CLEVELAND, Ohio – Mass shootings typically result in politically charged debate over gun control, and the deadly shootings that occurred this weekend in Dayton and in El Paso, Texas are no exception.

Appearing Sunday morning on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Cleveland Democrat, called on U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to schedule an emergency vote during Congress’s August recess to try and pass a firearms background check bill.

But any change to Ohio’s gun laws would need to come from Columbus. More than a dozen years ago, pro-gun legislators -- fueled by the NRA and Buckeye Firearms Association – passed House Bill 347, which prohibited local governments from passing any regulations more restrictive than those passed by the Ohio legislature.

The bill nullified ordinances already in effect in cities such as Cleveland, which had enacted a ban assault weapons. Cleveland passed more gun laws in 2015 -- including one that created a firearms registry – but the Ohio’s 8th District Court of Appeals struck down the local laws in 2017.

Cleveland.com reporters examined the issue in a 2018 series that questioned whether Ohio cities should have the right to make their own gun laws. Here’s a look at what we found.

Pro-gun lawmakers stripped away local regulations

When H.B. 347 passed in 2006, it wiped out more than 80 local gun laws, including assault-weapons bans in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Toledo, and Dayton.

Cleveland’s assault-weapons ban had been challenged before. In 1993, the Ohio Supreme Court voted to uphold the ban after a citizen lawsuit questioned its legitimacy.

H.B. 347, though, easily passed in the General Assembly. The Ohio House voted 74-14, with 57 Republicans and 17 Democrats supporting the bill. The Senate voted 19-10, no Democrats supporting it and three Republicans opposing it.

Then-Gov. Bob Taft, a Republican, vetoed the bill, saying it “eroded the tradition of home rule in municipalities across Ohio.”

But the General Assembly voted to override Taft’s veto, and the Ohio Supreme Court upheld the law in 2010.

Ohio legislators pass additional pro-gun laws

H.B. 347 was the first of several bills that have expanded Ohio gun rights over the last dozen years.

In 2008, Senate Bill 184 enacted the Castle doctrine, which permitted homeowners to use deadly force in self-defense in their own residence or vehicle. It also allows loaded guns to be transported in a vehicle’s unlocked gloved compartment or center console.

In 2011, Senate Bill 17 allowed concealed carry in bars, restaurants, stadiums and other establishments with liquor licenses, but permitted businesses to ban guns on their property. The same year, House Bill 54 allowed persons convicted of misdemeanor drug offenses to buy and possess guns.

In 2014, House Bill 234 recognized out-of-state concealed carry permits, lessened training time for a concealed carry permit and changed the definition of “automatic firearm.”

In 2016, Senate Bill 199 allowed employees to lock guns in their cars outside their workplaces, and allowed concealed carry in daycares and airport terminals.

Kasich pushes back, proposes “common sense” laws

In 2018, then-Ohio Gov. John Kasich proposed what he called “common sense” reforms in the wake of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. They included tightening background checks for gun buyers and a “red flag” law allowing family members and friends to petition a court to remove firearms from people who pose a threat to themselves or others.

The proposals were a departure from Kasich's past positions. The NRA endorsed him during his 2014 campaign for governor, and he’d previously signed every bill expanding access to guns in Ohio.

But the “common sense” proposals stalled in the Ohio legislature, which ended up overriding a Kasich veto to pass a bill that shifts the burden of proof in self-defense cases from the shooter to prosecutors.

Ohio gun deaths have risen steadily since passing of H.B. 347

Gun-related deaths in Ohio have increased nearly every year since H.B. 347 went into effect in 2007. That year, 1,085 people were killed by guns across the state. By 2017, the number of deaths rose to 1,591, according to statistics from the Ohio Department of Health.

Gun-related deaths have also increased sharply in Cleveland. Guns killed 129 people last year in Cleveland, a notable increase over the 96 reported in 2007. Cleveland has now topped 100 homicides in each of the last seven years, the first time that’s happened since a 42-year stretch ending in 1996.

The increase in gun-related deaths has also resulted in calls for reform by activist groups. The Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence, for example, has said H.B. 347′s ban on local gun ordinances is at least partly to blame for the uptick. Gun-rights groups such as the Buckeye Firearms Association, though, believe local ordinances do little to deter crime and argue

For more on the issue, look back at cleveland.com’s series on the evolution of gun laws in Ohio.

How the Ohio legislature wrestled gun control away from cities like Cleveland

A step-by-step look at how Ohio’s pro-gun lawmakers stripped away cities power to write their own rules

As Ohio gun deaths continue to increase, action in local communities is limited by a 2006 state law

See how the NRA graded Ohio politicians who denied Cleveland the right to make its own gun laws

Do the Ohio lawmakers who stripped away local gun laws still think it was a good idea?