Posted on 11/12/2005 9:44:26 AM PST by kiriath_jearim
Only 115 people observe Mentel Ban deadline
Posted on Friday, November 11 @ 08:51:26 EST by cbaus
The Columbus Dispatch is reporting that only 115 people responded to an order from Columbus City Council to register guns that the law defines as assault weapons. The ban took effect yesterday.
From the story:
"As of today, buying or selling an assault weapon in the city is illegal," Ralph Jones, a city licensing officer who handled the registrations, said yesterday. It’s also illegal to own the guns unless they are registered.
Only those who registered, members of the military or police officers may own guns that the city defines as assault weapons, Assistant City Attorney Joshua Cox said yesterday.
Though 115 people registered, some registered more than one weapon. One person registered 45 weapons, Jones said. City officials said it’s hard to say if 115 was more or less than they expected, because no one has estimated how many assault weapons the city’s 730,000 residents own.
The weapons most commonly registered were military-style rifles such as the M-16, AR-15 and Chinese-made SKS, Jones said. There were several shotguns and only a few pistols. Courts struck down city gun regulations approved in 1989 and again in 1994, after the Ohio-based People's Rights Organization challenged the law in court.
Again, from the story:
Gun-rights advocates say the number of registrations doesn’t reflect how many guns are out there.
"There’s an awful lot of firearms they’ve banned. I would have expected it to be higher," said Terence Regan, chairman of the People’s Rights Organization, which has successfully challenged two previous attempts by the city to ban guns. "It seems to me a lot of people moved their firearm out of the city, they’ve moved, or they don’t know what they own."
Registration started Aug. 11, Jones said, but as the deadline neared, the number of questions seemed to grow.
Councilman Michael C. Mentel, who sponsored the ban, did not return phone calls seeking comment. As outlined in the story, the Mentel Ban defines a semi-automatic rifle as an assault weapon if it has a removal magazine and at least one other characteristic, such as a folding stock or a pistol grip. A semi-automatic pistol is illegal if has a grip for the nontrigger hand, a folding stock or other features defined in the law. Semi-automatic shotguns with at least two such features are banned. A similarly-worded federal ban expired last year after ten years of experience proved it had no effect whatsoever on crime reduction.
***
And the very distinct possibility that that number is too low probably has the staff at the Columbus Dispatch wetting their Depends.
ping.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
Sounds like the whole place could use a Mentel health checkup.
:(
;)
And then again, maybe they just didn't knuckle under to the nazis.
Is the mayor still trying to keep his wife out of jail (DUI)?
Or is this more bogus "Mean looking" gun BS? /rhetorical question
Its the 'mean looking' BS.
So yeah, that seems about right. Good job men, you got all of them! Now your children can play outside in the alleys all night safely.
Assault is an action NOT a device.
It's already happened here.
One needs look no further than California & the SKS rifle. Owners were made to register them one year, and the next they were outlawed.
My heartfelt praise to any Columbus citizen who stood up to the gun grabbers by VIOLATING this piece of filth ordinance.
Well, lets just take a `lil lookie see.
730,000 population. 115 folks regestered. That comes to... 1.5753 e-4, or..
.00015753 percent.
Gee, I wonder how much of the taxpayers money was SPENT bringing this commie BS into existance?
As for the other 99.9998 percent of the population . . .
Interesting how the leftists work. With hundreds of al qaeda cells in CA alone disguised as mosques and islamic schools, any doubt as to the hidden agenda??
Although I hate the whole idea of the registration this part really bugs me. The military and police have any "assualt" weapons they need for their jobs provided by the government during their work hours. They have no higher need of them at home than any other citizen. The government is supposed to be the servent of the people, not the master.
The Columbus Dispatch is reporting that only 115 people responded to an order from "The Democrat Controlled" Columbus City Council to register guns that the law defines as assault weapons.
It only takes those three words to explain where this stupid order came from.
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