Proposed gun laws could expand access

Ohio lawmakers show little appetite for restricting access.

Many Ohioans have easy access to firearms and accessories and legislation is in the works that could expand that access still further.

While Ohio political leaders responded Sunday to the Dayton shooting which killed nine victims and injured 26, lawmakers have shown little appetite for restricting access to powerful weapons.

A dozen firearms bills are pending in the Ohio General Assembly — evenly split between expanding gun rights and restricting them, according to the Buckeye Firearms Association, a progun group.

One bill calls for allowing people to carry concealed weapons without permits, background checks or training.

In recent weeks, possible language to require background checks for most gun sales has moved closer to a place on a 2020 ballot, as Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said last month that an early round of petition signatures was certified.

Yost said last month that he approved Ohioans For Gun Safety’s proposed summary ballot proposal language as “a fair and truthful representation of the proposed law.” Yost did not endorse the measure; he only approved the language as accurate.

County elections officials also certified that the organizing group for the measure collected more than the 1,000 valid petition signatures, Yost’s office has said.

Gov. Mike DeWine, who was endorsed by the National Rifle Association in the 2018 governor’s race, has said he supports a “Red Flag Law” for Ohio. Red flag laws, also known as extreme protection orders, allow police or close family members to get a court order to remove firearms from someone who appears to be a danger to themselves or others.

Ohioans for Gun Safety is collecting signatures for a proposed law that would mandate background checks on nearly all gun sales, including those between private parties. The group needs to gather 132,887 valid signatures from registered voters to present the citizen-initiated statute to the Ohio General Assembly.

If lawmakers decline to adopt the measure, the group then must collect another 132,887 signatures to put the issue on the statewide ballot.

Some key takeaways from recent Dayton Daily News coverage of Ohio gun laws has found that teachers in many schools are armed. In 2017, the Dayton Daily News reported that 32 teachers and staff at Mad River Local Schools are part of such a program to allow some teachers to have firearms in school.

The newspaper also found that people can take their guns to work A state law that went into effect in 2017 prohibits companies from banning handguns on company property, meaning concealed carry permit holders can keep guns in their locked car.

Also, weapons sometimes called “assault rifles” can be bought without a background check of the buyer. The Parkland, Fla. shooter legally purchased the AR-15 — often referred to as an “assault rifle” — after passing a background check despite having mental health issues.

Since 2015, 6,784 people died by firearm, including 4,158 suicides, according to the Ohio Department of Health. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s most recent data, for the year 2017, there were 1,589 deaths due to firearms in Ohio that year.

Of that number, 918 were deemed suicides and 621 were homicides.

Joe Eaton, a Springboro resident and a leader of the Buckeye Firearms Association, said these killings are generally perpetrated by someone one who “doesn’t share the same mental faculties that the rest of us share.”

“That is something we have to look to address,” Eaton said Sunday.

There are already laws that take mental health into account, and Eaton cautioned against more. If Ohio residents are adjudicated as “mentally defective, then firearms are off limits to you,” he said.

“It’s hard to get behind any new additions to the law if we’re not enforcing laws already on the books,” Eaton said.

Ohio R.C. 5122.10 allows certain physicians, psychiatrists, clinical psychiatric nurses, police and parole officers, sheriff ’s deputies and others to transport someone to a hospital for psychological evaluation.

The law allows those in authority to transport people to hospitals if they are deemed at “a substantial risk of physical harm to one’s self or others if allowed to remain at liberty,” the law on emergency hospitalizations says.

“So many people are focused on just removing firearms from what could be lawful owners,” Eaton said. “Ohio law is already much better than that. It allows a truly dangerous person to themselves or others to be removed from any type of way of committing violence.”

“It is inarguable fact that 99.9 percent of the gun owners in the United States are not committing these crimes,” Eaton added.

At the request of then-Attorney General Mike DeWine, Ohio State University researchers tapped state statistics from the Bureau of Criminal Investigation database and the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction for 1974 to 2010.

The study found that 230,288 people — 2.62 percent of state residents — were charged with violent felony offenses in Ohio in that time range.

“It is inarguably a fact that 99.9 percent of gun owners in the United States are not committing these crimes,” Eaton said. “Generally, the ones that are committing these crimes are already criminals.”