# Cities upset by veto override



## Shipwreck (Jan 26, 2006)

*Cities upset by veto override*

COLUMBUS - Cities around the state were already weighing legal options following the Legislature's override of Gov. Bob Taft's veto of a bill wiping out local gun laws.

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson promised a lawsuit fighting the legislation. Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman said the state constitution is clear on the rights given local governments. Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory said his city has lost an important crime fighting tool.

"We're trying to get a handle on the homicides and the violent crimes that we've had in our city," Mallory, a Democrat, said Tuesday.

The GOP-dominated Senate voted 21-12 Tuesday to override the Republican governor's veto.

With the House vote last week, the Legislature became the first in 20 years to override a governor's veto. The bill will take effect in about three months.

Taft, who is leaving office in a few weeks, has said the bill exceeded its goal of cleaning up Ohio's concealed weapons law because it pre-empts about 80 local gun laws.

That includes current assault-weapons bans in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Toledo.

"The governor strongly believes his veto was the right thing to do and that our cities should have the ability to protect their citizens through reasonable firearms regulation," said Taft spokesman Mark Rickel. "He continues to believe that the bill was over-broad and that overturning local assault weapon and handgun laws is a mistake."

But Senate President Bill Harris said there needs to be a statewide standard for gun laws.

"It's important so people in the state that are impacted by that statewide standard can move around the state without getting in trouble with law enforcement," said Harris, an Ashland Republican.

That was also the argument of bill backers including the National Rifle Association that defended the provision as bringing uniformity to a confusing patchwork of local gun laws.

Coleman said lawmakers are ignoring constitutional protections given local communities.

"We understand there's a difference between urban crime and rural hunting," said Mike Brown, a Coleman spokesman. "The constitution respects that - the Legislature did not."

Three Democrats voted to override the veto, including Marc Dann, attorney general-elect, Kimberly Zurz of the Akron-area and Charlie Wilson, who was elected to Congress in eastern Ohio in November.

"For me the vote was about respecting the vote of the Legislature," Zurz said. "I still have to respect that this body as well as the House passed it by a very fair margin."

Republican Sens. David Goodman and Steve Stivers, both representing suburban Columbus communities, voted against the override, as did Republican Sen. Robert Spada of suburban Cleveland.

"We should trust the wisdom of our local officials to make decisions that affect their communities as best they can," Goodman said.

A majority of respondents to an Ohio survey said overriding local gun laws was a bad idea, according to a poll released Tuesday by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute in Hamden, Conn.

The Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence, which opposes concealed carry, accused lawmakers of giving in to the powerful and politically generous National Rifle Association.

"The passage of HB 347 and the override of Governor Taft's veto is an appalling arrogance against the will of and respect for the people of Ohio to govern themselves," executive director Toby Hoover said in a statement.


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## Baldy (Jun 21, 2006)

I hear the liberals screaming and you wait and see, they'll get what they want in court. The second amenment means nothing to these jerks.


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## Buckeye (Jul 13, 2006)

I hope it doesn't happen...but yes, the Liberals are good at using the court system to override the other 2 parts of the Government :smt076

Maybe they should tell these people that they shouldn't have guns and that two armed men wouldn't have had guns to storm their home with if they had the proper firearms laws in place :smt076

(Score one for the good guys)

*Intruders pay price for home invasion 
Springfield woman shoots both, killing 1 *

Thursday, December 14, 2006
Holly Zachariah 
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Jonathan L. Carson, top, was killed and Dow R. Huffman wounded Tuesday night.

Colin Jenkins' girlfriend was already in bed Tuesday night, and he was just about to join her when the doorbell started to ring incessantly. When Jenkins opened the door, a man forced his way inside the rural Springfield home. Within minutes, one robbery suspect was dead and another critically wounded. 
Jenkins' girlfriend had shot them both.

Clark County Sheriff Gene Kelly called the late-night home invasion "an apparent horrible attack on innocent victims." He said that although the case will be presented to a grand jury, he expects no charges against the shooter, 19-year-old Megan Stapleton.

"There is no reason to believe this was anything but random, and this young couple was defending themselves," Kelly said. He said the couple has lived in the house since October. Stapleton is a waitress at two restaurants, and Jenkins, also 19, works in construction.

Killed was 29-year-old Jonathan L. Carson, a former basketball star at Springfield South High School who played the 1997-98 season with the University of Cincinnati Bearcats, averaging 3.1 points in 17 games.

Carson had run-ins with the law in recent years, Kelly said, and had a previous felony conviction for receiving stolen property. Wounded was Dow R. Huffman, a 23-year-old from West Liberty in Logan County. He was wanted for failing to appear in court on a previous charge. He was listed last night in critical condition at Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton.

The drama began just after 10 p.m. when a neighbor spotted a suspicious car. There are only five houses on Darnell Drive, part of an upscale neighborhood north of the Upper Valley Mall in western Clark County. Georgianna Sarven and her husband have lived in one of them for 28 years.

Their neighbor went to their house and said she was afraid to go home because a strange car was parked on the street with its lights off and a man inside.

The Sarvens accompanied her to her home and were inside checking her house for trouble when they heard commotion across the road.

"Then, all hell broke loose," Mrs. Sarven said. "We saw the boy that lives there outside waving his arms, flagging down police, and someone else said there was a dead body on the porch."

Kelly recounts the night's events like this:

Jenkins opened his door about 10:30 p.m., and Huffman, armed with two guns, muscled his way in. The two fought, and Jenkins yelled to his girlfriend for help.

She left her bedroom, and Huffman stalked her down the hallway toward a back room. When she emerged, she had a 9 mm handgun and Huffman was right in front of her. She fired multiple times, and he went down.

She then ran to the living room and found a masked Carson fighting with Jenkins on the floor. She fired several times, apparently grazing her boyfriend in the back and hitting Carson once in the back.

Carson got up, stumbled onto the front porch and fell dead. A handgun was found near his body. Jenkins was treated for his injuries at a local hospital, Kelly said. Stapleton was shaken but unharmed.

Kelly said the car that neighbors saw, a large green vehicle with a damaged door, likely was a getaway vehicle. He said deputies are searching for the driver.

[email protected]

Copyright © 2006, The Columbus Dispatch


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## michael t (Jan 26, 2006)

Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Toledo
The 3 C,s think they run Ohio and the other 2 are joining in. This is one of the reasons I escaped to a free state Tired of my life in normal Ohio being controlled by a few and the highways by the SS. oh!! I mean SP 
You know Ill has same trouble a C city runs that state also.


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## Mdnitedrftr (Aug 10, 2006)

> We should trust the wisdom of our local officials to make decisions that affect their communities as best they can


:smt082 :smt082 :smt082 :smt082 :smt082 :smt082 :smt082 :smt082 :smt082 :smt082 :smt082 :smt082 :smt082 :smt082 :smt082 :smt082 :smt082 :smt082 :smt082 :smt082


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