6 New Gun Regulation Proposals Unveiled By Governor Kasich

COLUMBUS, OH — Governor John Kasich is putting his money where his mouth is. In the wake of the Parkland, Florida shooting that left 17 people dead, the term-limited Republican governor said he wanted more regulations on firearms. On Thursday, he unveiled a series of proposals to make his words into action.

"We've drafted some of this into bill form," Kasich said at a press conference announcing the proposals. "I, of course, will be engaged with the leaders, but this will be the legislature's effort. I don't intend to browbeat them."

The proposals actually originated in November 2017, when Kasich pulled together a group of advisers to work on new, more stringent gun regulations. The proposals brought forth by Kasich were unanimously agreed upon by this group.

The proposed regulations include: new legislation to keep firearms out of the hands of "dangerous" people; an update to legislation that would prohibit domestic violence offenders from obtaining firearms; closing gaps in the background check system; banning the sale of armor-piercing ammunition; enacting bans against bump stocks and bringing Ohio law up-to-date to mirror federal law; and prohibiting so-called "Strawman" purchases.

The Ohioans For Concealed Carry, a grassroots gun-activists group, condemned the proposals as little more than a political stunt.

"This is not going to help anything. This is political theater for him. He continues to mindlessly run for president," said Doug Deeken, a member of the OCC's Board of Directors. "This is just pure political posturing. He knows he can’t get to the right of Donald Trump on guns, so he's going to the left."

Deeken was confident that the Ohio legislature would let the proposals "go in one ear and out the other."

Still, even with a divided reaction and condemnation from gun-activists, let's look at what each of these proposals could mean.

Legislation to keep firearms out of the hands of "dangerous" people — This proposal would create a new gun violence protection order (GVPO). This type of legislation allows certain people, as defined by law enforcement or someone's family, to petition a court to force someone to give up their firearms temporarily. For the court to grant this request, a "clear and convincing" standard of evidence that this person is a danger to themselves or others would need to be met. Ohio State Highway Patrol would serve as custodians of all relinquished firearms, if a local law enforcement agency doesn't want to take custody of the weapons.

Keep firearms away from domestic violence offenders, other prohibited people — This would be an update of state law. Anyone convicted of a domestic violence crime, or subject of a domestic violence protection order, would be barred from buying or having a firearm.

Closing gaps in the background check system — This proposal would be targeted primarily at clerks of court and officials are responsible for reporting conviction and sentencing records, as well as criminal and mental health records. Kasich's group said this group can sometimes go weeks, or even months, without reporting a single record and Ohio law has no mechanism to force compliance. This would change that and force everyone to report in a timely manner.

Strengthen the prohibition against "Strawman" purchases — This is another proposal that would update Ohio law to bring it into line with federal policty. Strawman purchases are when someone who can legally buy a gun purchases a firearm as a gift for someone else, someone who is barred from owning a gun. Currently, Ohio law only prohibits these types of purchases if the original buyer knew their gift recipient isn't supposed to have a gun. There's no prohibition on these types of gun sales.

Banning the sale of armor-piercing ammunition — This one is pretty straight-forward. Ohio law doesn't currently ban the sale of this type of ammunition and Kasich's group noted that it's a threat to the state's law enforcement.

Enact prohibitions against bump stocks, other accessories — This proposal stems from a recent comment from President Donald Trump when he told the ATF to review whether "bump stocks" and other firearm accessories that can convert semi-automatic weapons into fully automatic weapons, should be regulated at the federal level. "Ohio law should be changed to automatically incorporate into our laws any such future federal regulations," Kasich's group said.

Some may ask why state-level legislation would be needed if a certain type of ammunition is already banned at the federal level. Kasich's group notes that in some cases, a federal agency may not wish to pursue legal action against a suspect, but a state or local agency might. These proposals would give local law enforcement the legal tools they would need to pursue a case.

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