Columbus gun owners wary of city's new ammunition restriction

It would have been around 30 years ago, Chuck Douglas said, when he bought his first gun.

A lifelong resident of Columbus’ West Side, Douglas, 57, said he began growing increasingly wary of the rising levels of crime in his neighborhood, and wanted to ensure he could protect himself and his family should the need arise.

"I'm not going to have a shootout in the street, but I am most definitely going to protect my family if anyone tried to harm them," said Douglas, who said he feels fortunate that he's never yet had to fire a weapon in self-defense.

More:How big can my clip be? What we know about Columbus gun magazine ban.

Douglas' gun ownership has always been spurred by a desire to defend himself against criminals. But now he said he's been made to feel like a criminal himself after Columbus City Council's recent passage of a gun control law.

And he's not the only once-law-abiding gun owner in Greater Columbus whose possession of so-called "large capacity magazines" that can hold 30 or more rounds now puts him in jeopardy of violating city law.

Eric Delbert, who co-owns central Ohio's L.E.P.D. Firearms, Range and Training Facility in Perry Township on the city's Northwest Side, said he's heard from a variety of fellow gun owners who have expressed similar frustration. And though the reaction of the store's customers to the recent ordinance have varied widely, Delbert said they largely fall into one of two categories.

Among those in the first category are the more ardent gun owners, the ones who, as Delbert put it, "basically say, ‘Come and get it.’"

But those who are included in the second group, Delbert said, are more wary of the potential consequences if, come July 1, they haven't voluntarily sold or turned over their high-capacity magazines to the City of Columbus.

"They aren't necessarily, I would say, ‘gun people,’" Delbert said. "They own firearms to protect themselves, but they have these magazines in their possession and now they’re concerned."

That July 1 date is the deadline for when gun owners in Columbus are required by a new city law to sell or hand over to Columbus police any gun magazines that can hold 30 or more rounds, or that can be converted to accept that many rounds.

The City Council first passed the legislation on Dec. 5 before passing additional legislation on Feb. 27 that established the July 1 deadline.

Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein acknowledged that enforcement of the law will be difficult, meaning city officials and police will largely have to trust residents to comply on their own.

"To some degree, that is an honor system," Klein said recently. "We have no intention of going door-to-door."

That December legislation also requires safe gun storage around children, and criminalizes giving or selling firearms to anyone prohibited from having them.

Klein said the law will be enforced if police see those types of gun magazines. For example, he said people have carried assault-style rifles with large magazine capacities at protests.

"We'll enforce it by seeing it on site," Klein said.

Violating the magazine provision of the law is a misdemeanor with a mandatory 180 consecutive days in jail without work release, and potentially up to one year, along with a $1,500 fine.

The new law has drawn the ire of Columbus gun advocates like Delbert, who challenge its legality, saying it violates Ohio law and the state constitution's right to bear arms.

Delbert, who as a certified Ohio peace officer said he would be exempt from the law's 30-round magazine ban, criticized city officials for seemingly criminalizing otherwise law-abiding gun owners, who he said aren't the ones driving the vast majority of gun violence in Columbus.

Delbert said he worries that a growing patchwork of city laws — rather than one uniform state law — is putting an onerous burden on gun owners to ensure they're in compliance depending on what part of Greater Columbus they're traveling through.

Had city officials specifically targeted those with high-capacity magazines who proceed to break the law or commit a violent crime, Delbert said he would have stood behind them on the steps of City Hall himself when it was announced.

"There's a genuine part of us that wants to be part of this solution, but how can you not even give us a seat at the table?" he said.

In February, The Buckeye Institute, a conservative think tank, filed suit in Delaware County Common Pleas Court challenging the city's gun restrictions.

David Tryon, litigation director for The Buckeye Institute, said state firearms laws do not regulate magazine limits, and that gun owners should be able to own large magazines.

"It's a matter of the freedom to do so, and it's not up to the city to make that decision," Tryon said.

The suit mentioned a state law saying a person "may own, possess, purchase, acquire, transport, store, carry, sell, transfer, manufacture, or keep any firearm, part of a firearm, its components, and its ammunition, and any knife."

Tryon also said that the Ohio Supreme Court has twice upheld the restriction against home rule challenges.

"The city of Columbus' violent crime rate ... cannot be used as an excuse to infringe upon the exercise of a fundamental right, whether it be a right to free speech, the right to assemble or the right to bear arms," the lawsuit said.

Tryon said the state intentionally established uniform laws across Ohio so owners know the law no matter where they are. He said Columbus' law seems to be aimed at owners of AR-15 rifles. The Delaware County case was filed on behalf of five John and Jane Doe plaintiffs, and the suit said one of the Jane Does, a 20-year-old Columbus woman, owns an AR-15 for self defense.

"Thirty-round magazines have been in civilian usage for 50 to 60 years and Ohio has never banned them and Columbus cannot do so now," Tryon said. "This is a very important case."

As for the city's law withstanding legal challenges, Klein said, "In Franklin County we've won so far. In Fairfield County we've won so far."

In Franklin County, a decision allowing the new codes to go into effect was stayed. In Fairfield County, a judge denied Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost's request for a preliminary injunction to block the Columbus gun restrictions.

Klein said that state legislation has made it difficult for citizens to promote public safety. "We want to save lives, we want to protect Second Amendment rights," he said.

"Unfortunately politics gets in the way," he said. "Too many lives have been lost."

In the meantime, Delbert said that L.E.P.D. Firearms, which he said is located in Perry Township outside of Columbus city limits, has offered to safeguard those high-capacity magazines of its concerned customers until the city law is overturned, which Delbert said he is confident will happen. He said a "handful" of people have already taken the store up on the offer.

Douglas, the West Side gun owner, said he may soon be among them.

"I’ll wait and see what happens," Douglas said. "If it (remains) a law, then I'll take the magazines up and let (L.E.P.D.) store them for me."

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@MarkFerenchik

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