Republican governor wants stricter gun laws

Mass shooting prompts calls for change in Ohio

As lawmakers across the country spar over how to prevent mass shootings, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced proposals on Tuesday to combat gun violence. The proposals come two days after an attack that killed nine people in Dayton, Ohio, and shocked a country grieving another massacre in El Paso, Texas.

The Republican leader called on the state legislature to increase gun background checks and pass a law on “safety protection orders” allowing the court-ordered removal of guns from people deemed a danger to themselves or others.

DeWine also urged improvements to the state’s mental health resources and stricter penalties for the illegal purchase and possession of firearms, saying that many of his recommendations were already in the works but have taken on new urgency in the wake of the tragedy that struck Dayton’s historic Oregon District early Sunday morning.

“Do something!” a woman shouted as DeWine prepared to speak from the lectern, echoing the frustrated chants that drowned out the governor’s remarks at a Sunday vigil.

The chanters were “absolutely right,” DeWine said Tuesday. “We must do something. And that is exactly what we are going to do.”

Under the safety protection orders DeWine outlined, a person’s firearms would be taken away if a judge finds clear and convincing evidence they pose a threat — for example, because of suicide plans, mental health issues, substance abuse or “violent tendencies.” The orders, the governor said, will allow people who notify law enforcement about loved ones to get them quick help.

DeWine is also asking lawmakers to pass a law requiring background checks for all firearm sales in the state, with exceptions for some cases such as gifts between family members. And he proposed stiffening the punishments for people who violate existing gun ownership restrictions — for example, felons with firearms and people who illegally buy guns for others.

Connor Betts, identified by police as the gunman in the Dayton shooting, bought his gun legally, according to Dayton police. Authorities say he fired at least 41 rounds from a pistol modelled on the AR-15, which Betts modified with a brace to be shouldered in the style of a rifle.

While some mourning Betts’s victims — including Dayton’s police chief — have questioned citizens’ access to such high-powered weapons in the wake of the shooting, others have focused on Betts’s troubled history. Despite his minimal adult criminal record, the 24-year-old struggled with mental health issues and was once caught compiling a “hit list” of people he wanted to harm or kill, friends and classmates told The Washington Post.

DeWine also emphasized the need for better mental health resources in his remarks Tuesday, echoing other Republican leaders’ responses to mass shootings. President Donald Trump has emphasized combating mental illness and called for “strong background checks.” Democratic leaders have advocated expanded background checks as well as new restrictions on the kinds of guns civilians can own, challenging Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to call lawmakers to Congress for an emergency session and pass more stringent gun-control laws after the weekend’s shootings.

Asked about Betts’s ability to kill with a powerful weapon and magazines holding up to 100 rounds, DeWine said some issues would have to be dealt with at the federal level. He said he’s focusing on proposals that he believes can pass in Ohio, adding that state leaders have been talking with “the Second Amendment community” to get buy-in from guns rights proponents.

The Supreme Court is currently weighing whether to go forward with a Second Amendment showdown for the first time in a decade.

The justices in January said they would hear a challenge to New York City rules that sharply limited where licensed handguns could be taken while locked and unloaded.

The court could say this month what it will do with the case. Congress has passed only incremental gun legislation despite heavy

WE MUST DO SOMETHING. AND THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT WE ARE GOING

TO DO.

public support for some measures such as universal background checks.

A decision by the Supreme Court to forge ahead with the New York case would mean a ruling next year in the heat of the presidential campaign.

Trump is planning to visit El Paso and Dayton on Wednesday, appearances that will not be universally welcome as the two cities grieve.

Several Democratic officials have urged Trump not to visit El Paso, a city of about 683,000 with a largely Latino population.

And on Tuesday afternoon, Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, a Democrat, encouraged people unhappy over Trump’s upcoming visit to the city of about 140,000 to protest.