Ohio gun groups have weighed in on the glut of new gun control legislation that has been proliferating in the Statehouse since the tragic mass shooting in Dayton earlier this month.
House Democrats have introduced five new gun bills and Senate Democrats have introduced three. In the Senate, Democrats have the help of two Republicans, State Sens. Peggy Lehner (R-Kettering) and Stephanie Kunze (R-Hilliard). And this morning Gov. DeWine added some new details to his plan to reduce gun violence.
The new bills includes House Bills 315, 316, 317, 319 and 320 along with Senate Bills 182, 183 and 184.
Buckeye Firearms Association ran an article titled, “13 Anti-Liberty Bills Introduced by Ohio lawmakers.”
“We see lawmakers introduce bills every legislative session that promise to reduce violence, but actually do little more than further infringe on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens with zero real-world benefits,” Executive Director Dean Rieck writes in the article.
“This session is no different,” he continued. “We’re only about one-fourth into the 2-year-long 133rd General Assembly and there are already 13 bills threatening our liberty. Needless to say, Buckeye Firearms Association opposes all of these bills.”
In another post they say, “Buckeye Firearms Association agrees that the background check system is broken and supports the concept of enforcing current law rather than passing new laws for background checks.” Buckeye believes Governor Mike DeWine’s proposal will, “…enable law enforcement agencies to comply with existing reporting requirements and streamline the process both for adding criminal records to the background check database and for quickly removing people who are not prohibited.”
Ohioans for Concealed Carry spokesman Philip Mulivor wrote an article for PJ Media about red flag laws, a concept essentially identical to the DeWine’s “Safety Protection Orders.”
Mulivor ends the article with this statement:
Red-flag laws fly under our constitutional radar and rely on the public’s willingness to sacrifice essential liberty for a tiny gain in safety (Benjamin Franklin cautioned against this folly in 1775). Seventeen states already have enacted red-flag laws, and bills are on the move in at least six more states. In all cases, essential due process is a casualty.”
The group also shared an example of red lag laws gone wrong. “Yet another way Red Flag laws can go badly. Due process anyone? Innocent until proven guilty? Are not those the cornerstones of the American justice system?” the group wrote in a Facebook post about a Florida man who lost his Second Amendment rights.
Never one to mince words, Chris Dorr, director of Ohio Gun Owners, was at the Statehouse Wednesday to cover the unveiling of the governor’s plan. Dorr was told that it was a press-only event and was prohibited from attending, but Buckeye Firearms had a representative in the room. Dorr, who listened at a distance, believes Gov. DeWine, Lt. Gov. Husted, and Jim Irvine of Buckeye Firearms appeared to unveil what Dorr calls “the federalization of Ohio’s database system.”
Dorr says warrants, not convictions, will be entered into Ohio’s Law Enforcement Automated Data (LEAD) system and linked up with the federal background check system.
“The NCIC [National Crime Information Center] system is the federal gun owner database system that the day gun confiscation knocks on our doors, that is the system that they will use against us. It is a federal database of guns and gun owners,” Dorr said. He also noted that nearly all the mass shooters passed their background checks if they purchased their firearms legally.
“We won’t know conclusively until we see the language [whether it is the federalization of Ohio’s database system],” Dorr conceded. However, he did tell The Ohio Star that it was “essentially” the intent of what he heard the DeWine administration explaining to the press.
Dorr intends to carry the fight to the steps of the Statehouse next month. He’s scheduled a rally against gun control on September 14.
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Background Photo “Ohio Statehouse” by Alexander Smith. CC BY-SA 3.0.
