With eye at curbing gun violence, Gov. John Kasich signs executive order
Updated 7:21 PM; Posted 5:42 PM
Gov. John Kasich's executive order
By Laura Hancock, cleveland.com
[email protected]
COLUMBUS, Gov. John Kasich signed an executive order late Monday afternoon requiring Ohio law enforcement to upload certain protection orders and warrants into a database that could prevent people from illegally buying firearms.
The executive order comes with a 39-page report showing gaps in crime reporting to the database, including a survey that found 39 percent of responding agencies didn't report any felony warrants to the system. Just 21 percent of respondents entered all civil protection orders into the system.
The executive order, which goes into effect immediately, includes sanctions to law enforcement agencies that don't comply, including financial penalties and loss of access to the database.
Kasich, a Republican, believes people will support the executive order and other efforts he's making to ensure warrants and protection orders are reported.
"We just had another tragedy in Cincinnati," he said. "Unfortunately, in this area it just goes on and on and on. Any way we can improve this I think is a worthy endeavor."
In March, Kasich proposed six gun policy changes, including efforts to require another branch of government - the courts - to report conviction information to a state database, which eventually gets into the federal database. The policy changes came after Kasich spoke to people on different sides of the gun debate.
Many of Kasich's proposals ended up in House Bill 585 and Senate Bill 288, sponsored by fellow Republicans. But the bills haven't moved beyond committee hearings.
Most Republicans in Ohio General Assembly, where the GOP holds a supermajority, don't want to touch anything that could be interpreted as gun control.
Many law enforcement agencies are not submitting information to the database because they don't have enough staff, don't fully understand how the database prevents people from illegally purchasing guns or lack the technology to upload fingerprints -- one of the requirements for the database, according to the report.
Kasich signed a separate executive order Monday that makes permanent a working group that has been studying how information is sent to the database. The working group compiled the information in the report.
The working group is made up of representatives of the Ohio Supreme Court, various police and sheriff's departments, state agencies, local governments and even Cuyahoga County Clerk of Courts Laura Black.
Kasich tasked it to take its recommendations -- which range from training and education to reducing duplicative or unclear reporting responsibilities -- and come up with a concrete plan for how they can be implemented.
Kasich said there is some money available to help local law enforcement better report. However, he acknowledged some of the gaps in reporting won't be filled for years -- after he's left office.
