Letter to the Editor: Push to ban guns puts citizens, city at risk

December 24, 2004
Columbus Dispatch

According to The Dispatch, motor vehicles kill more law-enforcement officers than guns (Dispatch article, Dec. 12).

According to recent testimony by Columbus Police Lt. Stephen Schwab at a Columbus City Council hearing, the 9 mm handgun is the preferred weapon of criminals in Columbus.

So what type of gun does Columbus City Councilman Michael Mentel want to ban? The so-called assault weapon, which already is illegal to own without federal permission and background checks. Actually, Mentel wants to ban inexpensive, semiautomatic rifles that almost anyone can afford to purchase for home defense.

Fewer than 0.01 percent of the more than 2,000 firearms in the police property room are semiautomatic rifles. The Columbus police can’t tell us if these were used in a crime or just turned in because the owner didn’t want them anymore.

Instead of putting more cops on the street, instead of raising the penalty for drunken driving and instead of stopping the drug trade and gang violence, Mentel wants to curb our freedoms by banning a type of firearm used in 0.01 percent of crime.

In his misguided zeal, Mentel should realize that gun bans by Columbus City Council have already cost our city almost $300 million in lost revenue since the first assault weapon ban passed in 1989 and forced the Ohio Gun Collectors Association to move to Cleveland.

Add another $8 million if Mentel gets his way with another ban and the National Rifle Association takes its yearly convention to another city in 2007. Besides the tax revenue generated from the $308 million, this money would have been spent at hotels, restaurants, gas stations, cabs, the City Center mall, Arena District and the Short North shopping district.

In his fervor to ban guns, Mentel is continuing to do irreparable harm to the economy, well-being and safety of Columbus.

Lyman Duncan Jr.
Columbus