Kasich limits gun law tweaks to what Ohio's right-wing legislature might approve

After getting clobbered running for president in 2016, soon-to-be former Ohio Gov. John Kasich has built a reputation with national media on his claim that he has the right stuff to bring people together on one big issue after another.

Gov. John Kasich seated next to then
Senate President Tom Niehaus, one of the
eight members of his gun policy group.

Kasich has tried and failed on too many occasions to demonstrate his so-called healing powers when it comes to thorny issues that divide the nation, and its bellwether swing-state Ohio. His most recent fizzle comes with a weak brew of gun law tweaks he said might have any chance of passing the Buckeye State's very right-wing, pro-gun legislature.

By limiting his leadership to what he thinks Ohio's GOP-dominated legislature might think of approving, if they think that any of the ideas his nearly all-Republican sounding group came up with, he's shown again that when the going gets tough, the great reformer retreats to the merely modest instead of advancing the kind of leadership that can turn a loaf of bread and a few fishes into food to feed the masses. 

As reported by the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the National Chaplain, who's earned this nickname due to his self-serving sanctimonious, political showmanship wonderings about what the Lord wants him to do, offered up six tepid "practical" suggestions to correct some aspects of Ohio's gun laws in the wake of 17 high school students in Florida that were gunned down by a mentally ill student who slipped through the cracks when law enforcement ignored numerous signals and warnings of his instability and potential for committing mass murder.

Kasich and company's gun violence protection proposal orders:

1. Gun violence protection orders: Allow friends and family members to petition a court to remove firearms from people who pose a threat to themselves or others. A handful of states including Indiana have passed such "red flag" laws.
2. Domestic violence: Mirror federal law prohibiting anyone convicted of a domestic violence crime or subject to a domestic violence protection order from buying or owning a firearm.
3. Background checks: Enforce requirements that courts submit conviction information to the state's background check database in a timely manner. 
4. "Strawman" purchases: Ban purchases of firearms for third parties, except as a gift. Current state law bans these purchases only if the buyer should have known the third party is prohibited from buying a gun.
5. Armor-piercing ammunition: Update Ohio law to mirror federal law banning body armor-piercing bullets, which would allow Ohio officers to pursue charges that federal officials might not.
6. Bump stocks: If federal officials ban bump stocks, which increase a weapon's firing rate, Ohio law should be automatically changed to ban them as well.  

In the national debate, President Trump has expressed his approval of arming teachers in classrooms, an idea Kasich likewise seems to be alright with, even though so many others think it's a terrible idea. Last week on a call with reporters, Ohio's senior senator in Washington took the polar opposite position. "It's ludicrous to put guns in classrooms," Sen. Sherrod Brown told reporters on his weekly Wednesday call.

Kasich has been reticent to name the members of an 8-person policy group he convened to look into Ohio's gun laws. And for good reason, it seems, since all but two one of them were ether a Republican who supports the worst interpretation of the Second Amendment, and who have never been known to speak out against the National Rifle Association or any of its directives, or a member of Kasich's administration.

Democrats State Sens. Mike Skindell of Lakewood and Charleta Tavares of Columbus, who have proposed a ban on so-called assault weapons like the one used in the recent Florida high school shooting, were curiously absent from Kasich's lopsided GOP-skewed group. In their bill, SB 260, assault weapons are defined as any automatic firearm or semi-automatic firearm capable of accepting 10 or more cartridges. Furthermore, SB 260 makes possessing such a gun a fifth-degree felony punishable by up to 12 months in prison and a $2,500 fine. Moreover, the legislation which won't see the light of day in committee, would require all Ohio gun sellers to report firearm and ammunition sales to the state attorney general's office.

Kasich could have but didn't ask any member of Akron's City Council to be on his policy group. Those council members asked state officials to ban assault weapons and other murder-making accessories, including giant ammunition clips and bump stocks, brought to the public attention by the Las Vegas shooter who claimed 59 deaths at an outdoor concert from his hotel room. Their perspective seems legitimate, but they were onlookers like so many other voices not included.

"No one is interested in some slippery slope and trying to grab everybody's guns," the Plain Dealer reported Kasich saying at a news conference. Ohio's governor clearly had not heard President Trump saying he would take some guns away first, then let due process sort the rest out.

Offering weak tea when a robust brew is needed, Kasich thinks minor tweaks will do the job, maybe in Ohio. But don't bet on anything happen until and unless GOP leaders stop shrinking at the very thought of doing anything that would change the status quo on state gun laws.

Senate President Larry Obhof, a Republican, said through a spokesman that changing gun laws was not on the table like investments in school security upgrades are. House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger, a Republican, gave Kasich a kind but clear shove off, saying he "appreciated the governor's work." Second Amendment rights continue to be the top priority for legislative leaders like Rosenberger, who didn't speak to one of Kasich's small tweaks. As if to pound another nail in Kasich's coffin on his half-dozen proposed gun reforms, the House speaker offered up a strong prerequisite: "Any potential policy changes will only occur after thorough vetting in the legislature and extensive conversations with the caucus."

This wouldn't be the first time Obhof and Rosengerger would roll over a Kasich veto. In Kasich's final biennial budget, not a few number of his vetos were overrode by GOP super-majorities in both chambers. Kasich has been cut off at the knees before on some of his most Kasich-centric policy proposals, so barking and then getting run over the car is becoming par for Kasich's course.

In further defiance of Ohio's 69th governor, a bill on "stand your ground," that Kasich said he wouldn't sign if sent to him, apparently will be sent to him. If Kasich vetoes it, as he said he would, Ohio's right-wing legislature, that controls veto-proof margins in the Senate and House, will override it. So much for what the governor says he's for or against.

What will do the job is a major overhaul of gun laws that might start with raising the age to buy an assault weapon to 21 or higher, banning the sale of assault weapons in the first place, strengthening background checks and delaying the time period to acquire an assault weapon from a few hours or days to weeks or maybe months. Another angle would be to limit gun sales to any individual until that person justifies why they need such a weapon and whether they have received substantial, rigorous training by more than taking a token class in gunmanship.

John Kasich seems to be a strawman himself, when it comes to the kind of leadership today's horrific gun violence needs. What would Abraham Lincoln have done had he limited himself to what his Congress at the time would have been willing to do on slavery laws? What would Franklin Delano Roosevelt had done had he limited himself to what conservative Republicans would have approved during the early, desperate days of the Great Depression? What would John F. Kennedy have done had his mission to put a man on the moon following Russia's breakthroughs in space technology been limited to what congressional leaders of the day were willing to approve? Barack Obama, defying the wisdom of the day, forged forward with an idea verboten to Republicans to take on health care like never before.

If John Kasich thinks incrementalism turns the tide when bold action is needed, he's only fooling himself when he take baby steps with giant leaps are needed. Appearing again CNN's State of the Union this Sunday, let's see if he tries to convince his Ohio model is the real model to follow. Let's also see if CNN reminds Kasich that while he did back an assault on assault weapons back in 1994, when he was in the U.S. House of Representatives, he feel silent on that issue as it expired in 2004, and has signed every gun bill sent to him that loosens laws on guns.

At each moment in history, when bold leadership was the recipe to challenge the trying times of the day, had leaders of the day relegated themselves to what was "practical" for their legislators to pass, does anyone believe that the kind of weak tea Kasich has served up would have made a dent in turning the tide of thorny issues that otherwise would have won the day because legislators with no vision defined the limits of progress?