“Hudson is not the Wild West,” a mailed political flyer timed to hit my mailbox just days before Tuesday’s election protested. “Gun-slingin’ council members won’t make our neighborhood safer.”
Although the election for at-large seats was officially “non-partisan,” the mailer, with extremely small print admitting “paid for by the Summit County Democratic Party,” was clearly targeting two incumbent Republican-favored politicians. It called them “armed and dangerous, and declared they had “misfired with a Lock ‘N’ LOAD law that could fill Council chambers with gun chambers and leave residents in the crossfire.”
The council members “aren’t shooting straight with us,” the allegations continued, smearing them as “a trigger-happy posse of vigilantes playing politics with public safety.”
How? That would seem to be a fair question to have answered, and in any honest political discourse, would be elaborated on to prove the point. In this case, there’s more fine print:
CHECK THE FACTS FOR YOURSELF! City of Hudson Ordinance No. 25-91.
What’s it about?
AN ORDINANCE AMENDING CODIFIED ORDINANCE SECTION 672.02 IN ORDER TO COMPLY WITH STATE LAW.
How is the current ordinance noncompliant?
“[T]he City’s current concealed carry ordinance in Section 672.02 is currently outdated and broadly bans firearm possession within the City and fails to account for ‘qualified adults’ as required under state general law.”
Ohio has what’s known as “preemption,” a state law (upheld by the Ohio Supreme Court!) that forbids local governments from passing their own more restrictive firearm regulations and creating a “patchwork quilt” of impossible-to-navigate prohibitions. Municipalities are not allowed to impose draconian local infringements.
What had the Democrats in a lather is a lawful change allowing Council members to attend meetings while armed. The reason given is to provide a “deterrent to people who might consider opening fire during a meeting.”
There’s plenty of research that substantiates that assumption.
That said, Second Amendment advocates could legitimately oppose such a special “rights for me but not for thee” privilege because it, in effect, creates a new classification of “Only Ones.” It also fails to recognize text, history and tradition, as exemplified by George Mason, answering his own question in the Virginia Ratifying Convention Debate:
“I ask, Who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people, except a few public officers.”
(As an aside, there is the recently introduced HB460 under consideration that would “allow members of the General Assembly, statewide elected officials, judges, and magistrates to carry a concealed handgun in a government facility of the state or a political subdivision,” but note that “statewide” implies that would not include lower-tier politicians like council members.)
The Democrats were trying to scare low-information voters by attacking Council members applying Ohio law. That’s telling, considering that law has been duly enacted by democratically elected representatives and the governor, and upheld by the state’s highest court. And they’re doing it in a way that’s offensive to peaceable gun owners.
The “Wild West” paranoia, sometimes presented as “Dodge City” hysteria, is nothing new, along with another familiar canard of “blood on the streets over fender benders.” And it’s a longstanding Democrat practice to libel citizens who lawfully carry guns for self-defense as “vigilantes.”
A more honest political mailer would have simply admitted, “Democrats would rather see you dead than armed.” Perhaps that’s a political mailer slogan that can be used in future races.
But the bottom line is it worked. All candidates endorsed by Republicans were defeated and those promoted by Democrats, and particularly by gun prohibitionist groups, were elected. That it happened in Hudson, a city that is politically “split evenly,” says something about those dismissing Tuesday’s results as nothing to worry about because Tuesday’s Democrat victories mostly happened in “blue states.”
That’s an excuse to do nothing and emphasizes more than anything a point made here repeatedly, that unless gun owners both get involved and vote (look at the slim majorities the “winners” had), expect more disappointments.
In this case, stymied by state preemption (for now) from enacting more stringent disarmament edicts, I’m still fully expecting a push for a resolution for Hudson to rejoin billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against [Your] Guns, with more control attempts forthcoming if and when Democrats gain more power.
Two adages come to mind: “All politics is local,” and “Just because you’re not interested in politics doesn’t mean politics isn’t interested in you.”
Justified or not, the gun-grabbers have been invigorated and emboldened by Tuesdays’ elections, and Democrats are interpreting that as a green light to move even further to the left. From what we’ve seen in local elections like Hudson’s, or in states like Virginia, where ugly death wishes weren’t enough to keep Jay Jones from being elected the top law enforcement officer, reality shows their constituents won’t be swayed by petty details like the truth.
Counting on a red wave in next year’s midterms, and believing other gun voters will save the day is lazy, foolish, and politically suicidal. Mr. Churchill had a point when he said, “If you will not fight for right when you can easily win… you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival.”
Who believes someone too apathetic to do the easy things will suddenly rise to the challenge when threats and real world losses become existentially overwhelming?
Afterword
Hudson City Council president resigns less than 24 hours after 3 new members were elected [More]
Interesting times lie ahead.
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
