitution and the Bill Of Rights, Mr. Pepper.

[Colorado Buckeye]

Here we go..... I know that, on paper, the ban is "likely" to expire; however, I will be surprised if we get to Sept. without a renewal. The gun-grabbers almost never lose these key battles. I hope that this time, it's different.