COLUMBUS, Ohio (WTVN)--Columbus city leaders have outlined several proposed laws that would regulate guns in the city, and who can possess and sell them, in an effort to quell the increased violence and murder rate.
Mayor Andrew Ginther, City Attorney Zach Klein, and City Council President Shannon Hardin all pointed to the recent mass shootings, the record-high murder rate in Columbus in 2017, and the lack of action from the State of Ohio and the Federal Government on new gun regulations.
The rules proposed for the city of Columbus include prohibiting the sale of bump stocks, banning the sale of commercial firearms in residential neighborhoods, and adding those in a dating relationship to the civil protection ordinance, which would expand the threshold for those who cannot possess a firearm.
It also includes a ban on the sale of imitation firearms to children.
Hardin says of the 143 homicides in Columbus in 2017, 80-percent were committed with a gun. Klein says the regulations bring the city more in line with state and federal laws.
State law in Ohio, meanwhile, prohibits individual cities and municipalities from creating their own gun regulations.