Supporting gun lobby carries no risk in General Assembly

IThomas Suddes

f you’re a General Assembly member, siding with the gun lobby is a no-risk decision. And were a motto posted in Ohio’s House and state Senate, it’d read, “Take No Risks.”

Consider the 2006 law, passed over GOP then-gov. Bob Taft’s veto, House Bill 347, that forbids cities and villages to regulate firearms — no matter what their residents want. That broke the “home rule” promises of the Ohio Constitution.

Among those overriding Taft’s veto and their public payroll titles today: Republican Lt. Gov. Jon Husted; Republican State Auditor Keith Faber; Senate Democratic leader Kenny Yuko of Richmond Heights; Republican Sens. Matt Dolan of Chagrin Falls, Tim Schaffer of Lancaster and Joe Uecker of suburban Cincinnati (who just announced he’s taking an ODOT job); Republican Reps. Scott Oelslager of Canton, Thomas Patton of Strongsville and William Seitz of suburban Cincinnati; Industrial Commission chair Jim Hughes and Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan of Urbana.

In 2008, legislators passed and Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland signed Senate Bill 184, a “castle doctrine” law. According to the Buckeye Firearms Association, SB 184 means “it will (now) be assumed that anyone who kills or injures an intruder (into an occupied home or car) will have acted in self-defense.” Strickland was considered firearmsfriendly, but he failed to win a second term.

“The problem is defense lawyers will pick this up and use it to defend their clients who really aren’t law-abiding citizens,” said John Murphy, then of the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association, the Plain Dealer reported. “It could be someone was dealing drugs in their house and something goes bad and so they shoot them. This is who this law will apply to.”

The stated “issue” (lawabiding Ohioans going to jail for shooting intruders) was bogus. But that’s how lobbies work: If there’s no “problem,” there’s no “issue” — and no dues money. (Coincidentally, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that “National Rifle Association Chief Executive Wayne Lapierre was in discussions to have the group’s then-outside advertising agency help him buy a Dallas mansion last year for more than $5 million, but the deal fell through.”)

Among those who backed the castle doctrine bill and their public payroll titles today: Lt. Gov. Husted; Auditor Faber; Senate Democratic leader Yuko; GOP Sens. Dolan of Chagrin Falls, Jay Hottinger of Newark, Matt Huffman of Lima, Lancaster’s Schaffer, Kirk Schuring of Canton; Democratic Sen. Teresa Fedor of Toledo; GOP Reps. Oelslager, Patton and Seitz; Wellston Republican John Carey, director of Dewine’s Office of Appalachian Ohio; State Higher Education Chancellor Randy Gardner, a Bowling Green Republican; the Industrial Commission’s Hughes; Cuyahoga County council member Dale Miller, a Democrat; and U.S. Rep. Steve Stivers, an Upper Arlington Republican.

In 2011 legislators passed Senate Bill 17, sponsored by Lancaster Republican Shaffer, to let people with concealed carry permits bring firearms into bars. (What could possibly go wrong?) Republican Gov. John R. Kasich signed it. “Gov. Kasich campaigned as a strong pro-gun candidate. Today he took the first step to prove his doubters wrong,” the Buckeye Firearms Association said.

But the doubters were on to something: After a mass murderer killed 58 people in 2017 in Las Vegas, Kasich embraced gun controls. Yet the firearms lobby scares legislators so badly that though they passed almost everything else Kasich demanded, they spurned his gun proposals.

Among those General Assembly members voting “yes” to guns in bars and their public payroll titles today: Auditor Faber; Republican Secretary of State Frank Larose; Senate President Larry Obhof, a Medina Republican; GOP Sens. Andrew Brenner of Powell, Bob Hackett of London, Newark’s Hottinger, Lima’s Matt Huffman, Peggy Lehner of Kettering, Kristina Roegner of Hudson, Lancaster’s Schaffer; GOP Reps. Jim Butler of Oakwood, Kris Jordan of Ostrander, Gayle Manning of North Ridgeville, Canton’s Oelslager, Strongsville’s Patton, Cincinnati’s Seitz; Carey of the Appalachian Ohio office; Higher Education chancellor Gardner; Industrial Commission chair Hughes; Industrial Commission member Karen Gillmor and U.S. Rep. Troy Balderson, a Zanesville Republican.

No Statehouse rhetoric can overcome facts: Gun crime plagues Ohio. It kills Ohioans, like the nine men and women murdered in Dayton’s Oregon District. Ohio’s General Assembly may talk a good game. But the record shows that it really doesn’t care.

Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University. tsuddes@gmail.com