Label
Council Member Komives
Title
Expressing the sense of the Toledo City Council that the Ohio General Assembly must enact greater safety requirements on guns to prevent the death and injury caused by the use of firearms.
Summary
WHEREAS, individuals with guns injure more than 100,000 people a year and kill more than 30,000 a year including through homicides, suicides, and accidental deaths; and whereas far more Americans have been killed with guns in the U.S. than have died in all our wars combined; and
WHEREAS, America has now suffered more than 95 shooting massacres over the past 35 years, including thirteen since 2017, including one in Kirkersville, Ohio, and the recent tragedy at the Stoneman Douglas High School in which 17 students, staff and educators were shot down; and whereas America’s schools and colleges remain vulnerable without our focus on enhanced school safety; and
WHEREAS, there are minimal safety requirements on the type of weapons available for purchase by private individuals in America, including military-style assault weapons; and
WHEREAS, only federally licensed gun dealers are required by law to run background checks yet 40 percent of gun sales - six million guns a year - are sold on the secondary market through unlicensed dealers and are not subject to background checks, enabling the acquisition of guns by criminals, perpetrators of domestic violence, minors, substance abusers, and those with severe mental illnesses that are determined by a healthcare professional to be a danger to themselves or others; and
WHEREAS, persons on the U.S. government’s terrorist watch list are legally able to purchase guns through unlicensed dealers on the secondary market; and
WHEREAS, our country continues to severely underfund the National Instant Criminal Background Check System and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives - resulting in an incomplete background database that hasn’t expanded to all fifty states and a severe lack of resources that prevent the Bureau from conducting yearly inspections, as mandated by federal law, of all federally licensed gun dealers; and
WHEREAS, law enforcement personnel are restricted from fully tracking gun purchase, use, and sale due to the presence of the Tiahrt Amendments, making it harder for law enforcement to aggressively pursue criminals who use illegal guns and track the movement of guns used in crimes; and
WHEREAS, the explosion of gun sales in America has come at a time of a nationwide decline in mental health services with $1.6 billion in state cuts from mental health programs between 2009 and 2011; and
WHEREAS, nearly two-thirds of Americans agree that we should ban the sale of assault weapons as well as high-capacity magazines or clips that can hold 10, 30, 50, or 100 bullets at a time; and
WHEREAS, the large majority of Americans support requiring all gun buyers to pass a criminal background check, no matter where they purchase the weapon or from whom they buy it; NOW, THEREFORE,
Be it resolved by the Council of the City of Toledo:
SECTION 1. That it is the sense of the Toledo City Council that, at a minimum, greater safety requirements must be implemented to prevent the violent use of guns in America by-
1. Banning the sale of military-style assault weapons as well as high-capacity magazines or clips that can hold more than 10 bullets at a time;
2. Requiring all gun buyers to pass a criminal background check, no matter how they purchase the weapon; and,
3. Supporting the availability and funding of mental health and substance abuse treatment so all individuals who are in need of help have sufficient access to these services, and the support of enhanced mental health services for children.
SECTION 2. That this Resolution shall be in full force and effect from and after the earliest date allowed by law.
Adopted: _________________: yeas ______, nays ______.
Attest: _________________________ __________________________________
Clerk of Council President of Council
Approved: ______________________ _________________________________
Mayor
I hereby certify that the above is a true and correct copy of a Resolution adopted by Council ________________________.
Attest: _________________________
Clerk of Council