COLUMBUS, Ohio – In the wake of the Florida school shooting, the controversy over banning assault weapons is reaching new heights both nationally and here in Ohio. This week, the Akron City Council passed a resolution asking state legislators to prohibit the sale of assault weapons.
Founder of the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence Toby Hoover says while these types of bans are certainly not a fix-all solution for gun violence, they are a step in the right direction. She explains that assault weapons, such as the AR-15 used in the Florida massacre, are becoming the mass shooting weapon of choice because they can quickly inflict great harm.
“In a very short period of time, the last I heard it was inside of six minutes, he could go ahead and fire that gun off fast enough to shoot all those people,” says Hoover. “So 17 dead and another 12 injured in very little time.”
SB 260 was introduced in the Ohio Senate last week. It prohibits automatic and semi-automatic firearms that hold ten or more cartridges. Opponents of weapons bans argue they actually increase demand and illegal sales. Meanwhile, Hoover is hopeful that other Ohio communities follow Akron’s lead.
In the U.S. House, “The Assault Weapons Ban of 2018” was introduced on Tuesday and has more than 167 co-sponsors. It prohibits the sale, transfer, production and import of assault weapons, and names more than 200 specific firearms.
Hoover says while national policy is crucial, Ohio needs its own laws on the matter.
“It’s always sort of been a belief that where you were locally that you knew what kind of safety measures you need. And I think that holds true with this as well,” she says. “And it gives the states a little more leeway than trying to go ahead and have everybody in the whole country agree on something.”
Also on Tuesday, a Quinnipiac poll was released that found 66 percent of American voters support stricter gun laws, the highest support that it has measured. It also found 67 percent favoring a nationwide ban on the sale of assault weapons.
Reporting by Ohio News Connection in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by the George Gund Foundation.
This article appears in Feb 28 – Mar 6, 2018.
In the 1960’s congress raised the age for purchasing a handgun to 21 why they claimed it would reduce gun violence. It never did. here we are 2018 and now they want you to believe that banning assault rifles with detachable mags will stop mass shootings. when looking at the bill Ohio is proposing it not only bans that mad killer AR-15 but a whole lot of other weapons that fall under that very specific description. Will it affect gun violence no, why you ask because the AK-15 or any other weapon that fits the description does not decide to commit a mass killing it’s the human being that does, in the 10 plus years since the previous ban lapsed, even gun control advocates acknowledge a larger truth: The law that barred the sale of assault weapons from 1994 to 2004 made little difference.It turns out that big, scary military rifles dont kill the vast majority of the 11,000 Americans murdered with guns each year. they account for about 1% of them.This politically defined category of guns a selection of rifles, shotguns, and handguns with military-style features only figured in about 2 percent of gun crimes nationwide before the ban.In 2008, the Supreme Court said there was a constitutional right to keep a loaded handgun at home for self-defense. So ask yourself are they blowing smoke up your behind with this? how much of this is political pandering for votes using fear they drum up with help from the news media?
It’s a long process disarming the citizens. It starts with these. Next they’ll come for the handguns until all we’re left with is kitchen knives.
Please do this, Ohio.
@ Michael K – – – re “Its the human being that does” – – – so let me get this, you think it will be easier to reform human beings en masse than begin to rationalize the # of firearms in the system?
Good luck with that.
@Michael K So long as you are the first one through the door so that you can die in the first shots fired in the resulting civil war. I mean you have the courage of your convictions right? We veterans sure as Hell do. 😉
Molon Labe!! From my cold dead hands! …and before you say that a conservative military will help you disarm America, think again. They are conservative so they never will. More likely they will distribute fully automatic M16s so that we can better defend ourselves. All perfectly legal according to the Constitution and in fact, standard operating procedure in times of crisis as established during the Revolutionary War.
Right this minute some idiots are trying to ban steak knives in London. Bombs are illegal and they still use those. I can get a truck load of fertilizer anywhere. I can even make my own just like I can make my own machine guns. Sarin gas is illegal but easy to make in your kitchen just like napalm which is what flame throwers use. Drugs are illegal and they still use those. In London guns are illegal and they still use those. In fact they pull machinguns off the streets all the time. Treasonous Gun Control was an abysmal failure according to the statistics in Brittan and also in Australia. The proof is in the fact that crime went up afterwards, exactly as predicted, and also they switched to other means than firearms, exactly as predicted. Every statistic the left provides looks ONLY at gun violence after a ban which proves they don’t care about violence but they just want to disarm you. You can’t Nerf the world son. It just doesn’t work like that.