Jessie Balmert

jbalmert@enquirer.com

COLUMBUS — In the midst of his U.S. Senate campaign, Cincinnati City Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld promised to help Ohio's cities pass their own gun-control laws through a constitutional amendment.

By comparison, two medical marijuana proposals aiming for the fall ballot have already submitted 1,000 signatures, passed the Ohio Attorney General's initial review and made it through a ballot board panel. Now, they are working to collect the 305,591 valid signatures needed by July 6 to make the ballot. But nearly four months later, Sittenfeld and his group of gun-control advocates have yet to submit the 1,000 signatures needed to even start Ohio's long, expensive road to the November ballot.

Sittenfeld has said he is committed to the effort, which would allow cities to create their own gun ordinances within the general framework of state and federal laws. That means Cincinnati lawmakers could pass a ban on assault weapons, and Columbus officials could prohibit concealed carry in bars — a power currently restricted by state law and courts.

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"We felt it was important to make reducing gun violence a central issue in the Senate campaign, where it might otherwise have been neglected," Sittenfeld said. "It's a cause that I remain very committed to, and that's why we're sticking with this citizen-led constitutional amendment and bringing it to a point where national gun safety organizations can make a determination on if they want to invest in getting it to the ballot."

The group, which includes Sittenfeld, Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence founder Toby Hoover and God Before Guns founder Rev. Kris Eggert, planned to submit its first 1,000 signatures before the end of April. From there, they will court national groups like Americans for Responsible Solutions, founded by former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, and Everytown for Gun Safety, said Cliff Schecter, a Hyde Park resident and CEO of the progressive non-profit Majority Ohio.

But that never happened. On Wednesday, an Ohio Attorney General's Office spokesman said he had received no signatures from the group.

Spokespeople for both national groups said they had not heard of the Ohio effort and were not coordinating with it. With no national group paying for or promoting the ballot initiative, making the fall ballot could be a challenge, Schecter acknowledged. But that doesn't mean advocates have given up.

"We fully intend to go forward. It might just be that we don’t get it done this year," Schecter said. On Wednesday, he said the group had collected the necessary 1,000 signatures but was weighing whether to shoot for 2016 or 2018.

Dan Tokaji, an Ohio State University professor and election law expert, said it's possible, in theory, for Sittenfeld's gun-control group to make the fall ballot, but they would need money.

"At the very least, you would want to have people on board to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars," Tokaji said.

Gun advocates railed against the proposal when Sittenfeld first introduced the idea in January. They argued that Ohio lawmakers already removed cities' abilities to pass their own gun laws in 2006, and the Ohio Supreme Court approved the move in 2010. Having different rules for different cities is confusing for gun owners, said Jim Irvine, president of the Buckeye Firearms Association.

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Sittenfeld made gun violence a key pillar of his Senate campaign against fellow Democrat Ted Strickland, a former Ohio governor. But Strickland soundly defeated Sittenfeld and West Price Hill's Kelli Prather in the March primary. Even before the election, liberal political blog Plunderbund questioned whether Sittenfeld's proposed constitutional amendment was simply an abandoned campaign ploy.

Schecter said that wasn't the case.

"(Sittenfeld) wouldn’t do it if it were a ploy," Schecter said. "At some point, we are going to get this done."