Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine says he expects to share the language of a gun-reform package with state lawmakers within days. The proposal would include measures the governor first discussed in the wake of the August 4 mass shooting in Dayton.
DeWine touted his proposal at a Sinclair Community College event Thursday, telling hundreds of advocates gathered for a pediatric mental health conference the state has some of the highest rates of childhood trauma in the nation, much of it, he says, related to opioid addiction, poverty and abuse, and Ohio communities need more resources to help schools reach affected children early in life.
DeWine says his 17-point gun proposal would expand background checks and help take guns away from people who need mental health assistance.
"It will allow families, it will allow the police, when there is this ticking timebomb that is going to go off and the person is going to hurt themselves or they're going to hurt someone else and the family knows it and everybody knows it," he says, "we want to give them an avenue to separate that individual from their guns and, at the same time though, try to get them the help that they need."
DeWine’s office chose Dayton for the conference after the city’s Oregon District mass shooting that killed nine people and injured roughly three dozen others. Law enforcement investigators say the 24-year-old shooter had a history of threatening behavior and expressing violent ideologies before the massacre.
Read more about DeWine's proposal at the Statehouse News Bureau.
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