BIG news for gun owners in the Buckeye State. . .
The Ohio Gun Owners Stand-Your-Ground bill was sent out to the entire House of Representatives in Columbus yesterday and opened for co-sponsorship!
I’m asking you to please read this email in its entirety and take action below!
But before you take action, here’s a couple of things you need to know about the bill.
First, the Ohio Stand-Your-Ground bill is being sponsored by Representatives Nino Vitale (R-Urbana) and Candice Keller (R-Middletown).
If the name Vitale sounds familiar, you may remember it because of his leadership on HB142, attempting to amend it on the floor to restore it to its original form after weak-kneed legislators GUTTED it in committee!
Representative Keller, as well, has a reputation distinct for its lack of concern about what is popular and instead doing what is right – and Stand-Your-Ground is RIGHT for Ohio!
With two of Ohio’s most dedicated, staunch gun-rights activist legislators working for the bill in the Statehouse, it’s time for you and me to get to work on it, too!
That’s why I’m asking you, right this very moment, to contact your State Representative and tell them to cosponsor the Vitale/Keller Stand-Your-Ground bill!
(to find your representative, click HERE)
As you know, Ohio is consistently ranked by Guns and Ammo magazine as having the 11th worst gun laws in America.
And the BIGGEST reason for that is our self-defense laws – or lack thereof!
You see, in Ohio you have more rights if you are the criminal who attacked the citizen rather than the citizen who used a firearm to protect yourself or family from the criminal!
But our Stand-Your-Ground law will change all that.
The Vitale/Keller Stand-Your-Ground law would:
- Remove the duty to retreat from your attacker anywhere you have a lawful right to be.
Your right to defend yourself or loved ones from violent attack should not end just because you’re in a parking lot instead of your home. - Provide immunity from criminal prosecution and establishes the right to a pre-trial immunity hearing.
An anti-gun prosecutor should not be able to bring politically motivated charges against you for defending yourself just to “make an example” out of gun owners.
The Vitale/Keller Stand-Your-Ground bill specifically establishes a pre-trial immunity hearing that requires prosecution seeking to overcome immunity to prove beyond a reasonable doubt to a judge that a person’s actions were not in self-defense before they are able to proceed with a prosecution in trial.
- Provide immunity from civil suits brought by the attacker or attacker’s family for defending yourself against their actions and establishes the right to a pre-trial immunity hearing. Similar to #2 above, our Stand-Your-Ground bill would force potential accusers to prove to a judge that a person did not act in self-defense before they can go to trial to sue someone for all they are worth!
- Restore the burden of proof to the prosecution to disprove a citizen’s self-defense claim.
Ohio is the ONLY state in America where the burden of proof is on the accused to prove they acted in self-defense, rather than on the prosecution to disprove a self-dense claim!
That is the precise reason why many experts believe that Ohio has the worst self-defense law in the nation.
The Ohio Gun Owners Stand-Your-Ground bill by Reps Vitale and Keller has a lot more details that I will go into in a later email.
But right now, your Representative in Columbus needs to hear from you, your family, your friends and your pro-gun buddies!
Please contact your State Representative right away and tell them you expect them to sign on as a cosponsor to the Vitale/Keller Stand-Your-Ground law!
(to find your State Representative contact info, click HERE)
It is really simple, and it will only take a minute.
When you call the number listed, you will likely speak with their legislative assistant.
Tell them you’re a pro-gun voter, you live in their district and you expect them to sign on to the Vitale/Keller Stand-Your-Ground bill as a cosponsor!
It’s as easy as that.
But either way, contact your Representative TODAY, as that’s most important!
For Freedom,
Chris Dorr
Executive Director
Ohio Gun Owners
P.S. Representatives Nino Vitale (R-Urbana) and Candice Keller (R-Middletown) have sent out the cosponsor request to their colleagues for the Ohio Gun Owners Stand-Your-Ground bill!
As you saw in the email above, our bill would make Ohio one of the best states in the country when it comes to our self-defense laws instead of the absolute worst.
So please contact your State Representative and tell them to cosponsor the Vitale/Keller Stand-Your-Ground bill right away!
Tell them you’re a pro-gun voter, you live in their district and you expect them to sign on to the Vitale/Keller Stand-Your-Ground bill!
But either way, contact your Representative TODAY, as that’s most important.
