Lame duck session is in full swing at the Ohio General Assembly.
Bills are flying in and out of committee rooms and legislative chambers.
Gun bills, too – but not in a good way.
Earlier this week, Chris was in the Ohio Senate for the hearing on Matt Dolan’s gun control bill, Senate Bill 357 – bad stuff!
But that’s the Ohio Senate.
What are House Republicans up to when it comes to gun rights?
Well, they are pushing House Bill 383, from Representative Kyle Koehler. And it’s not very good.
I was at the Statehouse today for the House Government Oversight committee where this bill was up for a hearing.
To summarize, House Bill 383 increases the penalties for having a firearm while under a weapons disability – but there is more to it than meets the eye.
Koehler and House Republicans claim that Ohio has an epidemic of violent felons that keep getting back onto the streets to reoffend later.
But the fundamental question they should be asking is, why are they on the streets and not locked up like they should be?
You see, they fail to recognize that the reason many violent felons are on the streets of Ohio cities and not locked up is due to the failure of the justice system to properly prosecute them.
Instead of doing the hard work of keeping felons off the streets in the first place, where do the politicians point fingers? The guns.
House Republicans are using the same arguments for this bill that Matt Dolan is using for Red Flag laws – ‘get guns away from people because they MIGHT commit a crime in the future’!
Increasing penalties for the violent crimes that folks actually commit would be a good start, but Kylie Koehler isn’t that smart.
He’d rather further criminalize inanimate objects that are incapable of anything on their own.
In reality, this bill will NOT solve the violence problems that are plaguing Ohio.
Instead, they should be doing their jobs and passing bills that will ACTUALLY curb violent crime like enhancing our very lacking Stand-Your-Ground law.
We will have more information for you on this bill and a link to take action very soon!
For Freedom,
Rob Knisley, Political Director
Ohio Gun Owners