Arizona’s Republican Governor Doug Ducey recently signed a new law that stops any of his state authorities from enforcing federal gun grabs.
It’s part of a pattern:
Republican Governors doing their best to protect the Constitutional right to bear arms and protect yourself from violent criminals.
The latest is Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, who signed a “stand your ground” bill into law several months ago that goes into effect this week.
The law ensures that stopping criminals dead in their tracks doesn’t land you in jail.
Ohio’s New Stand Your Ground Law
The stand your ground law was passed in December as Senate Bill 175, and signed into law by DeWine in January. It became Ohio state law this Tuesday.
The specifics of the law are fairly straightforward: it gives you the right to defend yourself with deadly force if necessary in even more locations. This includes using a weapon to defend yourself in public if you are facing a life-threatening individual coming at you.
DeWine has previously sought to make background checks more stringent and put forward a bill to give criminals who do gun crimes longer jail sentences. Both bills were overlooked by his Republican state colleagues, but he nonetheless went forward with this law that Ohio Republicans have wanted for some time.
In announcing the new law, DeWine said that he’s got mixed feelings about stand your ground passing because he had hoped it would be coupled with more background check safety bills such as those he wanted included.
“I have always believed that it is vital that law-abiding citizens have the right to legally protect themselves when confronted with a life-threatening situation,” DeWine said.
“I am very disappointed, however, that the legislature did not include in this bill the essential provisions that I proposed to make it harder for dangerous criminals to illegally possess and use guns. Right now, the national and state background check systems are sometimes missing vital information – things such as convictions, active protection orders, and open warrants – that alert law enforcement if they’re dealing with a wanted or potentially dangerous individual.”
Dayton’s liberal Mayor Nan Whaley and many others have come out claiming DeWine’s bill is dangerous and will “make Ohio less safe for everyone.”
The dangerous "Stand Your Ground" bill that @MikeDeWine signed goes into effect tomorrow. It will make Ohio less safe for everyone, especially African Americans. This is the sort of legislation we get when we prioritize politics over people. https://t.co/6ey4KdyPhp
— Nan Whaley (@nanwhaley) April 5, 2021
Ohio’s Gun Violence
Gun violence is a problem across this country, the majority from unlicensed individuals who own illegal firearms. In shooting after shooting we’ve seen psychopaths and mass shooters gravitate towards gun free zones and places they don’t think people will be armed, while inner city neighborhoods get lit up every weekend by criminals and drug dealers sporting illegal weapons.
Democrats are working to give criminals lower sentences for gun violence in states like Ohio, so DeWine’s measure to get longer sentences for gun crime is actually a great idea, although his expansion of background checks is generally used to crack down on legal gun owners once Democrats are in charge.
In the summer of 2019, Ohioans called out for some solutions to gun violence in the state after 24-year-old Connor Betts gunned down 26 people outside a pub in Dayton, killing 9 and injuring 17 others.
But Democrats say that putting in place a stand your ground law won’t do anything to stop gun violence, and Ohio Senate Minority Leader Kenny Yuko says “This is not what people meant when they asked us to ‘do something’ last year after the deadly mass shooting in Dayton. This is a dangerous bill that will put Ohioans’ lives at risk.”
He’s right.
The bill is dangerous for criminals and mass shooters, and it’s going to put their lives at risk.
And that’s a good thing.
