Why is ‘stand your ground’ necessary?

The numbers are staggering.

In 2017, the most recent year for which we have complete data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 39,773 people died in the United States in gun-related incidents. It was the most in the U.S. since at least 1968, according to the Pew Research Center.

In Ohio, there were 1,589 gun deaths in 2017, the most since 1999.

After several mass shootings last year, then-Ohio Gov. John Kasich introduced legislation to reduce gun violence, but it didn’t make it out of legislative committees.

But after an Aug. 4 shooting this year in Dayton, where a gunman killed nine in 32 seconds — only hours after 22 were killed and 24 injured in shooting at an El Paso, Texas, Walmart — Kasich’s successor, Republican Mike DeWine, also was forced to confront the issue.

Perhaps prodded by a crowd at a prayer vigil in the days after the shooting chanting for him to “do something,” DeWine actually did do something. Or at least he took the first steps toward doing something, showing an admirable willingness to follow Kasich’s example and buck the pro-gun elements of his own party to advance public safety.

“I have an obligation to do this,” he said in late August of his original proposal, recently modified to hold gun sellers more accountable for private sales and increase “pinkslip” committals of people into mandatory inpatient treatment for mental health and addiction issues.

“Look, you run for governor because you want to make things happen, change things. ... This is an opportunity ... for us to do things that should be done.”

Unfortunately, DeWine wasn’t the only one who saw an opportunity.

Late last month, state Rep. Candice Keller, R-Middletown, reintroduced a “stand your ground” bill, which would allow a person to use deadly force without having to retreat, even in public, if that person felt threatened. Kasich last year vetoed a watereddown version of a similar bill that didn’t include stand-yourground language, although both chambers overrode that veto.

But that single bite of the apple wasn’t enough for the elected officials who control the levers of power in the Ohio General Assembly, and now they are back for the rest.

As of Friday, Keller’s “stand your ground” bill had 24 sponsors, all Republicans, in the House. With DeWine’s “STRONG Ohio” bill starting in the Senate, where it is expected to be better received than in the House, the possibility of a compromise measure that includes “stand your ground” cannot be ruled out.

That would be a mistake. We would love for sponsors to provide real examples of where people have been harmed by a fear of defending themselves or prosecuted for doing so under current law. Although DeWine bowed to political reality and scaled back the scope of his proposal, it still represents a good first step forward in addressing gun violence. Weighing it down with a concession to the pro-gun lobby is not only unnecessary, it is unseemly.

According to state Sen. Matt Dolan, R-Chagrin Falls, a sponsor of DeWine’s proposal, the “stand your ground” bill is “tone deaf to the feelings that are out there.”

DeWine, who has indicated he wants his bill passed as is without adding “stand your ground,” clearly is listening to his constituents.

Can the same be said of the General Assembly?