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Gov. John Kasich speaks at a campaign event in New Hampshire in 2016. (provided via Gage Skidmore)

How state and national lawmakers are embracing gun control

After a shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, killed 17 people on Feb. 14, the gun control conversation was sparked at a state and national level. 

A bipartisan panel assembled by Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich proposed six gun violence policy recommendations Thursday, including tightening background checks for gun buyers. 

Kasich hopes the recommendations pass as a package, according to cleveland.com. They include policy proposals such as allowing friends and family members to petition a court to remove firearms from people who pose a threat to themselves or others. That specific law has passed in several states. 

The other policy changes include putting federal restrictions into state law. For example, one policy change proposes mirroring federal law that prohibits “anyone convicted of a domestic violence crime or subject to a domestic violence protection order from buying or owning a firearm,” cleveland.com reported. 

Additional proposed changes include that courts submit conviction information to the state’s background check database in a timely manner, banning purchases of firearms for third parties, updating Ohio law to ban body armor-piercing bullets and banning bump stocks if federal officials do the same. 

President Donald Trump shocked Republicans on Wednesday by seemingly embracing gun control and urging lawmakers “to resurrect gun safety legislation that has been opposed for years by the powerful National Rifle Association and the vast majority of his party,” according to The New York Times. 

In a live TV interview, Trump called for expanding background checks to weapons purchased at gun shows and on the internet, keeping guns from mentally ill people, securing schools, restricting gun sales from some young adults and starting a conversation about an assault weapons ban.

Additionally, several major companies, including Dick’s Sporting Goods and Walmart, made changes to their gun sale policies, according to a previous Post report. 

"The hunt business is an important part of the business, no doubt about it. And we know there will be some backlash," Dick’s CEO Edward Stack said on CNN’s New Day.

@maddiecapron

mc055914@ohio.edu

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