Ohio's Republican Gov. John Kasich is urging the thousands of gun control supporters who marched in Columbus, Washington and several other cities last weekend to “keep it up.”
Kasich made his comments Sunday on CNN’s "State of the Union," where he said those who want to toughen gun restrictions can see incremental change if they keep pressure on lawmakers.
“If they do not bring about change, I think people should be absolutely held accountable at the ballot box,” Kasich said.
Estimates say as many as 7,000 people marched in Columbus on Saturday. Participants gathered near COSI and ended their march outside the Statehouse.
The CNN comments continue Kasich’s about-face on gun policy. For most of his time in office, he touted his support of the Second Amendment. As governor, he’s signed every pro-gun bill that’s come before him.
He’s taken a different tone in the wake of the Parkland, Florida school shooting that left 17 people dead. He deleted a section of pro-Second Amendment language from his campaign website. Kasich also asked a bipartisan task force he’d formed after last year’s massacre at a Las Vegas concert to accelerate its work.
That group recommended several modest changes to state gun laws, including a ban on the devices known as bump stocks, and a “red flag” law that would make it easier for authorities to seize the guns of people deemed at risk of committing domestic violence.
