COLUMBUS, Ohio — A lawsuit filed by the City of Columbus in 2019 to allow the city to pass gun legislation has been handed back to a Franklin County judge after being overturned by an appeals court.
On Wednesday, the Ohio Tenth District Court of Appeals unanimously decided to hand that lawsuit back to a Franklin County judge, asking that the city present new evidence.
“We are not going to give up. I still feel very good about the ability of the city to ultimately win this. If you take politics out of it, which I know it’s tough to do in today's world. I believe we are on the right side of the law and the right side of history,” said Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein.
Klein said they are pushing for things like safe storage, universal background checks and red flag laws.
He’s confident the city will have fresh evidence to provide the courts about why this gun legislation is necessary.
“We believe that we need common sense gun laws and we can also support the Second Amendment and make our communities safe."
He believes it’s the role of the city to pass common sense gun legislation because for years the leaders in the statehouse have not done so.
“Our political system is broken and its represented by extremists on the state level that don’t care about gun violence or the ramifications of gun violence,” said Klein.
10TV reached out to Attorney General Dave Yost who was not available for an interview. He provided a written statement saying, “The court’s ruling assures that all Ohioans must abide by the same law, state law, when it comes to firearms. Just like we argued in court firearm owners statewide should have to follow the same rules. We applaud the decision.”