CINCINNATI — One week after introducing a renewed effort to reduce gun violence, city council unanimously passed two emergency ordinances codifying new gun regulations into Cincinnati law.
The legislation targets what outgoing republican councilwoman Liz Keating calls "negligent and irresponsible" gun owners. She penned the ordinances and stressed her desire to see them passed before she left office. Wednesday's vote was her final act on council.
The first ordinance targets the revolving door of firearms, Keating said, enacting locally the Ohio state law that requires gun owners to immediately report a lost or stolen firearm.
Keating said many times gun owners share their guns with family members and friends and that it is only once the firearms are confiscated by police or turn up at a crime scene that the gun owners claim it was stolen and ask to have it returned.
"The (state) prosecutor's office is at capacity and they do not have the capacity to go after these things," she said. " However it is causing significant problems in the city, so this will allow our city prosecutors to start going after these bad actors who getting these firearms in the hands of people who are killing our children."
If gun owners do not notify police, they will be subjected to a fourth-degree misdemeanor and a Class D civil penalty of $750.
The second ordinance would set a fee of $200 for those seeing the return of their firearms from police. Gun owners who negligently misplaced or mishandled the weapons and didn't knowingly and immediately report it will be required to aid the city in recouping the cost of processing and storing the firearm.
"It is a significant cost to taxpayer dollars. It is a significant burden on our Cincinnati Police Department, particularly when we are severely short-staffed," Keating said.
She referenced examples of letters written to CPD by residents requesting their guns back — just 19 of hundreds, Keating said. She described instances where someone left their gun on a seat at a restaurant and another who left their gun on top of a car and drove off.
"They have left them at just completely random places and this is complete negligence, stupidity, and irresponsible gun ownership," Keating said. "This is a slap in the face to those people who actually do respect the 2nd Amendment or are responsible and extremely careful for the way they own and carry firearms but it is very disturbing and I think a complete insult to so many people at this city and in the community who work so hard to fight the gun violence every single day."
The new ordinances aren't the first pieces of gun legislation passed in the city this year.
In February, council members passed an ordinance requiring the safe storage of guns, specifically around children. It dictates that any parents or guardians who do not properly store their guns and "create a substantial risk to the health or safety of the child" can be charged with a first-degree misdemeanor.
The ordinance also makes possessing a firearm illegal for someone convicted of domestic violence or subject to a court order restraining them from harassing, stalking or threatening an intimate partner. Anyone who violates the law will face a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail.
But the city was only able to start enforcing those laws in September after Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Jennifer Branch issued an injunction stopping the state from enforcing its strict "preemption law" limiting the ability of local municipalities to enact their own gun regulations.
Cincinnati first filed a lawsuit against the state in 2019, before the first amended Revised Code took effect. Since then, more amendments were added by the General Assembly.
The City of Columbus has also sued the state and passed its gun legislation, though those laws are on pause as the city fights ongoing appeals processes.
Cincinnati's two new emergency ordinances will be in effect as of Thursday.
