Gun restrictions or home rule? Charleston must choose

[Lasher]

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- With a little more than five months until its application deadline, the city of Charleston remains undecided as to whether it will reapply for the state's Municipal Home Rule Program or not.

During the 2013 legislative session, lawmakers added to the bill a set of limitations regarding cities' abilities to implement gun control laws. It passed after a House-Senate compromise was reached.

Under the new version of the law (which also expanded the program to include 16 new cities), municipalities that participate in home rule may do so only if they repeal city gun ordinances. Charleston is the only original home-rule city that has such laws.

Those laws were implemented in the 1990s to eliminate a drugs-for-guns trade between dealers in Charleston, the Midwest and Northeast, as well as to bring down the city's high murder rate, according to City Council President Tom Lane, a Republican councilman at-large.

http://www.wvgazette.com/News/201312250092

[Kolesar]

1. GOPs in Ohio repealed home rule for guns, gas drilling, and predatory lenders

Cleveland's largest newspaper objected to it, but most Ohioans are so politically ignorant that they don't see the hypocrisy of the gops who crow about "local control"
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Golly: Lane said he worries when he thinks about what repealing Charleston's gun ordinances might mean for public safety. While Charleston still has issues with drugs and violent crime, he said the city saw a dramatic drop in its murder rate after those laws were implemented.