Kasich orders gap closed in gun background checks

Ohio Gov. John Kasich is moving to close backgroundreporting gaps that could permit criminal suspects and mentally ill people to buy guns despite laws forbidding such sales.

A group Kasich appointed to dig into Ohio’s submission of information to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System used by federally licensed firearms dealers found several reporting flaws.

“There’s gaps in our system,” Kasich said. “Twenty percent of the time, there could be a blind sale ... we can make it less likely that dangerous people are able to purchase firearms.”

The governor on Monday signed an executive order requiring Ohio law enforcement agencies to immediately submit information to the state, which will then forward it to the FBI, on protective orders in domestic-violence and other cases and arrest warrants that have not yet been served on suspects.

Federal law prohibits the sale of guns to such people, but Ohio had not moved to require police to report such disqualifying factors to the FBI to block firearms sales.

The group also found that while those under felony indictment also are barred from buying guns, state law does not mandate such reporting to the gun background check system. Ohio also may be receiving duplicative or no reports from probate courts and mental health facilities about people judged mentally ill because of uncertain reporting requirements, its report noted.

The governor’s group, which he made permanent, will continue to work to find ways to close what he called “significant gaps.” Kasich said he likely will ask lawmakers to approve funding to help local clerks of courts and others acquire technology to more speedily upload records on criminal convictions to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation. Some courts have been tardy in sending convictions to the state.

FBI figures show there were 753,072 background checks on gun buyers in Ohio last year. Earlier estimates place the number of sales rejected, principally due to the would-be buyer being a convicted felon, at more than 7,500 annually. No checks are required in private sales.

Kasich also again called on his fellow Republicans in the GOP-controlled General Assembly to pass his long-stalled package of “commonsense” reforms to curb gun violence, a “red flag” law to allow judges to order guns removed from those at risk of harming themselves or others and other moves.

“This would go a long, long way to making our state safer,” Kasich said. “These are going to become law. I don’t know when, but pressure is going to continue to mount” as mass shootings continue to occur, he said.

Some Republicans have balked in an election year to altering Ohio’s gun laws, prompting the governor to say it was driving him “crazy.”

“The lame duck (session after the election) would be a good time to pass something responsible and responsive,” said Kasich, who maintains his proposals respect Second Amendment rights to gun ownership. “The Second Amendment doesn’t say that you should give a gun to somebody who is emotionally unstable and poses a threat to themselves and their family.”