I don’t think so
In Toledo, a cop’s guns were stolen. The police chief says:
The heightened concern is the bigger, larger capacity for the magazines. Police have a 15 round magazine, and the legal limit for a civilian is nine. So, there’s six more bullets,
I was unaware that Ohio limited magazine capacity to nine. I didn’t know that because it’s not true. The limit was never 9 and it has been repealed. So, unless there’s some Toledo law I’m unaware of, I’m disappointed that someone charged with enforcing the law doesn’t know the law.
January 25th, 2012 at 11:03 am
Ignorance of the law is only an excuse for those charged with enforcing it.
January 25th, 2012 at 11:04 am
Cops don’t have to know the law. They just make it up as they go along.
January 25th, 2012 at 11:08 am
Being a cop those guns have their serial numbers registered and recorded somewhere right?
Surely that will help recover them quickly.
January 25th, 2012 at 11:28 am
In his defense, it is Toledo.
January 25th, 2012 at 11:29 am
Wowzers!! The Chief can do bullet math! Will the police officer be charged for losing his weapon? Will he have to pay for it? What disciplinary actions are involved?
January 25th, 2012 at 11:29 am
Also interesting that the Reported seemed to think there was significance in those 6 extra pills in the mag, as if that was somehow relevant.
Stupid all around!
January 25th, 2012 at 11:30 am
There’s an obscure Law still on the books in Ohio about how it is illegal to own a Firearm that has the CAPABILITY to use a Magazine that holds more than 30 rounds of Ammo, but it’s hardly ever been enforced. It’s one of those “one can’t walk their Elephant down the Street w/o a License” laws. Also, considering that Fremont, Ohio has a population of less than 20,000, it doesn’t surprise me that, once again, Buckeye Law enforcement tends to have too many Political Hacks in Charge, especially in the smaller burgs.
January 25th, 2012 at 11:32 am
It’s all to common, cops who don’t know the basics of the laws they enforce.
January 25th, 2012 at 11:32 am
We have no magazine limit. However, a firearm, not a .22, that is capable of firing more than 31 times without reloading, is considered a machine gun. Meaning, if I have a glock 18 magazine, I don’t put more than 30 in it.
I’ve not heard of many getting charged under this law. It doesn’t limit magazine capacity at all, as the Big City magazine bans all got struck down (an Attorney General said police had to abide by them off duty and that caused some consternation by police chiefs, especially the one in Columbus).
But nine rounds? Maybe the chief should read the laws before interpreting them or making them up.
January 25th, 2012 at 11:37 am
Accent in the law is, “capable of firing more than 31 times”. All the police officers who’d ever heard of this, like the retired one who taught the law part of the NRA course required for a Concealed Handgun License, said, you could have a magazine that held a million rounds, loaded, but if you inserted it into the gun you could get jammed up. Not that he said he cared, he claimed to have believed in the Bill of Rights, carried about 3 knives (which are tools, by the way ;-)).
All he said was, officers other than him might be able, if they’d heard of the law, if they found you with a gun having a magazine with more than 31 cartridges aboard, you could get charged. I bought an Uzi model B from Norinco, and the dealer told me the same thing, told me to put plugs in the mag so it wouldn’t hold all 32 rounds.
January 25th, 2012 at 11:52 am
To clear up any confusion or suspicion, will someone claiming there is such a law in OH, please cite the code?
January 25th, 2012 at 12:47 pm
Denver has a home rule assault weapons ban that is horribly written and almost never enforced. Colorado lets Denver get away with whatever they want, apparently.
January 25th, 2012 at 12:56 pm
2923.11, section E.
January 25th, 2012 at 1:09 pm
It is a grand jury tack on law. Not something you would be charged for on the street.
January 25th, 2012 at 1:21 pm
Thanks Pakkinpoppa!
January 25th, 2012 at 1:22 pm
@Alex – Selective enforcement does not make things any better. On the contrary.
January 25th, 2012 at 2:07 pm
Who cares about the guns, those bastards took his clips! Move the woman and children to higher ground.
January 25th, 2012 at 2:15 pm
Reporting from the South end of Ohio: I am in non-compliance with the Toledo Chief of Police’s made-up magazine capacity law.
January 25th, 2012 at 3:57 pm
I’m sure the Chief of Police knows where Klinger lives.
January 25th, 2012 at 4:40 pm
That’s not the Toledo chief. Fremont is not a Toledo suburb, either. I’m surprised they’d allow an officer to live that far away. It’s a good 40 miles.
That said, his house is in ‘Fast & Furious’ country. Many suspect big-city policy has been to loosen old-fashioned enforcement in the central city to provoke statistics. It’s been working spectacularly. He needed a gun safe to live there, and needed it badly — the Fremont chief should have known that.
I don’t know what Jamie Farr did to deserve getting dragged into this. He (and PJ, too) stops around once a year or so, unlike Mrs. Tom Cruise, who may have ridden a parade float or something once. Everybody’s got to be from somewhere, chum. I’m sure your home town is just tragically hip.
January 25th, 2012 at 6:19 pm
Markie Marxist sez: “Ha! Ha! We commies screw up gun owners with more confusing legal complications than they can cope with! Pretty cool, huh? Ha! Ha!”
January 25th, 2012 at 6:48 pm
Why if the ‘Chief’ said it, it must be TRUE! Right?
Sounds like that Chief just moved from NYC or someplace more, er, ‘progressive’.
January 25th, 2012 at 7:23 pm
Folks… I’m not an attorney, but the Ohio Revised Code Section 2923.11(E) states…
“Automatic firearm” means any firearm designed or specially adapted to fire a succession of cartridges with a single function of the trigger. “Automatic firearm” also means any semi-automatic firearm designed or specially adapted to fire more than thirty-one cartridges without reloading, other than a firearm chambering only .22 caliber short, long, or long-rifle cartridges.
That is the definition…
Technically, for example, a semi-automatic gun like an AR15 with a 50-round drum magazine is defined as an “automatic firearm” by Ohio law, but it is still legal to possess in Ohio…
But if you commit a felony crime with it… like holding up a convenience store…
ORC 2929.14(B)(1)(a)(i) mandates a minimum six year prison sentence if you are convicted of committing a felony crime while using this gun… or a gun with a muffler/silencer… it does not make an exception for legally owned muffler/silencers used during a crime…
So it’s not illegal to have… just much higher penalty mandates and sentencing guidelines if you use it in committing a felony…
Ohio ORC defers to federal law regarding regulating “automatic firearms” that fire more than one round with the press of the trigger… or “machine guns” as gun folks know them… but they too still have a higher penalties and sentences for crimes committed with these “machine guns” per ORC 2929.14…
Here are the ORC links if you’re interested…
http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/2923.11
http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/2929.14
I believe some of the previous comments may not be accurate, but then again, I’m not an attorney…
Dann in Ohio
January 25th, 2012 at 7:39 pm
@Uncle… also, I forgot to mention in my previous comment that Ohio has one of the strongest preemption laws regarding firearms that prevents local municipalities like Toledo from enforcing their own gun control laws… and the Ohio Supreme Court has already backed that up with decisions setting case precedent too…
We’re making good progress in the Buckeye State… but still a ways to go…
Dann in Ohio
January 25th, 2012 at 9:53 pm
Chiefs aren’t cops. They’re management, which makes them gun-wielding politicians.
January 31st, 2012 at 1:42 am
As an ex-pat Michigander, very little about Ohio surprises me.
And Gil Kerlikowske, His Imperial Majesty’s Drug Czar, had his Seattle PD-issued Glock 26 stolen from his City of Seattle car while shopping with his wife in Seattle, with no repercussions other than being mocked by The Wrong Sort of People. (That is, us.)