Ohio Gov. Mike Dewine Unveils Proposals on Gun Violence, Mental Health

Facing pressure to take action after the latest mass shooting in the U.S., Ohio’s Republican governor urged the GOP-led state Legislature Tuesday to pass laws requiring background checks for nearly all gun sales and allowing courts to restrict firearms access for people perceived as threats.

Gov. Mike DeWine said Ohio needs to do more while balancing people’s rights to own firearms and have due process during a press conference Tuesday. He outlined a series of legislative actions he wants the Legislature to take up to address mental health and gun violence.

“We can come together to do these things to save lives,” DeWine said.

Protesters once again shouted “do something” — a refrain chanted during Sunday’s vigil honoring the victims — at DeWine at the start of his Tuesday announcement. One person yelled “shame on you” at DeWine while he was answering questions.

His calls for action could be an uphill battle for the Legislature, which has given little consideration this session to those and other gun-safety measures already introduced by Democrats. DeWine’s Republican predecessor, John Kasich, also unsuccessfully pushed for a so-called red flag law on restricting firearms for people considered threats.

DeWine said he has talked with legislative leaders and believes his proposals can pass.

Police say there was nothing in the Dayton shooter’s background to prevent him from buying the firearm used.

The shooting outside a strip of nightclubs early Sunday and another mass shooting in El Paso, Texas , during the past weekend left a combined total of 31 people dead and more than 50 injured in less than 24 hours.

Police have said 24-year-old Connor Betts was wearing a mask and body armor when he opened fire with an AR-15 style gun. If all of the magazines he had with him were full, which hasn’t been confirmed, he would have had a maximum of 250 rounds, said Police Chief Richard Biehl.

“To have that level of weaponry in a civilian environment is problematic,” Biehl added.

Betts had no apparent criminal record as an adult and police said there was nothing that would have prevented him from buying a gun. Ohio law bars anyone convicted of a felony as an adult, or convicted of a juvenile charge that would have been a felony if they were 18 or older, from buying firearms.

Two former classmates told The Associated Press that Betts was suspended during their junior year at Bellbrook High School after a hit list was found scrawled in a school bathroom. That followed an earlier suspension after Betts came to school with a list of female students he wanted to sexually assault, according to the two classmates, a man and a woman who are both now 24 and spoke on condition of anonymity out of concern they might face harassment.

Others remembered how he tried to intimidate classmates.

“It’s baffling and horrible that somebody who’s been talking for 10 years about wanting to shoot people could easily, so easily, get access to a military grade weapon and that much ammo,” said Hannah Shows, a former high classmate who remembered seeing Betts look at people and imitate shooting at them.

“He was someone who enjoyed making people afraid,” she said.

Former Bellbrook High School classmate Addison Brickler rode the bus with Betts and said he taunted her regularly.

“He was the bully,” Brickler told the AP. “He used to make fun of me on the bus, talk about my weight, make me feel bad about myself. He would laugh and think it was funny, joke about it. We thought it was a normal thing.”

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