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Group to rally against ban on city gun sales
By jeanne starmack
campbell
A rally to protest an ordinance banning gun sales in the city is back on for Saturday, its organizer said.
Varg Freeborn, president of the Youngstown State University chapter of the Young Americans for Liberty, said the rally will take place again after the group negotiated with the city, which had asked it for $2,000 to pay police to work the event.
Freeborn had told The Vindicator on Tuesday that the rally was called off because the group couldn’t afford it, and there would be only a protest march instead by a group called Ohioans for Concealed Carry. That group was, and is again, planning to be at the rally.
After Wednesday’s negotiations, the event will cost the group $480, he said.
Police Chief Gus Sarigianopoulos said that he never told the group it had to pay $2,000 for police, but he gave the city administrator that figure as an estimate of what the group would pay for overtime and benefits if it went through the city.
Instead, he said, police officers will work the rally as side jobs for $20 an hour.
The ordinance that prompted the rally is expected to be repealed at city council’s meeting Wednesday. It was passed after a Hubbard man attempted to open a gun-repair shop on Robinson Road in October, and police objected.
Council was in the process of amending the ordinance to exclude private sales by residents. The intent, they have said, was to prevent gun shops from opening in the city.
But the ordinance was tabled for more consideration in March after Law Director Mark Kolmacic told council they should repeal it because it violates state law.
They are expected to bring it out on the floor again Wednesday. Councilwoman Juanita Rich, who is acting as council president in the absence of William Van Such, told council at its caucus meeting Wednesday that the ordinance needs to be repealed to avoid any liability.
Council said it will reconsider another ordinance that prohibits gun sales in certain areas through zoning.
Saturday’s rally is expected to take place at 2 p.m. at the city building on Tenney Avenue. Freeborn said the location might change.