Amended Substitute Senate Bill 156 Summary

• Amends Ohio Revised Code Section 9.68 to declare that the right to keep and bear arms, including knives and firearms, is a fundamental individual right that predates and supersedes the U.S. and Ohio Constitutions.

• Prohibits any state or local ordinance, rule, regulation, or other action requiring licenses, permission, restrictions, delays, or processes for owning, possessing, purchasing, transporting, storing, carrying, or transferring firearms, firearm components, ammunition, or knives.

• Allows persons, groups, or entities to bring civil action against political subdivisions that enact or enforce conflicting ordinances, seeking damages, declaratory relief, and injunctive relief.

• Requires political subdivisions to pay reasonable expenses including attorney's fees, court costs, and expert witness fees if the challenged ordinance is struck down or repealed after the civil action is filed.

• Excludes zoning ordinances that regulate commercial sales of knives and firearms in residential or agricultural areas, or that specify hours and geographic areas for such sales consistent with other retail establishments in the same zone.