By Jim Irvine

The City of Strongsville, Ohio has recently passed a new ordinance that bans the selling of any firearms, or part of a firearm or ammunition, or manufacture of any of the above in areas that are zoned residential. The ordinance reads in part:

1252.36 Prohibited uses.

Nothwithstanding (sic) anything in this Chapter 1252 to the contrary, the sale or manufacture for sale of a firearm, firearm components, deadly weapons, ammunition for a firearm, explosive is prohibited in all Residential Districts.

(Click here to read the entire ordinance)

So under this ordinance, which was sponsored by Mayor Tom Perciak and Councilman Ray Haseley, I could not sell a friend a gun in his house, or my house. We will be required to go down to the local grocery store, or a playground parking lot, or maybe even in front of city hall to do the transaction, because none of those areas are "residential districts."

We need to start by understanding that because this is a zoning issue, it is not preempted by Sec 9.68 that HB347 enacted to establish uniform firearm laws throughout the state.

The Lancaster Eagle-Gazette has published an interesting article about an Ohio man's weight-loss plan that paid off with a recent successful hunt for wild boar in Hocking County.

From the story:

Goodfellow walked the hills of Zaleski State Forest looking for an opportunity to harvest the wild pigs - which have been called and are the same as feral swine, European wild boar, Russian wild boar and razorbacks - for two months.

All the walking and tracking paid off on Feb. 7 when Goodfellow and his hunting partner, Jim Clayson, spotted a group of boar - called a sounder - from 150 yards out.

Goodfellow, 49, lowered the scope attached to .243-caliber rifle and fired at the largest one. He tracked the boar for another 150 yards before he stumbled across his trophy. The boar, black with 4-inch tusks, measured roughly 5 feet long and weighed between 350 to 425 pounds, by Goodfellow's estimate.

It was the largest boar Goodfellow, normally a deer hunter, ever had harvested.

Goodfellow began hunting wild boar when his doctor told him he needed to lose 50 pounds.

"My mind said 'God put wild pigs in Ohio?' I couldn't believe it," he is quoted as saying. "I just didn't think there were wild boar in Ohio."