Cincinnati ordered to pay legal fees after losing another state preemption battle

The Ohio First District Court of Appeals on July 8 dealt the city of Cincinnati a legal and financial blow for attempting to overstep its municipal authority and override Ohio's preemption laws on firearms.

The three-judge panel determined the city had tried to regulate gun storage in 2023 by disguising charges as child endangerment if parents left firearms within their children's reach.

The court further ruled that the city — meaning its taxpayers — will have to pony up nearly $300,000 in attorney fees to the legal team of a local man who challenged the city's ordinance.

Frank West had been charged with child endangerment under the city's new safe-storage ordinance following an incident in which a friend of his teenage son shot the teen in April 2023 after finding the gun and loading it. West was not at home at the time, according to court documents.

Charges were dropped after West filed a lawsuit against the city.

According to an article by the Cincinnati Enquirer, Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Melba Marsh found the entire city ordinance void because it conflicted with state law.

The First Circuit's ruling was brief, stating in part:

"For the reasons set forth in the Opinion filed this date, the judgment of the trial court is affirmed in part and reversed in part, and the cause is remanded."

Cincinnati leaders are no strangers to the state's preemption statute (ORC 9.68). They even tried suing the state over it in February 2023, despite the fact that the Ohio Supreme Court has ruled that Ohio's preemption law on firearms is constitutional, and despite having lost a lawsuit in 2021 over firearms ordinances.

Preemption has been the law since it took effect in March of 2007. It has been upheld in previous lawsuits, including the 2010 Ohio Supreme Court ruling, which declared the law valid in all respects, and a 2021 case involving Cincinnati's illegal bump stock ban, which cost the city $235,218 in legal fees when they lost to Buckeye Firearms Foundation after the case reached the Ohio Supreme Court.

Dean Rieck, Buckeye Firearms Association executive director, said it's a shame Cincinnati taxpayers have to continue to be on the hook for the reckless waste of spending by their elected leaders.

"Some cities just never learn," Rieck said. "It's like that movie 'Groundhog Day,' where Bill Murray gets trapped in a time loop and lives the same events over and over. Ohio state law could not possibly be more clear. Cities can NOT regulate firearms, firearm components, knives, or ammo. Period. Full stop. How many court cases do we have to endure before Ohio's cities stop breaking the law?"

Joe D. "Buck" Ruth, a pen name for Scott Hummel, is a longtime small-game hunter and gun owner who spent nearly three decades in the news industry. He is the website and social-media manager for Buckeye Firearms Association.