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Key Lawmakers Want To Focus On Dangerous People, Not Their Weapons

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Gov. Mike DeWine’s gun plan calls for using the so-called “pink slip” process to separate people thought to be dangerous from their guns. But a top lawmaker is questioning that approach.

Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder (R-Glenford) says many Republicans in the House don’t think reducing gun access is necessarily going to deal with the gun violence problem.

“We really are going to focus on the human being side of it, those people who are potential killers, not so much the instrument they might use, whether it be an automobile, a firearm, a knife or a bomb," Householder says.

Householder says he’s focused on a bill already proposed by two Republican lawmakers that would add substance abuse to the “pink slip” law allowing people to be involuntarily hospitalized in psychiatric facilities. DeWine’s plan would also require those people to surrender any weapons they have.

The mass shooting in Dayton in August that killed 11, including the gunman, and injured more than two dozen has put a spotlight on gun reform. Democrats are pushing for even tougher legislative remedies but those are unlikely to get much traction in the Republican dominated Ohio Legislature.

Copyright 2019 The Statehouse News Bureau

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment.