The city of Cincinnati is suing the state over a new law that curbs local gun restrictions.

House Bill 228, signed into law last year, expanded state law preempting cities and local governments from passing more restrictive gun laws. Cincinnati joins Columbus and other municipalities challenging the law.

Cincinnati argues the law violates home rule rights guaranteed in the Ohio Constitution, according to the complaint filed Thursday in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court.

The law is an "effort to silence local elected officials and the municipalities they represent, and it stands in the way of specific legislative steps that the city seeks to take to protect their cities from gun violence," attorneys wrote in the complaint.

Since 2015, 1,772 people have been victims of gun violence within Cincinnati city limits, according to the complaint.

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City officials say a "red flag" law, which allows courts to confiscate guns from people deemed dangerous to themselves or others, could prevent shootings such as the September 2018 shooting at Fifth Third Bank where three people died.

The new Ohio law bars Cincinnati from passing such a law and allows anyone affected by a local gun ordinance to sue the municipality and collect damages, even if the law is rescinded before a court ruling.

Ohio's local gun law preemption has been upheld in the courts. In February, a Hamilton County judge struck down a Cincinnati law banning "bump stocks," a firearm accessory that enables guns to fire quicker.

The new law expands the state's oversight of gun laws to include the "manufacturing, taxing, keeping, and reporting of loss or theft of firearms, their components, and their ammunition."

The law's supporters say the state has an interest in maintaining uniform gun laws.

Former Gov. John Kasich vetoed the bill, noting the preemption went against the constitution's home-rule provision.

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