A state appeals court handed Ohio gun owners a win against Columbus last Friday evening, after our last recap went out. And while the Statehouse didn’t meet this week, the calendar for the rest of the year is set, and it tells us exactly how much time the Freedom to Carry Act has left.

Columbus’s magazine ban stays blocked

On Friday, October 9, a unanimous three-judge panel of the Fifth District Court of Appeals kept in place the injunction blocking Columbus’s large-capacity magazine ban and its negligent-storage ordinance. The court also upheld Ohio’s preemption law, which says cities can’t write their own gun laws, and rejected the argument that it violates home rule. It’s a preliminary injunction, not a final judgment. The case goes back to the trial court, and Columbus can still ask the Ohio Supreme Court to step in. You can read the opinion here.

The same day, the Second District Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of a concealed carry charge against a 19-year-old, holding Ohio’s age-21 restriction unconstitutional as applied to him. That ruling binds courts only in the Second District, not the rest of Ohio, and the state can still seek Ohio Supreme Court review.

The post-election session is the Freedom to Carry Act’s window

After the election, the House and Senate are scheduled to hold sessions on November 10, November 18, December 2 and December 16, with December 9 (and December 17 in the Senate) held in reserve if they need it. The General Assembly ends December 31. If the Freedom to Carry Act hasn’t passed by then, it dies and has to start over.

Here’s where it stands. HB 495 has sat in House Public Safety since October 8, 2025 without a single hearing. SB 392 has been in Senate General Government since March 25 and has had one hearing, the sponsor’s, on May 20. Neither bill has had a floor vote of its own. The closest the House came was June 10, when it tabled the Freedom to Carry Act as an amendment to another bill, 75 to 21. Here’s our push to pass it after the election.

Why it matters now: Ohio’s dangerous ordnance catch

ATF stopped requiring NFA approval and registration for suppressors and short-barreled rifles and shotguns on October 9, but Ohio law didn’t change with it. Ohio still classifies suppressors and short-barreled firearms as dangerous ordnance, and having one without an exemption is a fifth-degree felony. The main exemption covers items registered in the federal NFA registry, and ATF still accepts Form 1 and Form 4 filings voluntarily at $0. Until Ohio law changes, keep filing federally. That’s not legal advice, just the plain read of the statute.

The Freedom to Carry Act takes suppressors and short-barreled rifles and shotguns off Ohio’s dangerous ordnance list. That’s the fix, and the politicians have four scheduled session days to pass it.

More from the federal side

On Monday, DOJ answered the plaintiff states in the Texas NFA case. It told the court that ATF’s October 9 guidance already gives the states what they asked the judge to clarify, and that ATF “will no longer enforce the challenged NFA provisions against anyone.” But DOJ also argued that the court’s injunction itself protects only the parties, meaning the states and their agencies, members and customers, not every resident of the 15 plaintiff states. Ohio isn’t a plaintiff state. So the federal relief rests on ATF’s enforcement policy, not a court order covering everyone, and a future administration could reverse it.

On Tuesday the Supreme Court turned away more challenges to the federal felon-in-possession ban and took no new Second Amendment cases. Turning a case down doesn’t set precedent either way. And national concealed carry reciprocity, H.R. 38, has been sitting on the House calendar since October 3, 2025 without a floor vote.

Ohio Gun Owners will be watching the Columbus case and every one of those session days, and you’ll hear from us the moment the Freedom to Carry Act gets a hearing.

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For Freedom,
Chris Dorr
Director
Ohio Gun Owners