Background check proposal clears hurdle

A proposal that would expand background checks in Ohio moved forward Friday after a setback last month.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost approved the language of an initiated statute from the group Ohioans for Gun Safety, which would effectively require background checks on all Ohio gun purchases.

“Without passing on the advisability of the approval or rejection of the measure ... I hereby certify that the summary is a fair and truthful statement of the proposed statute,” Yost said in a letter certifying the petition. He rejected the first submission from the group in June, saying the summary accompanying the proposal did not accurately reflect what the proposal would do.

The Ohio Ballot Board will meet Monday to determine whether the proposal contains only one law. Once the ballot board approves it, the group needs to collect 135,000 valid signatures of registered Ohio voters to send the proposal to the General Assembly. The legislature then has four months to deal with the proposal; however, it likely will let the proposal sit because Republicans in the legislature have recently pushed for progun rights legislation.

After that period, the petitioners can start a new, supplemental petition to get the proposed measure on the ballot. Another 135,000 valid signatures would be needed.

“We are optimistic as we move forward in this process to put background checks for gun safety before the state legislature and potentially on the ballot,” said Dennis Williard, a spokesman for Ohioans for Gun Safety. “This is an issue that the majority of Ohioans support, and we have built a grassroots movement by having hundreds of conversations with individuals and organizations over the past two years.”

The proposal, “An Act to Close Loopholes in Background Checks on Gun Sales,” states: “No person shall sell or transfer a firearm and no person shall purchase or receive a firearm” unless a firearms dealer is selling a gun, buying a gun or facilitating a purchase between two individuals who are not firearms dealers themselves.