Doing nothing is not acceptable
People want reasonable gun rules
Gun-rights advocates in the Ohio House of Representatives had every reason to expect House Bill 228 to pass easily, further dismantling the state’s already-flimsy regulation of deadly weapons.
But the Feb. 14 slaughter of 17 people at a Florida high school, and the ensuing jolt to the national consciousness regarding gun violence, might change the picture. Backers of the bill will say it has nothing to do with mass shootings, and they’re right. Mass shootings have unique causes that can’t be addressed by gun laws alone.
But all the other gun deaths — 33,000 in America every year, about 12,000 of which are homicides — demand attention, and the special tragedy of a mass shooting is bringing that attention.
Minority Democrats are calling for H.B. 228 to get a harder look, and for once they might have enough public support to get some traction in the Republicandominated, gun-friendly General Assembly.
We hope so, because the bill is yet another move toward allowing guns in more situations and minimizing penalties for having where they’re not allowed.
First off, the Democrats are right that the bill does not belong in the Federalism and Interstate Relations Committee. If the name sounds unfamiliar, that’s because it was created less than a year ago. It is peopled mainly by far-right conservatives and has become the go-to forum for bills to loosen gun laws.
The Criminal Justice Committee would be a more appropriate assignment.
One of H.B. 228’s key provisions would take Ohio’s “castle doctrine” — the law saying that a person has no duty to retreat before using deadly force if he is attacked in his home or vehicle — and expand it to any place the person can be legally.
It also would reduce the penalties for many gun-possession crimes to minor misdemeanors.
Another provision would make it easier for someone who has used force against another to prevail on a claim of self-defense, by requiring prosecutors to disprove the claim. Under current law, an Ohio defendant claiming self-defense must prove his claim by “a preponderance of the evidence.”
Proponents say Ohio is the only state where a defendant has a burden of proof in a criminal trial. But such cases are rare, and when the accused acknowledges purposely killing or injuring another person, is that an unreasonable demand?
At the other end of the gun-politics universe, Democratic state Sens. Michael Skindell of Lakewood and Charleta B. Tavares of Columbus have introduced Senate Bill 260 to ban possession and purchase of “assault weapons” — defined as semi-automatic firearms capable of accepting 10 or more cartridges, whether in a fixed or removable magazine — and establish a database of gun and ammunition transactions.
Both ideas are likely dead in the water in this legislature but a database, in particular, shouldn’t be.
Mass shootings will be difficult to prevent for at least two reasons. First, many communities lack the mental-health resources to identify and treat the alienated, enraged young men who typically commit them. Even when a disturbed person has been referred for evaluation, distinguishing an imminent killer from a big talker isn’t simple. Ours isn’t a society prepared to lock up every person who seems like he might be dangerous.
Second, gun ownership is deeply embedded in our culture; America is awash in guns, and that can’t be changed easily.
Still, doing nothing to stem gun violence is, for many, no longer acceptable.
We must keep improving mental-health resources, Just as other liberties are reasonably regulated, and with U.S. gun-death numbers that dwarf those of any other country, it is indefensible not to consider strengthening laws that can keep more innocents out of harm’s way.
but we also must address the ease with which anyone can acquire weapons capable of the carnage seen in Columbine, Sandy Hook, Las Vegas, Parkland and so many other heartbroken places.
At the very least, we should be able to register and track the legally purchased guns that circulate freely in our society. This is especially important in Ohio: Thanks to gun shows and lax laws, the state is perennially a top source of guns used in crimes elsewhere, especially New York and New Jersey, where gun laws are stricter.
On the same day as the Parkland shooting, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal announced the indictment of seven men accused of trafficking guns from Ohio to Camden. Two Columbus men are accused of coordinating the buying.
Gun-rights absolutists have made the idea of registration and tracking of firearms anathema. They use hyperbolic, mean-spirited and factless scare tactics to invoke the threat of a hostile government coming to take the guns so that the populace will be defenseless.
Just as other liberties are reasonably regulated, and with U. S. gun-death numbers that dwarf those of any other country, it is indefensible not to consider strengthening laws that can keep more innocents out of harm’s way. And it is reasonable to suggest that even our sometimes dysfunctional family of lawmakers can agree on regulations that will keep us all safer without trampling on the Second Amendment.
Yes, criminals often acquire their guns illegally. But when a gun is recovered from a crime, knowing something about where it came from can help law enforcement devise better ways to keep guns out criminal hands.
And many illegal buyers, including the man accused of shooting to death two Westerville police officers on Feb. 10, get their guns by paying a “straw buyer” — someone not prohibited from buying a gun — to buy for them. Registration would make it easier to hold straw buyers accountable when their actions lead to a violent crime. More important, it might discourage anyone from the criminal act of putting a gun into the hands of someone who has been officially judged too dangerous to have one.
The Parkland massacre has ignited a seemingly stronger demand for change than all the mass shootings that came before it. Many concluded that, when the Sandy Hook killings of 20 young children — 6- and 7-year-olds — didn’t create the political will to defy the National Rifle Association’s stranglehold on the nation’s gun laws, nothing would.
But the mobilization of teenagers across the country, led by those in Florida who experienced the latest school shooting firsthand, speaks to the future. In central Ohio, students at Grove City, Upper Arlington and Dublin high schools were among those staging 17-minute walkouts on Wednesday in recognition of those killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
America’s unacceptable gun violence goes far beyond school shootings. But if that uniquely horrific phenomenon finally inspires some resistance to business as usual, more-reasoned gun laws would be an appropriate tribute to innocent lives lost.