One by one, state Sen. Peggy Lehner ticked off the names and ages of each of the dead of Dayton.

Then, the Republican from the neighboring suburb of Kettering added a few biographical details about the nine victims of the mass shooting, emphasizing they all died in but 29 seconds.

She paused when she recounted brief details of the life of 30-year-old Logan Turner. He was a machinist at Thaler Machine Co. in Springboro. Bill Thaler, owner of the company, is Lehner's neighbor and one of her best friends.

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Too many Ohioans, she said, increasingly know somebody affected by gun violence.

"When you know someone, it's harder to turn our back. None of these people needed to die," Lehner testified Tuesday before the Senate Government Oversight and Reform Committee.

"I can no longer be on the sidelines of gun safety. I've been there too long ... doing absolutely nothing is simply not an option," Lehner told her fellow senators.

Joined by two Democrats, Lehner was the lone member of the majority Republican Senate to testify Tuesday in support of five bills designed to reduce the risk of mass shootings and other gun deaths.

The Democrat-drafted bills are long shots for passage in the gun-friendly Ohio legislature, where members still await the unveiling of legislation that embodies Republican Gov. Mike DeWine's gun-safety proposals. Those proposals, too, will face a hard sell in the Republican-ruled General Assembly.

Along with Democratic Sens. Cecil Thomas of Cincinnati and Sandra Williams of Cleveland, Republicans Lehner and Sen. Stephanie Kunze of Hilliard are sponsors of two of the headline-grabbing bills.

The proposals would require universal background checks on gun sales and enact a "red flag" law allowing guns to be seized under court order from people deemed a danger to themselves or others.

Sen. Bill Coley, R-West Chester, the committee chairman, and Sen. Matt Huffman, R-Lima, pushed back against the supportive testimony from the bill sponsors, particularly on the red flag bill.

Unlike DeWine's proposal, the Williams-Lehner bill would allow ex parte — secretive — court orders to seize guns without notice from a person suspected of possible violence, which Coley called a violation of constitutional due process as well as the Second Amendment.

Coley also observed that a dangerous person can be involuntarily confined to temporary mental health treatment under Ohio's "pink slip" law.

"It is rather ironic you're suggesting locking the person up before you lock the guns up," Lehner fired back.

"The issue to me is not the weapon but the person," Coley said, noting improvements are needed in mental health care. He said mental illness is the primary cause of gun violence.

Huffman said a red flag law could create a "more volatile situation," with the person whose guns are targeted for removal "exacerbating or creating a situation." He added: "You're making it less safer, potentially."

Thomas, who was a Cincinnati police officer for 27 years, and Williams joined Lehner in defending their bills. "What in Ohio are we doing to proactively prevent the threat of gun violence?" Thomas asked.

The other bills to receive first hearings Tuesday would raise the age for purchasing long guns from 18 to 21, the age required to buy handguns; close the "gun show loophole" to require background checks on private sales; and create a state ban (to join the federal ban) on rapid-fire bump stock devices.

The legislative debate comes after a Greene County man with a semi-automatic rifle rigged with a 100-shot magazine killed nine people and injured 27 in a Dayton entertainment district Aug. 4 before he was shot to death by police. After chants of "Do something!" at a vigil for the victims that night, DeWine responded two days later with a package of proposed reforms to reduce gun violence.

DeWine's staff continues to meet with gun-rights groups and Republican lawmakers to craft language for legislation to enact his multipronged proposal, which includes universal background checks and a red flag law. It remains uncertain when the bills will be introduced, said Dan Tierney, DeWine's press secretary.

Work has continued nearly every day to produce legislation that meets "the governor's standard that it be constitutional, makes a significant difference in the lives of Ohioans — and saves lives — and be able to pass the General Assembly," Tierney said.

rludlow@dispatch.com

@RandyLudlow