Ohio’s Attorney General asked the General Assembly to clarify or eliminate Ohio’s suppressor and short barreled rifle and shotgun registration rules, and two House Republicans who voted to table the Freedom to Carry Act in June now say the House should pass it. Four scheduled session days are left.

Tell your legislators to pass it now here

They’re feeling the heat. Keep it on.

This week Ohio’s Attorney General
joined the list of people calling on the General Assembly to do its
job. And two House Republicans who voted to table the Freedom to Carry
Act in June went public asking the House to pass it. That
didn’t happen by accident. They’re feeling the heat because of
you.

The Attorney General’s letter

On Friday, October 23, Attorney General Andy Wilson
sent a letter to Senate President McColley and House Speaker Huffman.
He pointed to ATF’s October 9 change and warned that because Ohio law
still bars suppressors and short barreled rifles and shotguns without
ATF approval, Ohio gun owners could break state law without knowing
it. He asked the General Assembly to clarify those registration rules
or get rid of them, writing that if the legislature sees them as
“archaic remnants of an overly restrictive past, it is time to
eliminate them from Ohio law.” Here’s
his release.

To be clear, this is a letter, not a
formal opinion, and it doesn’t change the law today. Only the General
Assembly can do that. And the fix is already sitting in the
Statehouse: the Freedom to Carry Act takes suppressors and short
barreled rifles and shotguns off Ohio’s dangerous ordnance list.

Politicians who tabled it are now asking for it

On June 10, House politicians voted 75
to 21 to table amendment 3085 to HB 667, which carried the Freedom to
Carry Act. Four months later, some of those 75 are explaining
themselves in public.

On October 20, Rep. Melanie Miller put
out a statement saying her June vote “was not a vote against the
Second Amendment or the Freedom to Carry Act” and urging the House to
move HB 495 “without delay.” Read
her statement.

The next day, Rep. Kellie Deeter said
her “vote to table was a procedural vote” and reaffirmed her support
for the Freedom to Carry Act. Read
her statement.

Politicians don’t put out statements
about a vote from June unless they’re hearing about it back home.
That’s your calls and emails, and it’s Ohio Gun Owners’ MASSIVE
pressure campaign. This is exactly the environment we’ve been
working OVERTIME to create. But a statement isn’t a hearing,
and HB 495 still hasn’t had one in House Public Safety.

Four scheduled session days left

After the election, the House and
Senate have four scheduled session days: November 10, November
18, December 2 and December 16. The General Assembly ends
December 31. If the Freedom to Carry Act hasn’t passed by then, it
dies and has to start over.

So get in on the
fight. Contact your legislators today and tell them to do
their jobs and pass the Freedom to Carry Act NOW.

CONTACT
YOUR LEGISLATORS

Tell
your legislators to pass it now

Here’s the rest of the
week’s news.

Akron gets more time in the Lock 3 Park case

In Jakupca v. Akron, the preemption
challenge in Summit County, Akron brought in a lawyer on Thursday, October 22 and
was granted 21 days’ leave to plead. There’s no answer from the city
and no ruling yet, and the request for a temporary restraining order
and preliminary injunction, filed September 5, is still pending. Here’s
the docket.

The Supreme Court turned away Maine’s waiting period
case

On October 19 the Supreme Court
declined to hear Beckwith v. Frey, the challenge to Maine’s 72 hour
waiting period. Turning a case down is not a ruling on the merits, and
it doesn’t decide whether waiting periods are constitutional. The AR
15 ban cases are still set for argument on December 2, and the Court’s
next conference is November 6. Here’s
the order list.

A federal appeals court ruled on switchblades

On October 21, a unanimous panel of the
Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the federal switchblade ban on
interstate sales unconstitutional, holding that knives are “Arms”
under the Second Amendment. You
can read the opinion here.

Senators want the under 21 handgun ban back

Twenty Democratic senators signed an
October 16 letter pressing Attorney General Todd Blanche to go back to
enforcing the federal ban on dealer handgun sales to adults aged 18 to
20, even though DOJ’s own lawyers have concluded that ban is
unconstitutional. They asked for answers by November 16.

For Freedom,
Chris
Dorr
Director
Ohio Gun Owners

P.S. The politicians are feeling it,
and four scheduled session days are all that’s left. Contact
your legislators here.