Kasich: Gun violence panel working on ideas
Recommendation may come next week; issue ‘not going to go away.’
Ohio Gov. John WASHINGTON —
Kasich said he is hoping that a group he’s convened to find solutions to gun violence in the state will be able to deliver something by the end of business next week to the Ohio General Assembly.
Kasich, in Washington, D.C. for a meeting of the National Governors Association, declined to lay out what the group is considering, but said they’ve reached agreements on four different issues. The governor’s office declined to disclose the members of the group, but Kasich said they are on both sides of the gun debate.
After the shooting in Parkland, Fla., on Valentine’s Day, Kasich said he advocates complete background checks and “the need to have these large magazines” but acknowledged that the committee may go in a different direction.
“One of the things I don’t want to do in this process is put my finger so much on the scale that the committee doesn’t have a chance
to work,” he said.
He said he’s talked to House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger and Senate President Larry Obhof as well as some members to say “this is not going to go away.”
“It’s apparent,” he said. “People are saying something has to be done. And I think that people are saying do something. When people demand something over and over and over again politicians usually respond.”
On Sunday, Kasich said he wants a way to limit the AR-15, which was used in the Florida school shooting.
Democratic Senators Michael Skindell and Charleta Tavares introduced Senate Bill 260 earlier this week, which would make it a fifth-degree felony to have an assault weapon. That bill is not expected to go anywhere in the Republican legislature.
“If you’re a strong Second Amendment person, you need to slow down and take a look at reasonable things that can be done to answer these young people,” Kasich said earlier this week.
“You’re never going to fix all of this, but common-sense gun laws make sense. And I’m hopeful that this group that I have assembled on both sides of the issue are going to come together with recommendations.”
Other governors around the county are considering changing state gun laws.
On Friday, Florida Gov. Rick Scott announced school safety and gun restriction proposals that would ban the sale of firearms to anyone under 21, but lawmakers there differed on whether some teachers should carry guns.