I could hardly believe my ears when Ohio Senate Government Oversight Committee Chairman Bill Coley’s staffer shoved the “request form” back into my hands.
“Chairman Coley has denied your request, you do not have permission to record today’s meeting.”
I couldn’t even believe it.
In the dozens and dozens of committee hearings I have attended for our membership ever since we founded Ohio Gun Owners three years ago, I’ve never been denied a request to record or take pictures of proceedings at the Ohio Statehouse.
After all, I’m there representing our thousands of members and supporters, and taxpayers like you paid for and pay the salaries of everyone in the “people’s house” because in a constitutional republic, elected representatives rule by consent of the governed!
All of that went right out the window yesterday afternoon when Ohio Gun Owners was refused the right to hold government accountable through video, photo and audio recordings.
It gets worse though, Site.
Taxpayers have also allowed (and likely paid) for high-tech video systems to be installed in our statehouse so that committee meetings and floor votes can be streamed on the internet for the general public, because everyone knows that most folks can’t afford to take time off work to come monitor what activities their representatives are engaged in at the Statehouse.
So I didn’t make too much of a fuss about not being able to record the meeting, counting on the ability to capture the livestream video of the testimony later on.
And boy, do I regret that now.
After all, the hearing was called for the purpose of sponsor testimony on SB221 – arguably the most controversial gun-control bill ever introduced in the Ohio General Assembly!
But things went completely haywire when Senator Dolan started his testimony.
You see, before the committee meeting had started, Senator Dolan had submitted a “written testimony” to the committee, an absurdly short, prepared statement that only provided three paragraphs of information detailing the bill.
And that’s why I came prepared to record the proceedings – I had suspected that Senator Dolan would be forced in committee to admit to the treacherous details buried in SB221’s.
I wasn’t wrong. He admitted that a gun owner:
➜ would be able to be arrested before ever being charged for a crime.
➜ would be able to be detained against their will without being charged for a crime.
➜ would be forced to try to prove to a judge that they were not going to commit a crime that never happend.
Even more blatant, he conceded in committee that the Husted/DeWine gun-control proposal would create a de facto statewide gun registry!
Senator Dolan detailed that, under SB221’s “Seller Protection Order” clause, anyone who sells a firearm to someone without first making sure the buyer has added himself to the Federal NCIC database (to be tracked, traced and registered like a sex offender, which is Universal Gun Owner Registration!) can be charged for failing to exercise “ordinary and reasonable care” if the firearm is used in a future crime, and the seller can be charged with a 3rd degree felony and thrown in jail for 3 years!
Site, it is pure treachery that Republicans are sponsoring Bloomberg’s gun-control bills like this.
But you’ll probably be even more furious to know that the Senate Government Oversight Committee didn’t even turn their cameras on and livestream or record the hearing for gun owners to see!
The whole meeting happened under the cover of darkness.
The only cameras allowed in the room, of course, were the media’s.
In fact, the Senate Government Oversight Committee claims they never turn on the cameras for their meetings, which begs the question – why in the heck do they have the cameras in the first place if taxpayers can’t even tune in to the committee tasked with overseeing our entire government?!?!
The fact is, Governor DeWine’s gun-control proposal, SB221 by Senator Matt Dolan, is being ushered through the Ohio Senate under the cover of darkness.
They knew their cameras were off, and they made sure to silence their opposition when they shut down Ohio Gun Owners’ attempt to record their proceedings.
And just to make sure we know “who’s in charge,” Senate Communications Staffer John Fortney came bumbling up to us to say so!
“You just run a stupid little blog, you don’t have any press credentials and you don’t have the right to record around here,” he huffed.
Referred to by many Statehouse insiders as “Pinhead” (we have no idea why, but some say it is in reference to Pinhead Larry from Spongebob?), John Fortney is the epitome of a swamp creature.
For 25 years before entering Statehouse Communications, Fortney worked in the corporate media as a political reporter.
Likely because nobody would give him an honest job, Fortney dropped out that line of work and began cozying up to establishment powerbrokers in Columbus, got himself a big fat taxpayer-funded job and has been servicing the “ruling class” ever since.
ACTION ALERT
Site, the fact is, Senate Republicans have absolutely no business pushing Mike Bloomberg’s gun-control bills.
None of Bloomberg’s zealots in Ohio ever cast a ballot for the majorities that occupy our Statehouse — gun owners did.
That’s why we’re asking you to do two things right away.
Second, call Senator Larry Obhoff’s office right away and demand that he stop kowtowing to the radical left, quit towing the line for the Communist Democrats who want to destroy our human right to self-defense, and get busy doing the work he and his majority caucus were elected to do, which is passing Stand-Your-Ground law (HB381) and Constitutional Carry (HB178)!
Call Senator Obhoff’s office right away at (614) 466-7505!
Don’t wait, call now! (614) 466-7505!
For Ohio,
Chris Dorr
Executive Director
Ohio Gun Owners
P.S. Details of the DeWine/Husted Gun-Control Agenda Below!
P.P.S Donate to the fight to defend our gun rights by clicking here!
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If Husted and DeWine have their way, they’ll never stop until our ability to defend ourselves and loved ones from killers and tyrants is outlawed and our firearms confiscated.
The fact is, when you give gungrabbers an inch, they will take a mile.
Ever since the Las Vegas murders sparked the demand to outlaw bumpstocks in 2017, you and I have had a front-row seat in witnessing how the radical left has completely exposed their intentions to destroy our God-given right to self-defense!
Gun owners in Ohio objectively know now that there is no negotiating with these gun control militants, that there is no compromise to be made that will insure the gungrabbers are appeased once and for all.
In fact, Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, who has been on a gun control crusade ever since the killing, arrogantly declared that “this is an important first step.”
Did you read that?
Governor DeWine and Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted’s gun-control omnibus bill is only their “first step.”
The Ohio Mayor’s Alliance, a hard-left cadre of Ohio’s ultra-liberal mayors, was even more blatant in their description of SB221, declaring that DeWine’s proposal “gives us a real chance to begin changing course and start enacting meaningful gun reform laws.”
Site, if we open the door to compromise now instead of drawing a line in the sand and declaring “HELL NO,” future generations will curse our memory for not standing our ground.
And that’s why Ohio Gun Owners has been working around the clock making ready to battle this proposal tooth and nail!
The Husted/DeWine “Proposal”
There are two main tenets to the DeWine/Husted agenda, and Ohio Gun Owners is mobilizing our membership against them BOTH.
1) The first tenet is a “pink-slip expansion,” a version of Red Flag Gun Confiscation Orders.
Instead of outright calling it the Red Flag Gun Confiscation Order that it is, DeWine and Husted are calling it a “Safety Protection Order” in a feeble attempt to camouflage it, but it is easily identified.
As I’m sure you remember, gun owners have defeated a “Red Flag” bill before, then-governor John Kasich’s HB585 from last General Assembly.
DeWine and Husted know this, and they know that gun owners are geared up and ready to do it again!
So instead of passing a straight-up Red Flag bill, they have repackaged the contents of the Red Flag bill into a “Safety Protection Order” that massively expands Ohio’s “pink slip” process.
Currently, the two-page form (it is pink) that initiates a pink slip process is strictly reserved for people with psychological issues who are provably a danger to themselves or others, to have them involuntarily committed for treatment.
As you likely know, an involuntary committal is a prohibitor for firearms ownership.
The Husted/DeWine gun control bill (SB221) massively expands those “eligible” to be pink slipped to include anyone accused of abusing alcohol or drugs.
Of course, gun owners know it is ALREADY illegal for someone to use or carry a firearm while they are under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
But this expansion would weaponize the probate court in a way that is virtually identical to a Red-Flag Gun-Confiscation Order!
Scenario
To put this into real-life perspective, think of this:
A vengeful, soon-to-be “ex” could go to the police and initiate a pink slip process against you by telling them that she’s afraid for her safety and that you’ve been drinking, and you could be involuntarily committed to a “treatment facility” for holding up to 72 hours.
Sometime during that 72 hours you’ll be yanked out of your holding cell to have a hearing before a probate court judge and, if you can’t afford a decent lawyer and prove to that judge that your accuser is a liar and that you were not going to commit a crime, you would then be involuntarily committed for “treatment.”
This begs the question: just how in the he!! can you prove you weren’t going to commit a crime that was never committed?
And Site, an “involuntary commitment” triggers a federal and state firearms prohibition, and your gun rights are taken away from you.
This is virtually identical to the Red Flag law because you could have your firearms rights stripped away from you with no charge, no trial, and no conviction of a crime!
And virtually anyone can initiate a pink-slip process against you.
Do you have an ultra-leftwing Bernie Sanders fan in your family?
Do you know a crazed Beto supporter who believes you are evil for owning the firearms Beto and his supporters want to confiscate but that you use to defend yourself and your family?
All someone like that would have to do is tell a psychiatrist, a psychologist, a doctor, a “health officer,” a police officer, a sheriff or maybe even just a deputy that they believe you’re abusing drugs or alcohol and that you threatened them, and all of a sudden you’re in big trouble.
Do you like to tip a few back on the weekend after a hard week at work?
Under the Husted/DeWine proposal, your crazed ex could time the officers’ arrival so that they show up at your house when you are likely over the legal limit, and now your gun rights are on the chopping block.
In effect, DeWine and Husted are trying to swap out the words “Red Flags” for “Pink Slips” and accomplish the exact same policy of gun-control through confiscation without due process.
Let us be clear: depravation of gun rights without the conviction of a crime is the definition of a Red Flag law and the complete destruction of due process.
This is a horrific law, and we are asking you to contact your senator and demand that they oppose it!
2) The second tenet of the DeWine/Husted gun-control agenda is a de facto “Universal Background Checks” scheme through the creation of a “Seller Protection Certificate.”
Again, DeWine and his chief gun control cheerleader, little Jonny Husted, know that gun owners are spoiling for a brawl with any politician that want to pass Bloomberg’s Universal Background Checks.
So, just like they did by renaming Red Flags “Pink Slips,” they are crafting and messaging this policy in a way that creates a de facto statewide gun registry.
Here is how it works:
If you want to buy a firearm, you would need to go to your local sheriff and apply for a background check, and if you pass you would get a “Seller Protection Certificate.”
By going through the background check to get the “certificate” (which is really a license, aka an infringement), your name gets added to the NCIC database as a gun purchaser.
To review something we’ve said previously, the background check system is a total and complete failure.
It has never achieved its stated (pretended) goal of stopping killers – just think of a recent mass killing and you’ll find a killer who passed their background check.
And hardened criminals know that they’ll never get prosecuted for trying to buy a firearm legally, either.
Under the Obama administration, of the roughly 800,000 NICS denials, less than 50 per year were ever recommended for prosecution, and far fewer resulted in a conviction.
In fact, roughly 95% of NICS denials are false positives!
So why are gun-control radicals like Dianne Feinstein and Chuck Schumer and Mike DeWine always trying to expand this complete failure of a system?
The Hartford, CT Courant revealed in 2014 the real reason: the gun-control crowd is deliberately building the NCIC (aka NICS) database as a tool to be used down the road to identify gun owners for widespread firearms confiscation.
That’s why Mike DeWine and Jon Husted are working so hard to create this new “Seller Protection Certificate” — because it adds more gun owners’ names into the massive, centralized government database.
And just so you know, governments, not thugs or street criminals, are the largest killers of innocent citizens in human history.
The Founders knew this, which is why they enshrined our right to self-defense in the Bill of Rights and our own state Constitution.
But it gets worse.
It is already illegal in Ohio to “recklessly” sell a firearm to a criminal. It is also already illegal to straw-purchase firearms for others.
Knowing that, Husted specifically has designed this proposal to, in all practicality, browbeat private sellers into adding all private transactions into the government database.
The way he is trying to do that is by leaving the “Seller Protection Certificate” optional, while simultaneously lowering the burden of proof for a prosecutor to nail a seller to the wall if a firearm they sold is ever used in a crime!
And not only is he lowering the burden of proof from “reckless” to “negligent,” he is also increasing the penalty to a 3rd degree felony and up to three YEARS in prison!
Site, it is important not to forget who we are talking about here.
DeWine is INFAMOUS in the national gun rights community for his votes as a US Senator to allow gun control organizations to sue firearms manufacturers for crimes committed with firearms they produced.
In fact, that’s why the NRA used to give him an “F” rating before they pulled a political “about-face” moments before the 2018 elections.
This proposal is simply an extension of that lifelong agenda that DeWine’s gun control career exemplifies, the difference now is that Husted is embracing it 100%.
the fact is, Ohio’s notorious anti-gun prosecutors like Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley are jumping for joy at the prospects of persecuting gun owners if this law passes!
Stand and Fight
Site, now is the time to get off the sidelines.
If we are going to make sure the freedom to defend ourselves against thugs and tyrants is intact for our kids and our grandkids, we need to fight back harder at this moment than we’ve ever done before.
That’s why I hope you’ll do two things right away:
First, this bill is being introduced into the Ohio Senate first by ultra-liberal Republican Senator Matt Dolan (R-Cuyahoga County).
As you’ll see, we’ve already done the work for you. Just a few clicks, press submit and you’re done!
But I hope you won’t stop there.
If we’re going to be successful at stopping this onslaught, we need to get far more people involved in this fight.
That’s why I hope you’ll contribute whatever amount you can afford right now to help us.
Perhaps you can afford a major contribution like $1,000 or $500 or $250 as some have already done?
Or maybe $100 or $10 or somewhere in between is more appropriate for your budget?
Whatever amount you can afford, I’m asking that you please be as generous as possible.
For Ohio,
Chris Dorr
Executive Director
Ohio Gun Owners