On Monday morning, Ohioans For Concealed Carry delivered a Cease & Desist letter to the City of Independence, Ohio politely requesting the city cooperate with a four-point plan to come into compliance with Ohio Law.

Over the past two years, OFCC has attempted to negotiate a repeal of the city's ordinance prohibiting all firearms from its parks as it conflicted with Ohio's concealed handgun laws and statewide preemption. We learned that the city's law director was aware of our lawsuit in Clyde. We then addressed the city council. Those who spoke up to ask us questions were promptly shut down by others on council, and we left with the city basically ignoring us.

Today, in light of the recent ruling in the OFCC v. City of Clyde case, we have sent a letter to Mayor Kurtz and the entire city council demanding that the City of Independence comply with that ruling and Ohio law. You can read the letter here.

In that letter we requested the following compliance actions:

1. Issue a memo to all city police officers advising them that effective immediately Ordinance 957.02 shall no longer be enforced and that the act of openly carrying a firearm is typically neither criminal nor does it require a Concealed Handgun license.
   
   
2. Prominently clarify that the city shall no longer enforce this ordinance in the October issue of the city's newsletter so that city residents are aware of the change in law.
   
   
3. Compel the appropriate city employees to remove all signs posted in or around city parks that proclaim that carrying a firearm is prohibited by close of business on Friday September 26^th, 2008.  Do the same to any park rules or other published material.
   
   
4. Draft emergency legislation to repeal the park gun ban ordinance and any other ordinance that conflicts with ORC 9.68 at the regular October City Council Meeting, or, at your discretion, schedule an emergency session before October's Council meeting.

These actions would demonstrate an immediate and continued effort to work with us in good faith. However, we have heard that some members of council feel they should simply ignore the situation, leave their signs up without enforcing them, and hope to deter people from carrying guns. If Ohioans For Concealed Carry determines that the city is refusing to work with us or fails to remove their signs by the end of this week, we will pursue legal actions to force them to remove the signs by court order, eliminate their ordinance, and pay our legal costs as required by Ohio Revised Code 9.68.  

If you know of any other city that has any conflicting ordinance use the "Contact Us" link on OhioCCW.org and send details to Jeff Garvas. Conflicting ordinances include anything other than zoning, discharge, or employer rules imposed on employees of a city. We appreciate all of the detailed information you can provide us to help us respond to these cities promptly. If you're an attorney interested in representing OFCC's interests in these cases please also contact us as described above.