COLUMBUS, Ohio — Firearms and gun violence continue to be a pressing topic at the Ohio Statehouse. In the past year, lawmakers have introduced various legislation regarding Second Amendment rights and even barriers that could be enforced. On Tuesday, the United States Surgeon General declared guns as a public health crisis. Now, locally, it leads to whether this impacts Ohio.

What You Need To Know

  • Gun violence has been declared a public health crisis on the federal level 

  • Ohio lawmakers are mixed on what to think about the federal decision 

  • The topic of guns and the Second Amendment continues to be a very long discussion in the Buckeye State 

 

Several bills are planned to be discussed by the full House and Senate on Wednesday this week. Lawmakers are trying to pass bills ahead of their summer break which begins next week, and then they will be off for several weeks. The bills that will head to the floor do not contain any regarding gun violence and Second Amendment rights. That could be due to the political makeup of Ohio's state legislature being mainly Republican. 

"You know, when they start to make political decisions like this, as they did during COVID, what's next?" said State Rep. Jon Cross, R-Findlay. "And, so you really got to keep the debate in the legislative branch. I think once again, the executive branch at the federal level is going too far, whether it's executive decisions or bureaucrats making executive decisions, it's bypassing the will of the people. That's why it's so important to keep it in a legislative branch format." 

"We've had a lot of discussion," said State Rep. Jason Stephens, Speaker of the House. "You know, over the years about gun control, or gun violence and those sort of things. But, there's also in Ohio, in different parts of Ohio, it's a very different environment, if you will." 

The move to declare gun violence a public health crisis is familiar to Democrats at the Statehouse. Back in February, they introduced a bill that would try do it at a similar way at the state level. While, that did not gain any traction from every lawmaker in each chamber it did keep the conversation ongoing. Lawmakers are still discussing strategies to reduce gun violence, and come up with solutions to crime. 

"We need to realize that this has become a problem," said State Rep. Daniel Troy, D-Willowick."We don't see this problem to this degree in other nations. And, why is that happening? Because in other nations there is fairly tight control of the access to firearms." 

"The vast majority of Ohioans understand that we need to have some common sense approach to keeping guns out of the hands of individuals who shouldn't have them and dangerous individuals," said State Rep. Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington. 

The House Democrats introduced a package of bills a few months ago, and it calls for several protections dealing with firearms. Including, calling for universal background checks for gun owners to obtain a permit in order to carry a concealed weapon. The same package of bills also could create a task force that could look at gun violence on the local level.

None of those bills though has advanced through both chambers of the Statehouse.

Meanwhile, there’s a Republican-sponsored bill that would relieve law enforcement from enforcing federal gun laws that go against the constitutional right to bear arms.