CLEVELAND -- Most governments exist to help put a chicken in every pot.

Ohio's primary purpose is to put a gun in every pocket.

When it comes to deadly weapons -- or just about any other issue that matters -- this is a state in the high-speed lane towards irrelevance.

Not to suggest Ohio is Mississippi North. That would be insulting.

To Mississippi.

In its ongoing effort to make sure young, educated people stay away -- and to appease the gun lobby that funds members' campaigns -- the Ohio legislature is in the process of doubling down on its love affair with weapons that can slaughter dozens of people in a matter of seconds.

No later than this fall, both houses are virtually certain to pass bills that weaken concealed-carry provisions, including one eliminating criminal penalties for illegally carrying guns in gun-free zones like schools that just passed the Ohio House.

Another bill still in committee revives an effort to eliminate the need for Ohioans to get a concealed-carry handgun license at all -- thus also eliminating any training requirements.

Just because we live in the same state as people from Butler, Clermont and Warren counties shouldn't mean the rest of us should have to play by their 17th-century rules.

The legislature's obsession with turning Ohio into the Wild Wild West also ignores new evidence that a huge majority of Americans has figured out this country's obsession with deadly weapons needs to change.

A Quinnipiac University poll taken in late June showed that, by a margin of 94 percent to 5 percent, U.S. voters support background checks for all gun buyers.

Asked if it's too easy to buy a gun in this country, 57 percent said yes, 6 percent said it's too difficult, and 32 percent said it's about right.

If more people carried guns, 57 percent of those surveyed said the country would be less safe, while 35 percent said it would be more safe.

Nevertheless, if Ohio's legislative majority gets its way, purchasing a deadly weapon will soon take just a bit longer than buying a box of candy.

Congress is no better.

On Dec. 16, 2012 -- two days after a disturbed young man brought a military-type semi-automatic assault weapon into Sandy Hook Elementary School and massacred 20 students and six adults -- President Barack Obama traveled to Newtown, Connecticut, to meet with grieving family members and deliver what may have been the most difficult speech of his presidency.

His voice choking with emotion, Obama made a compassionate and eloquent plea for gun-law sanity. Conceding that violence and evil cannot be legislated away, he added, "But we can't tolerate this anymore. These tragedies must end. And to end them, we must change. We will be told that the causes of such violence are complex, and that is true .... But that can't be an excuse for inaction.

"Surely, we can do better than this."

He was wrong.

We can't.

A day after Obama's speech, New York businessman Donald Trump tweeted, "President Obama spoke for me and every American." That same businessman had long supported gun control, including an assault weapons ban and extended waiting periods on purchases.

President Obama spoke for me and every American in his remarks in #Newtown Connecticut. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 17, 2012

Not long after Sandy Hook, the U.S. Senate killed a bill that would have expanded background checks.

Then, just months ago, a new president signed a bill making it easier for mentally ill people to purchase deadly weapons. The mentally ill, of course, are often singled out by the gun lobby as a group responsible for misusing deadly weapons.

On both those votes, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, the beneficiary of millions in National Rifle Association money for his two Senate campaigns and a wholly owned subsidiary of the gun lobby, voted to make sure we don't do better, to guarantee the NRA got exactly what it paid for.

Defending the proliferation of guns into almost every aspect of society, Jim Irvine, chairman of the Buckeye Firearms Association, told the Dayton Daily News in March: "There is no right to be free of guns. There is no right to be free of stupid people."

He got that right.

Brent Larkin was The Plain Dealer's editorial director from 1991 until his retirement in 2009.

To reach Brent Larkin: blarkin@cleveland.com

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