Statement on Columbus Ordinance 0680-2023

The Franklin County Libertarian Party believes that local governments should exist to protect individual rights, not turn those rights into a punishable crime.

Columbus City Council and Mayor Ginther recently passed ordinance 0680-2023 that would ban the sale and possession of firearm magazines with a capacity of 30 rounds or more within the city limits starting on July 1. With this piece of legislation, city leaders sought to “effectuate common sense gun reform”. City Attorney Zach Klein said that the ordinance “gives the individuals who currently own high-capacity clips a grace period to turn in those high-capacity clips […] to police.” When asked why the city chose 30 rounds as the legal cutoff point, Klein said, “Looking at what the size of clips could be, and looking at previous case law around the United States, we felt comfortable with 30.”

Mr. Klein’s repeated failure to understand basic terminology around firearms demonstrated by his use of the word ‘clip’ instead of ‘magazine’ should bar him from making a legal judgment of any kind on this issue. To be clear, this legislation will have no effect on the rising gun violence in Columbus. The city does not face a growing threat of homicides and assaults being performed by people carrying AR-style rifles or handguns with a drum magazine. Columbus city leaders are unwilling to address the sources and conditions that lead to violent crime. Their only interest appears to be virtual signaling to their voting base while simultaneously ignoring the rights of law-abiding residents.

What the legislation will do is create criminals out of otherwise peaceful citizens who own a completely innocuous piece of plastic. The ordinance does threaten those people who keep a standard-capacity magazine in their home with a mandatory minimum of 180 days in jail with no opportunity to continue working. In addition to jail time, these completely non-violent residents will be guilty of a misdemeanor and will be forced to pay a $1500 fine.

The Franklin County Libertarian Party believes that local governments should exist to protect individual rights, not turn those rights into a punishable crime. We affirm the individual right recognized by the Second Amendment to keep and bear arms, and oppose the prosecution of individuals for exercising their rights of self-defense. Private property owners should be free to establish their own conditions regarding the presence of personal defense weapons on their own property. We oppose all laws at any level of government restricting, registering, or monitoring the ownership, manufacture, or transfer of firearms, ammunition, or firearm accessories.

Sources:
    •    https://columbus.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=6041026&GUID=100A3DBD-91F5-4BC9-BE2D-148BC5BB7CEA&Options=&Search=&FullText=1

    •    https://www.10tv.com/article/news/local/columbus-gun-owners-have-until-july-1-get-rid-of-high-capacity-magazines/530-51c6811f-60a5-4c1d-b567-f3e553da77fb

    •    https://www.nbc4i.com/news/local-news/columbus/columbus-city-council-passes-new-gun-restrictions-banning-large-gun-magazines/

    •    https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/local/2023/02/28/owners-of-large-gun-magazines-in-columbus-have-until-july-to-dump-them/69950080007/

Libertarian Party of Ohio Joins Over 200 Groups in Multi-Partisan Alliance Against HJR1/SJR2

Franklin County Libertarians join the Libertarian Party of Ohio in opposing this effort to increase the burden on all Ohioans to affect change through public legislation.

Since 2013, Ohio Libertarians Have Known All Too Well About Republicans “Changing the Rules in the Middle of the Ballgame”

– FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE –

COLUMBUS, OHIO –– May 2, 2023 –– The Libertarian Party of Ohio (LPO) announced today that it will be joining over 200 other organizations in the multi-partisan alliance against HJR1 and SJR2, the resolutions being advanced by Republicans in the Statehouse that could potentially usurp Ohioans’ right to amend the state constitution via a simple majority vote at the ballot box.

In 2013, when the LPO was gaining electoral traction with conservatives, independents and moderates alike, the Ohio Republican Party passed new ballot access laws to derail minor political parties’ access to the ballot. The law –– called SB 193, but also known as “The John Kasich Re-Election Protection Act” –– was signed by then-Governor Kasich almost immediately.

Consequently, the LPO and all minor political parties in Ohio found themselves under new restrictive ballot access laws and were unable to grow or compete in the state’s elections, paving the way for further Republican dominance. Now, Ohio Republicans are shamelessly trying to apply their “win-by-rule-changing” strategy to limit Ohioans’ ability to amend the constitution.

“Ohio Republicans are once again changing the rules in the middle of the ballgame because they know their ideas are going to lose,” said LPO Communications Director and former Libertarian candidate for governor in 2018 Travis Irvine. “Libertarians have known all too well that when the Ohio GOP’s power brokers get nervous about someone else taking power, they cheat to win.”

More info about the LPO can be found on their website, or follow them on Twitter or Facebook.

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“Why Biden may have to forfeit the first contest in his re-election bid to Marianne Williamson or RFK Jr.”

Joe Biden has already lost the New Hampshire and Iowa Democratic primaries that won’t happen for a year.

😄
😆
🤣

At this point we’re shocked Democrats will still have their sham primaries.
We all know it’s a fraud.
(Yes, we know Iowa actually has a caucus, but no one cares. 

😉

 )

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna80994

“Army aviators, ready to leave the military, are told they owe 3 more years instead”

FTA/ In an email sent on Sept. 1, 2022, a career manager with the Army Human Resources Command told an officer that his service obligation runs concurrently. But when he sat down with a manager last week, he said he did not get that same clear answer.
“It’s demoralizing,” said the officer, who has been living apart from his wife for years because she could not relocate for work. “This isn’t the life we thought it was.”
A former aviation captain — one of the last to leave the Army without serving her BRADSO requirement consecutively — said she had “many panic attacks” after learning the Army considered her to be among those who left before eligibility.
“It’s a huge relief that I got out, but I have a lot of sorrow and pity for the others,” said the former officer, whose request last April to be discharged was granted.
She asked to remain anonymous out of fear of being pulled back into service, as her nearly 2-year-old daughter cooed beside her.
On Thursday, Army officials said that at least 20 aviation officers were discharged without serving their BRADSO obligations consecutively but that they would not pull any of them back to serve retroactively.
Stitt said the Army needed a few more weeks to fully understand the scope of the issue, including how many officers are affected. /
Ooops. 

🙄
🤬

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna81796

“Inside China’s brutal execution system with mobile injection vans & firing squads after killing most in the world”

News Clippings

There are still people who are convinced that socialism, or it’s close cousin, communism, “just haven’t been done right”.

“Democratic socialism” is the most recent rebranding these systems of evil.

Here is a timely reminder of what happens when socialism and communism “works”.

While other nations had total figures, China’s shadowy death penalty system left the human rights group only able to offer a grim estimate of “thousands”.

FTA/ Firing squads and lethal injections are two favourite methods of execution used by China.

Killer jabs were legalised by the regime in the 90s and are sometimes administered in one of the state’s mobile “execution vans”.

Convicts are said to loaded into van and strapped to a table where they administered the lethal injection.

Organs are then believed harvested from executed prisoners without any permission for use in medicine and scientific experiments.

Amnesty International has named China as the world’s worst executor by a large margin – with its body count believed to be larger than the rest of the world’s combine total of 657.

While other nations had total figures, China’s shadowy death penalty system left the human rights group only able to offer a grim estimate of “thousands”.

Amnesty’s China researcher Kai Ong told The Sun Online how China often holds mass rallies to announce people being sentenced to death in medieval-style public trials.

Ms Ong said: “The Chinese government still sees the use of the death penalty as an effective deterrent to crimes.

“Each June, local governments often hold mass sentencing rallies, in which students, teachers and the public are invited to witness the court handing down death penalty to individuals convicted of drug-related crimes.” /

You can vote your way into socialism or communism, but you have to shoot your way out. 😞

Source: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/13939633/china-brutal-execution-death-vans-trials/

Additional source: https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/policy-issues/international/executions-around-the-world

“Dubious distinction for Ohio GOP leaders: Only ones in US to ignore a court order”

News Clippings

FTA/ That ultimate weapon of the judicial system, finding someone in contempt of court for violating its order, was not realistic, O’Connor said. …
“I don’t have a force that would go over and handcuff them if they were found to be in contempt.” /

When the Supreme Court of Ohio holds anyone on contempt, any county sheriff is enpowered to arrest and hold them.
The fact that life long Republican politico Maureen O’Connor, Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, doesn’t have confidence in the power of judicial censure, at the highest level, lays bare that we are not a state of laws, but corruption and dirty influence.
How can we pretend to have “free and fair” elections when we don’t even trust the lines in the sand?
With O’Connor retired and the seismic shift in the Ohio Supreme Court, can we expect even this tepid rebuke in the future?
Packed with reliable rubber stamps, including his own son and recently appointed life long crony, will the Ohio Supreme Court finally shrug off the pretense of fair justice and turn actively hostile to any and all that dare oppose the DeWine regime?
How will Ohio thrive with two branches of state govt fully grasped in the clutches of one family?


Source: https://abc6onyourside.com/news/local/dubious-distinction-for-ohio-gop-leaders-only-ones-in-us-to-ignore-a-court-order-republicans-government-maureen-oconnor-mike-dewine-steven-huefner
Additional Reference: https://governor.ohio.gov/media/appointments/governor-dewine-to-appoint-joseph-t-deters-to-ohio-supreme-court-12222022

A Republic, If We Can Keep It

As 2023 arrives and the two-year anniversary of the infamous January 6th insurrection approaches, there is plenty to be grateful for as our imperfect nation ventures into the new year. Of course, there is also still much work to be done and more good fights to be fought. Here in Ohio, fascism continues to stand on our doorstep –– and is perhaps even knocking on the door –– especially as a new GOP supermajority is set to be seated in our Statehouse in January and Governor Mike DeWine starts his second term, both of which were decided by a majority of Ohio voters. Because of these recent midterm results, Ohio Republicans have been given a mandate –– and they will likely use it to their own advantage, just as they have since seizing power of every branch of our state government in 2010.

Case in point –– one of the Ohio GOP’s first power grabs after 2010 was to gerrymander Democrats out of relevance, redrawing Ohio’s state legislative and congressional districts in such a way that Democrats would eventually be relegated to obscurity. Consequently, Ohio’s Democrats have been plagued by a lack of funding, infighting and an inability to recruit quality candidates ever since. Then in 2013, when the GOP was gearing up for former Governor John Kasich’s re-election campaign in 2014, Republican power brokers realized the Libertarian Party of Ohio posed a threat to their win numbers, so they passed new ballot access rules to relegate Libertarians to obscurity as well. Consequently, Ohio’s Libertarians have been plagued by a lack of funding, infighting and an inability to recruit quality candidates ever since.

After their landslide victories in 2022, now the GOP is “coming for it all” –– to paraphrase Athens, Ohio’s own Joe Burrow in a less-fun way, when he was asked about the Cincinnati Bengals’ run for the Super Bowl earlier this year. In Ohio Republicans’ case, their next power grab will be to make it harder for Ohioans to amend our state constitution through a direct vote, a procedure that has been in place for over 100 years. This constitutional right ensured that Ohioans had a way to bypass an unresponsive state legislature and was endorsed by principled high-profile Republicans at the time, such as former President Teddy Roosevelt. Perhaps the irony is lost on Ohio’s modern day “Republicans” that their name derives from the term republic, in which power is held by the people and their elected representatives.

In fact, one of the most famous and often cited stories of the founding of our country –– an imperfect representative democratic constitutional republic as it may be, for anyone who needs an even longer definition –– is that as Benjamin Franklin was leaving Independence Hall in 1787, he was asked by a bystander about what kind of government the Constitutional Convention had created. Would it be “a republic or a monarchy?” Franklin reportedly replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.” Those poignant words still ring true today, especially as the potential tyranny of the supermajority –– or even a vocal minority –– attempts to enact policies that negatively impact millions of individuals’ rights. After all, republics are supposed to protect the constitutional rights of all citizens, not take them away.

Perhaps Ohio’s modern day Republicans need a reminder of this fact, especially considering that the Republican Party was originally founded as a third political party in the 1850s that sought to create a coalition of abolitionists –– those who were vehemently opposed to the practice of slavery in the United States –– as well as disenfranchised Whigs, the only political opposition at that time to the powerful and growing Democratic contingent in the country. Instead, this political party that started as a minor political party focused on protecting the rights of minorities has now turned their backs on both of those groups, while their supermajority only grows. From destroying minor parties’ ballot access to making it harder for poorer Ohioans to vote, Ohio Republicans seem to not understand the basic definition of “republic” at all.

So now it is our job as citizens to remind them. Earlier this month, I was proud to join over 500 demonstrators from over 170 organizations at the Statehouse to remind our elected representatives who exactly they are representing and what they can and cannot do as our elected representatives. We were there to remind them that their plan to make it harder for Ohioans to amend our state constitution would not be an easy fight. Fortunately, the legislature scrapped their plans to pass HJR6 due to a lack of support –– and while it may be gone for now, the effort could come back in 2023. If it does, this same coalition of Ohioans will be ready to fight again. After all, this is still a republic –– if we can keep it.

Travis Irving, 2018 Ohio Libertarian Gubernatorial Candidate 
“This column was also published in The Columbus Free Press.” 

Run for Columbus City Council!

Starting this year Columbus City Council elections will be kinda based on 9 districts.
We say kinda, because while candidates will be required to reside within 1 of the 9 districts to run for that district, form a 5 person committee and collect 250 valid signatures from district residents, the actual primary and election will be _-= city wide =-_ (same as ever).

Yup.
The same 50k-ish voters will continue to control what happens in Columbus, despite the charter amendment that everyone thought was meant to adopt ward-style elections.

Signature Requirement (City Council) … Min. 250 – No Max.c
Filing Deadline … 4:00 p.m., February 1, 2023
Filing Fee … $45.00 ($20.00 petition filing fee & $25.00 O.E.C. fee)

Contact us to discuss next steps for forming your committee, collecting valid signatures, getting on the ballot and fundraising.

Source: https://vote.franklincountyohio.gov/BOEL-website/media/Election-Info/2023/(1)%20Primary%20Election%20-%20May%202,%202023/(1)%20Notices%20of%20Election/2023-Primary-Schedule-4.pdf

For Ourselves And Our Posterity

My wife and I recently celebrated the birth of our first child. A few weeks before he was born we were watching a particularly depressing evening news broadcast. We sat through half a dozen stories that evoked feelings of anger, sadness, and despair before looking at each other and asking, “What are we doing bringing a kid into this crazy world?” The question was somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but I imagine every parent asks themselves that at some point and it’s really not surprising why. Let’s take stock of where we’re at…

We’ve just come out of a multi-year pandemic that resulted in millions of lives lost. The attempt to control the severity of the pandemic has had a myriad of negative consequences. In an effort to save the crashing economy, the federal government initiated trillions of dollars of additional spending[1] with assistance from the federal reserve, which printed the money out of thin air. This increase in the money supply[2] devalued the dollar, and coupled with labor shortages, caused price increases that haven’t been seen in decades. Drug overdose deaths are higher[3], violent crime is on the rise[4], and home ownership is now even more of a pipedream for millennials and Generation Z[5].

When the pandemic started, children were sent home from school as districts scrambled to facilitate remote learning. When they were allowed to attend in-person, they were often required to wear face coverings. There is evidence that this response to COVID has saddled our children with a number of issues. We now have stunted personality development of young adults[6] and a mental health crisis for children[7]. ACT scores have dropped to their lowest in 30 years[8]. Two decades of progress in math and reading have vanished[9]. Our kids are now more obese than ever, with evidence that the average BMI for children have doubled[10].

In times like this, we should be able to turn to our leaders for guidance on where to go from here. Let’s check in on them to see where their priorities are: We have governors who are trying to harm the reputation of those in the opposing party by punting immigrants between states like a political football[11]. They’re sending billions of dollars (that we don’t have) to Ukraine[12] for a war that doesn’t involve us, increasing the risk of nuclear war with Russia. They’re beefing up IRS enforcement[13] to try and shake more pennies out of our piggy banks. And they’re arguing over whether Elon Musk should be allowed to buy Twitter[14].

So we face some large and unwieldy problems, and we have a political class that is either unwilling or unable to tackle them. I’ve always cared about liberty and freedom, but now I find myself asking what sort of country we’re going to be leaving for my son. Should we load him up with a public debt and a tax bill that he has no ability to consent to paying? Should we continue to devalue our currency and inflate the costs of college and home ownership? Am I supposed to be okay with him being obese, stupid, and depressed the next time a public health crisis emerges?

Since we cannot rely on our existing leaders to solve our problems, and since these leaders seem determined to curb our liberties at every step, we must roll up our sleeves and provide solutions ourselves. As Libertarians, we must be the voice calling for sound money, reduced government spending and taxation, and an end to involvement in foreign wars. It is imperative that we never allow the education or the social and emotional development of our children to suffer at the hands of bureaucrats and noisy fear-mongers. The fallout of the response to COVID should be the perfect case-study demonstrating how negative consequences are forced upon people when the government implements top-down edicts.

Fortunately, there is hope to be found in this sea of tears. Public trust in government remains very low[15]. The CDC has admitted that it got some things wrong[16]. More and more people are taking their children out of government schools and enrolling in private school[17] or opting to homeschool[18]. Homeschooled students tend to outperform their public school counterparts.[19] [20] And Americans are more willing to voluntarily help others with their time and money than they were before COVID[21].

The evidence is clear: top-down solutions have a tendency to create more harm than good. Solutions that are local and voluntary can minimize widespread risk and allow for faster error correction. Future generations are depending on us to set things right and we need to be ready to answer that call.

Jordan BertkeFCLPO Executive Committee At-Large Member


[1] https://www.usaspending.gov/disaster/covid-19?publicLaw=all

[2] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=V2aQ

[3] https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2020/p1218-overdose-deaths-covid-19.html

[4] https://www.safehome.org/resources/crime-statistics-by-state/

[5] https://www.statista.com/topics/4403/millennials-and-real-estate-in-the-us/

[6] https://www.sciencenews.org/article/pandemic-young-adults-personality-development

[7] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8445752/

[8] https://leadershipblog.act.org/2022/10/GradClassRelease2022.html

[9] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/01/us/national-test-scores-math-reading-pandemic.html

[10] https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7037a3.htm?s_cid=mm7037a3_w

[11] https://nypost.com/2022/09/15/ron-desantis-ships-2-planes-of-migrants-to-marthas-vineyard/

[12] https://nypost.com/2022/10/04/biden-sending-ukraine-625m-in-weapons-from-shrinking-us-stockpile/

[13] https://taxfoundation.org/inflation-reduction-act-irs-funding/

[14] https://ww w.foxnews.com/politics/congress-senate-house-musk-twitter

[15] https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2022/06/06/public-trust-in-government-1958-2022/

[16] https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2022/aug/24/opinion-cdc-finally-admits-it-botched-covid/

[17] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/07/during-covid-more-families-switch-to-private-school-from-public-.html

[18] https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/03/homeschooling-on-the-rise-during-covid-19-pandemic.html

[19] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232544669_The_Impact_of_Schooling_on_Academic_Achievement_Evidence_From_Homeschooled_and_Traditionally_Schooled_Students

[20] https://www.nheri.org/homeschool-sat-scores-for-2014-higher-than-national-average/

[21] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-08748-2