On October 9, an Ohio appeals court kept Columbus’s magazine ban and gun lockup ordinance blocked, and a different Ohio appeals court ruled the state’s age-21 concealed carry rule unconstitutional for the 19-year-old in that case. That ruling doesn’t change the law statewide. The Freedom to Carry Act would, and the politicians have only a handful of session days left this year to pass it.

Can’t see the button? Email your legislators about the Freedom to Carry Act here.

I’ve got some good news, and if you live in Columbus, it’s really good news.

On Friday, October 9, an Ohio appeals court kept Columbus’s “high capacity” magazine ban and its mandatory gun lockup ordinance blocked.

All three judges agreed that gun owners are likely to win this fight, and the court backed up Ohio’s state preemption law that says cities don’t get to write their own gun laws.

Everyone knows that Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther has been doing everything he and his comrades on city council can do to try to get around that law, and they’ve been doing that for years.

Ginther is a committed gun grabbing zealot. I’ve run into him in the hallways at the Statehouse when he’s pushing for it, so I’ll take every chance I get to watch a court rap his knuckles.

We agree, which is why our legislation has always featured that correction front-and-center.

At 19 years old (and 18 and 20, of course) you have to pay taxes, you can join the military, and you can get married, but Ohio law says you can’t carry a handgun to defend yourself? That’s nonsense, and now a court agreed with us.

Here’s the catch, though. That ruling doesn’t change the law statewide. It’s still on the books.

The real fix is a bill called the Freedom to Carry Act (FTCA).

The FTCA would lower the age to carry concealed without a permit from 21 to 18 so that law-abiding 18-to-20-year-olds don’t have to risk arrest, prosecution and the cost of a legal defense just to win their rights in court one case at a time.

But here’s what ticks me off. The politicians in Columbus have blocked this bill in committee for over a year without a single hearing in the House and only sponsor testimony in the Senate.

It’s totally disrespectful to the gun voters who gave Republicans their supermajority power, and gun owners have been treated very badly by Ohio Republican legislative “leadership.”

The fact is, after the election is over November 3rd, the General Assembly only has a handful of session days left on the calendar this year. A handful. The first one is November 10th. If they don’t pass HB 495 by the end of December, it dies, and we start from scratch.

And depending on how this gubernatorial election turns out, that could get a whole lot harder.

So as OGO gears up for an absolutely bruising Lame Duck Session, I’m asking you to get in on the fight with us right now.

First of all, email your legislators today and tell them to get off their donkeys and get this bill PASSED in Lame Duck.

Second, chip in $5 or $10 to give us the tools we need to put pressure on the key legislators we know are the obstacles to getting this done.

You gotta make hay while the sun is shining (it’s glorious outside). So while we go fuel up the tractor and grease the baler, get in the fight with us.

Let’s make sure Columbus isn’t the only place gun owners win this year.

For Freedom,
Chris Dorr, Director

P.S. A handful of days. That’s all they’ve got left on the calendar. If enough of us speak up now, they run out of excuses.

Chip in $5 or $10 today so that OGO is fully ready to hit the ground hot on November 10th.