Oregon and Ohio Approve Anti-Gun Ballot Measures Ahead of 2020 Elections
October 6, 2019 in News by RBN Staff
source: www.gunpowdermagazine.com
by: Robert Davis
Voters in both Oregon and Ohio will be faced with a slew of anti-gun ballot measures during the 2020 election season.
Ohio
In Ohio, voters will see an indirect initiated state statute that would require an unlicensed person wishing to sell or transfer a firearm to another person to conduct the transfer through a licensed gun dealer running a background check.
There are a few ways of getting around this requirement, according the bill’s text, including transferring weapons as a bona fide gift, transfers that prevent a death or suicide, or giving your weapon to a licensed gunsmith for repairs.
The measure is supported by Ohioans for Gun Safety, a left-wing organization that also supports the state’s attempts to pass a red flag law bill and has lobbied against the constitutional carry bill currently being considered the Buckeye State’s legislature. Ohioans For Gun Safety began circulating a petition to put the measure on the ballot shortly after the recent Dayton shooting.
Ohio’s governor, Mike DeWine, told Fox News the state is crafting its new gun control legislation with the help of gun rights supporters in order to respect due process. But many of the state’s ideas, including this ballot measure, would create a path toward a gun registration system, according to real gun rights organizations.
“Background checks are gun registration,” Ryan Flugaur, senior political director at the National association for Gun Rights, told Gunpowder Magazine. “How disappointing that so many Ohio state and federal officials want to register people’s firearms at the same time they’re pushing ‘red flag’ gun confiscation legislation.”
The Buckeye Firearms Association also pushed back against the governor’s support for universal background checks by arguing that the system would not have stopped the Dayton shooter and doesn’t have the teeth to stop any other shootings.
