Giffords Responds to the Weakness of Ohio Governor DeWine’s ‘STRONG’ Plan
October 7, 2019 — Giffords, the gun safety organization founded by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, released the following statement in response to Governor Mike DeWine’s STRONG plan to combat gun violence in Ohio.
Statement from Molly Voigt, state legislative manager at Giffords;
“Reeling from the trauma of the Dayton shooting, Ohioans turned to their elected leaders for solutions on how to keep them safe. Governor DeWine vowed to take action, but his proposal today is short of meaningful solutions that will stop gun violence. While there is no one single policy that will end this public safety threat, we do know there are solutions that will save lives in Ohio, like universal background checks and extreme risk protection orders. The governor’s proposal simply misses the mark. It is our hope that Governor DeWine and the Ohio legislature will consider policies that will effectively protect Ohio communities.”
Following the Dayton shooting, the Ohio legislature put forward a number of bipartisan bills to address gun violence in Ohio. These measures are much stronger than the STRONG Ohio proposals, and Giffords will continue to encourage legislators to move forward with these policies.
- S.B. 183 would require background checks on all gun transfers, closing the private sale background check loophole. The Governor’s proposal merely provides for a voluntary background check, which is not sufficient to ensure dangerous people don’t have access to firearms.
- S.B. 184 would create an extreme risk protection order that enables family members and law enforcement to petition a court to remove a firearm from someone who is a danger to themselves or others while still ensuring due process. The STRONG proposal only allows law enforcement to remove firearms in certain, limited circumstances, allowing those who may be a danger to themselves or others to continue to possess firearms.
- S.B. 202 would repeal preemption in Ohio and allow localities to pass their own laws that protect residents from gun violence.
An analysis by the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence finds that, on average, there are more than 2,500 shootings in Ohio each year, resulting in directly measurable costs of over $2.7 billion annually. That includes:
- Healthcare costs: $123 million
- Law enforcement and criminal justice expenses: $227 million
- Costs to employers: $16 million
- Lost income: $2.4 billion
Even more striking, when indirect costs that impact families and communities are factored in, the overall estimate of the economic cost of gun violence rises to $7.3 billion per year.