As expected, the Ohio Supreme Court has agreed to hear Cleveland's challenge to statewide preemption of gun laws.

As I recapped a week ago (Cleveland continues fight for local gun control), Cleveland sued the state of Ohio over Ohio Revised Code 9.68. That law, known a statewide preemption, overturns all but a select few local gun laws in an attempt to make gun regulations consistent across the state. Cleveland, and a few other cities, feel they should have the ability to pass whatever gun laws they want.

The Ohio Supreme Court previously upheld preemption in the Ohioans For Concealed Carry v. City of Clyde case, ruling that Clyde's ban on guns in city parks violated preemption. Cleveland is throwing out various arguments, including that the Clyde ruling only pertains to concealed carry of handguns.

The Ohio Supreme Court today agreed to hear Cleveland v. State of Ohio, a lawsuit in which the City of Cleveland is challenging the constitutionality of statewide preemption.    The lower courts have twice denied Ohioans For Concealed Carry's efforts to intervene in the litigation despite our role as the plaintiff in the precedent case, Ohioans For Concealed Carry v. City of Clyde.

The local courts agreed with the legislature and refused to overturn preemption, but the appeals court sided with Cleveland and, to a certain extent, challenged the Ohio Supreme Court's precedent on this matter in our case against Clyde.   The Cleveland Plain Dealer has begun covering the story as well.  Updated: Cleveland to fight for its gun restrictions before Ohio Supreme Court

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments later this year.   In cases like this the position of the legislature (and, in this case, Ohioans For Concealed Carry) will be defended and argued by the Ohio Attorney General's office.  Attorneys representing Ohioans For Concealed Carry will file friend of the court briefs in the coming months.  A pro-gun "win" in this case would be a majority decision overruling the appeals court, maintaining the Ohio Supreme Court's recent precedent in OFCC v. Clyde.

This case highlights the importance of upcoming Ohio Supreme Court justice elections.

By now most of you know about the shooting at Ohio State University early yesterday morning. At around 3:30am, Nathaniel Brown, who was reportedly serving a suspension for a poor job performance review, entered the university’s maintenance building and began shooting. Building supervisor Larry Wallington was killed and operations shift leader Henry Butler wounded. Brown killed himself before police could arrest him.

Gun control advocates will point to this as an example of why guns have no place in schools or the workplace. The problem with this logic is that it was already illegal for Brown to bring a gun into the maintenance building. Not only is it a violation of workplace policy but it is also banned by Ohio law since it is a building on school property. None of that deterred Brown from carrying out his murderous plan of revenge. The gun ban did, however, ensure that nobody was able to fight back.