Over the past few months, Ohio Governor Mike Dewine has been calling for Ohio lawmakers to pass gun control. Since the tragic 2019 mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio, DeWine has made gun control a major legislative priority.
However, the rest of the Ohio General Assembly does not see it that way and that angers DeWine. In the middle of the Wuhan virus pandemic, the Ohio governor has not shied from changing the discussion to one about gun control.
Earlier in October, DeWine declared that “We should all be sick and tired of picking up the newspaper and seeing the things that we see literally every single day — our fellow Ohioans injured or killed through senseless violence.” This comment came during a time when at least 42 people were shot in the span of a week and more than half died as a result of gun wounds.
Republican leadership has been correctly skeptical of DeWine’s calls for gun control. Ohio Speaker of the House Bob Cupp said that there are concerns about potential infringements on the Second Amendment if DeWine’s gun control proposals are implemented. Cupp is of the view that there isn’t enough time left in the current session of the Ohio General Assembly to give the gun control question a “great deal of study and balance” before implementing a potentially freedom-killing legislative act.
GOP Senate President Larry Obhof revealed that he’s open to gun control talks, while signaling that the Assembly has already tackled some bullet points on the governor’s wish list. A bill that passed in the Senate that would expand access to state psychiatric hospitals for mentally ill individuals is now pending in the House.
Ohio is decent as far as gun rights go. It currently enjoys a ranking of 23rd place for Best States for Gun Owners according to Guns & Ammo magazine. However, any kind of improvement that Ohio could make in its gun policies could go to waste if spineless Republicans such as Mike DeWine have their way.
Republicans must understand that gun control doesn’t work. In addition, conceding to the Left does not make them any less aggressive. If anything, when Republicans compromise they embolden the Left and make more radical gun grabs look reasonable.
The compromise game is something that Republicans should avoid like the plague.
