BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) is urging Ohio gun rights activists to attend a hearing Thursday afternoon in Columbus on a proposal to ban so-called “assault weapons.”

“Columbus has already lost two court trials on this issue, and that is reason enough for the council to reject this idea,” said CCRKBA Executive Director Joe Waldron. “Backers of this onerous proposal must think that the third time will be a charm, but enacting this ban will charm nobody but gun control extremists and the criminals who will ignore the law and continue to victimize the public and endanger the police.”

The hearing is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. on the second floor of the Council Chambers at 90 West Broad Street in Columbus. A large crowd is expected.

“This proposed ban is based on a model drafted by the anti-gun Legal Community Against Violence, an organization whose dubious efforts haven’t prevented a single violent crime anywhere,” Waldron observed. “All they want to do is deprive law-abiding citizens of legally-owned firearms, and that’s hardly the solution to violent crimes committed by criminals who habitually disobey every law on the books. Evidently, that’s something that seems to have escaped the limited grasp of the LCAV, and the authors of the proposed Columbus measure.

“The proponents of this ordinance,” he continued, “will argue that it is written to distinguish ‘bad guns’ from ‘legitimate sporting weapons.’ The Ohio Constitution does not contain language protecting a right to bear sporting firearms, and there is nothing in that document about hunting or sport shooting, anyway. The state constitution clearly says that the people have the right to bear arms for their defense and security.

“The ordinance is nothing more than a gun registration scheme that criminals won’t obey, anyway,” Waldron stated. “But it will identify law-abiding owners of the firearms in question, so that at some point over the horizon, their rights can be further attacked, their property declared contraband and their safety further endangered while criminals are handed a safer working environment. Columbus-area gun owners need to study this proposal, and take appropriate action Thursday evening.”