The Cleveland City Council held its first meeting Monday night after the summer recess and unanimously approved of a resolution in support of universal background checks statewide.
According to a press release from the city council, the resolution “supports an effort by a private group proposing a state law that would require common sense background checks on private gun sales.”
That effort, as The Ohio Star reported, was started by Ohioans for Gun Safety, which filed a petition with the Attorney General’s Office in June to get a background checks measure placed on the 2020 ballot.
If the process is successful, Ohioans could be voting on the group’s “Act to Close Loopholes in Background Checks on Gun Sales” during the 2020 election.
According to Ohioans for Gun Safety, the act requires “that sales and transfers of firearms in the State of Ohio be conducted by a federally licensed firearms dealer and that sales or transfer of firearms be conditioned on the person receiving the firearm being subjected to a background check pursuant to federal law.”
“Basically, if you’re buying a gun, there needs to be a federally licensed dealer involved and they need to run a background check,” Ohioans for Gun Safety said in a press release.
The group needs to collect 132,887 signatures from registered voters in at least 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties, and then state legislators would have four months to discuss the law. If they reject it, then Ohioans for Gun Safety would have to collect 132,887 more signatures to trigger a vote, The Cleveland Plain Dealer explains.
The Cleveland City Council resolution was sponsored by City Council President Kevin Kelley and Council Members Matt Zone, Blaine Griffin, and Basheer Jones. All 17 council members voter in favor of the resolution Monday night.
“Studies have shown that background checks reduce gun violence rates and keep guns out of the hands of criminals,” the resolution states.
Copies of the resolution are reportedly being sent to Gov. Mike DeWine and all members of the Ohio General Assembly.
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Anthony Gockowski is managing editor of Battleground State News, The Ohio Star, and The Minnesota Sun. Follow Anthony on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Cleveland City Council” by Stu Spivack. CC BY 2.0.
