As chief executive of Ohio’s fourth-largest city, Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz has limited power to confront gun violence on a national scale. But in the face of an endless barrage of mass shootings and daily gun deaths, he says doing nothing is no longer an option.
Under a city policy announced last month, between massacres at a Pittsburgh synagogue and at a bar in California, gun and ammunition companies seeking to outfit Toledo’s law enforcement officers will first have to show that they follow what the city has deemed responsible business practices. It will use the following questions to judge potential partners:[1][2]
- Do you manufacture assault weapons for civilian use?
- Do you sell assault weapons for civilian use?
- Which firearms does your company agree to not sell to civilians?
- Do you require your dealers to conduct background checks?
- Does your company have a plan in place to invest in gun- and ammunition-tracing technologies?
- Do you use, at a minimum, industry best practices for inventory control and transactions?
The policy ― the first of its kind in the U.S. ― will go into effect early next year, when the city begins soliciting bids for contracts for its gun and ammunition needs. The city’s police chief said he agrees with the mayor’s decision, telling Toledo’s The Blade that it is “not an indictment on the Second Amendment.”[3]
Kapszukiewicz said he sees his plan as a way to use the free market to tackle gun violence by trying to impose change on the firearm industry, which has long resisted getting involved in divisive debates about how to best prevent shootings.[4]
“What we are doing is quintessentially American and baked into the capitalist structure that has been a foundation of this country since
