Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine rolls out his detailed legislative proposals to help curb gun violence. But the big question remains: Will his fellow Republicans in the state legislature go along with his plan?

Less than two weeks ago, a confident Gov. Mike DeWine was not backing off his insistence that a “red flag” law and universal background checks would be part of his bid to reduce gun violence.

DeWine also, though, had signaled all along that he would not submit legislation that stood no chance of passing the Republican-dominated — and gun-friendly — Ohio General Assembly.

The GOP governor acknowledged those political realities Monday in unveiling his legislation to decrease Ohio's gun body count — minus the red-flag and mandatory background-check provisions — to the disappointment of those lined up to support DeWine’s out-of-the-box plan after nine people were killed in Dayton.

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DeWine said he thinks his alternative approach will save lives while still respecting Ohioans' Second Amendment rights.

"We kept our eyes on the ball of what the problem is," DeWine said during a meeting with The Dispatch editorial board later Monday. "We think we came up, frankly, with something superior to what we outlined previously."

Sen. Matt Dolan, R-Chagrin Falls, will introduce the bill underlying DeWine's revamped "STRONG Ohio" proposals, the governor announced during his earlier news conference at the Department of Public Safety on the Hilltop.

DeWine's legislation would expand "pink slip" laws by expanding the 72-hour involuntary commitments of those with severe mental health problems to include hospitalization for those suffering from drug dependency and chronic alcoholism. In addition, if doctors decide a person needs long-term treatment, a probate court hearing would be required within five days after the commitment.

Court-ordered treatment could follow, with guns more easily removed from people who are deemed a danger to themselves or others. Those committed to treatment currently are forbidden from owning guns, but the law has no formal process to remove them. DeWine's would allow the guns to be sold, turned over by family members to a trusted third party or be seized by police. Guns would be returned when a probate judge finds the person no longer poses a potential danger.

After the Dayton mass slaying in early August, DeWine said he would support a red-flag proposal under which a "safety protection order" could be sought by family members or authorities and issued by a judge directing police to seize a person's guns if they were deemed a threat. However, Husted said drafting a "red flag" bill "proved to be inadequate and unworkable."

The legislation DeWine proposed Monday also walked back an earlier proposal to require universal background checks on all gun sales — including private sales and those at gun shows.

Rather, his proposed law would make such checks on private sales voluntary and include some money to streamline the process, Lt. Gov. Jon Husted said. The lieutenant governor conceded that the adjustment was made to help the measure's chances of passing the legislature.

Husted said the proposal would allow would-be gunbuyers to obtain a sheriff-issued background check to certify they were not barred from buying a gun. Sellers then could use the "seller protection certificate" or a buyer's concealed-carry permit to sell a gun without criminal liability as part of a "safe harbor" provision.

The maximum prison sentence for selling a gun to a felon or person otherwise forbidden to possess a firearm would be increased to 36 from 18 months. And the standard for proving a violation would drop from "reckless" to "negligent conduct," providing an incentive for sellers to insist on checks, Husted said.

"Under the old system, the seller could say they did not know they were selling to a bad guy," he said.

DeWine said: "This frankly has a better chance of passing ... and, just as important, we think it will get the job done."

House Minority Leader Emilia Strong Sykes, D-Akron, was not pleased with DeWine's walk-backs.

“When the people told the governor to do something, they didn’t mean to do just anything. Ohioans want common-sense gun safety. STRONG Ohio is weak. It is not what Ohioans want. More than 90 percent of Ohioans want more common-sense gun safety, not watered-down proposals to appease the gun lobby," she said.

Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, a Democrat, said the governor's altered approach "does not go far enough ... but this is an important step."

The Michael Bloomberg-backed Everytown for Gun Safety group also criticized the legislation, saying, "The proposals depart from the governor’s August gun-violence-prevention proposal in clear ways."

Dennis Willard, spokesman for Ohioans for Gun Safety, said the group will continue to collect signatures to put universal background checks on the November 2020 ballot.

“We are glad that Gov. DeWine is making gun safety and gun-violence prevention a topic of conversation at the Statehouse, but we are doubtful that there will be any real progress based on the legislature's track record," Willard said.

More than two months have passed since a gunman with a semi-automatic rifle rigged with a 100-round magazine opened fire outside a Dayton nightclub. Nine people were killed, and dozens wounded, in the Aug. 4 shooting in fewer than the 30 seconds before police officers shot the gunman dead.

At a vigil in Dayton that night with Whaley, the crowd chanted as DeWine spoke: "Do something!"

Two days later, DeWine did, proposing his 17-point "STRONG Ohio" plan in hopes of reducing the gun body count, led by a red-flag law to seize guns from potentially violent people following court hearings and universal background checks on gun sales.

Monday's proposals follow weeks of talks with balking gun-rights groups and leery legislators.

Sen. Dolan said he has not discussed the bill he is sponsoring with his Republican colleagues, but he said the bill likely "doesn't go far enough for some and too far for others." DeWine and Dolan said the bill should pass with bipartisan support. But DeWine said the process would take "months, not weeks."

The governor also said, "Nothing we are doing places new restrictions on a law-abiding citizen from owning a gun."

Minority legislative Democrats backed DeWine's initial plan, although they have introduced bills more aggressive than the governor's approach, including a ban on high-capacity gun magazines and allowing guns to be seized through a secretive court order from those found to be a danger to themselves or others.

The governor said if he proposed a ban on oversized magazines, that "would jeopardize the entire package."

“I do not think we could get that passed today. In fact, I know we couldn’t,” he said.



“I am convinced that everything in here will make a big difference.”

rludlow@dispatch.com

@RandyLudlow