CLEVELAND (AP) — The mayor’s proposal to combat the
scourge of violence in Cleveland by creating a registry for gun
offenders, among other ideas, is redundant, unnecessary and possibly
illegal, a pro-gun group said Wednesday.
Mayor Frank Jackson said
at a news conference Tuesday that he wants to give police and
prosecutors the weapons they need to stop convicted felons from using
guns to commit more crimes. Cleveland is the seventh-worst city in the
nation for gun violence.
In addition to the registry for gun
offenders, he proposed prohibitions against transferring a firearm to a
known felon, improperly discharging a firearm in a park or playground,
allowing improper access of a firearm to a minor, requiring people to
report lost or stolen firearms, requiring people to tell police when
they transfer a firearm and limiting firearm purchases to one every 90
days.
Spokeswoman Maureen Harper said a number of other cities
have gun offender registries, including New York, Baltimore and Chicago.
The
Ohio Supreme Court in 2010 ruled against the city’s challenge to a 2006
state law that said only the state and federal governments have the
authority to enact gun laws.
Buckeye Firearms spokesman Ken Hanson
said a gun offender registry is not needed because the federal and
state governments already have databases with the names of those who are
not allowed to own a firearm. He said the registries in those other
cities have done nothing to decrease gun violence.
Hanson said
there are already laws covering the prohibitions sought by the mayor.
Requiring the reporting of firearm transfers to police and limiting the
number of guns a person can buy is a violation of state law.
"I
understand why they’re asking the questions," Hanson said. "What I don’t
understand is why the officials of one of the biggest cities in Ohio
fundamentally misunderstand Ohio law."