PA Bill Number: HB1661
Title: Further providing for schedules of controlled substances; and providing for secure storage of xylazine.
Description: Further providing for schedules of controlled substances; and providing for secure storage of xylazine. ...
Last Action: Act No. 17 of 2024
Last Action Date: May 15, 2024
Gun-rights lobby now OK with Kasich despite 1994 weapons-ban vote :: 06/30/2015
DES MOINES, Iowa — For a long time, it seemed as if the National Rifle Association would never forgive John Kasich.
In the wake of the shooting deaths of eight people in 1993 in San Francisco by a man with an automatic pistol, Kasich joined 215 other House members in 1994 to ban the production and sale of 19 semi-automatic assault weapons.
The NRA’s response was quick: It awarded Kasich, then a Republican congressman from Westerville, a grade of F. When Kasich ran for governor in 2010, the NRA was still smoldering. It endorsed Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland, who as a House member in 1994 had voted against the same weapons ban.
Yet as Kasich prepares a run for the 2016 presidential nomination, he has worked his way back into good standing with the NRA, an organization whose endorsement will carry considerable sway in the race for the Republican presidential nomination next year.
>> Related story: Kasich officially to enter presidential race on July 21
“He was horrible, but that was a long time ago,” said Jim Irvine, chairman of the Buckeye Firearms Association.
Not only did the NRA bump up Kasich’s grade from a B in 2010 to a solid A last year, but the organization also endorsed Kasich against Democrat Ed Fitzgerald. And Kasich now is describing the Second Amendment guarantee of the right to bear arms as “an inviolate part of our constitution.”
It is a turnabout for Kasich that carries a substantial risk from the right and the left. It is all but certain that Kasich’s Republican primary opponents will resurrect his vote against semi-automatic weapons, particularly in conservative states such as South Carolina.
“That is extremely controversial with the NRA and gun groups, and they’re prominent in the Republican landscape,” said Larry Sabato, a professor of political science at the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. “They will absolutely hold Kasich’s feet to the fire, in part because they have so many advocates running in this enormous field.”
But in the aftermath of the shooting deaths of nine African-Americans in a Charleston, S.C., church this month, there could be greater sympathy among middle-class Americans for ways to keep guns away from people such as Dylann Roof, the 21-year-old who has confessed to the murders.
“I think Gov. Kasich has an opportunity to really express to Ohioans and voters across America that he is interested in supporting common-sense regulations that would reduce gun violence,” said Jennifer Thorne, executive director of the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence.
Given Kasich’s rhetoric during the past few months, that might be a forlorn hope for gun-control activists. Last week, as he campaigned in Iowa, Kasich said that back in 1994, he “thought” his vote to ban the semi-automatic weapons “was the right thing, but look, it didn’t work. It was superfluous, and we don’t need laws that are superfluous.
“It didn’t have any impact,” Kasich said. “The reality is, what I’d like to see come out of it and the reality of it are two different things.
“I’ve come to learn that you can pass all the laws you want, but if they don’t work, there’s no reason to pass them if it doesn’t have an impact, if it doesn’t have an effect,” Kasich said. “Over time, you come to really begin to understand people’s deep, deep, deep commitment to the Second Amendment, and I share that.”
For that, the NRA is glad that “Gov. Kasich’s position on firearms, especially when addressing concealed carry and transportation issues, has shifted to reflect a more respectful view of the Second Amendment and law-abiding citizens’ right to exercise their constitutional freedoms,” said Lars Dalseide, an NRA spokesman in suburban Washington.
That is in marked contrast to the NRA’s attitude in the aftermath of the 1994 vote to ban 19 semi-automatic weapons. The ban was folded into a larger anti-crime measure, and Kasich’s vote appeared to be popular in his suburban Columbus congressional district and with police organizations.
At the time, President Bill Clinton hailed the vote, saying 216 members “stood up for our police, our children and for safety on our streets. They stood up against the madness we have come to see in which criminals and terrorists have legal access to assault weapons and then find themselves better armed than police.”
Since Kasich became governor in 2011, he has signed into law bills sought by gun-rights groups and fellow Republicans, including one that allows holders of concealed-carry permits to take their guns into establishments that serve alcohol — as long as they don’t drink and the business owners permit firearms.
Legislation signed by Kasich has expanded concealed-carry permit reciprocity with other states; redefined automatic firearms as those capable of firing 31 rounds without reloading; removed the penalty for storing a gun in a vehicle in a parking lot or garage where a no-firearms sign is posted; and allowed guns to be stored in vehicles in the Statehouse and Riffe Center parking garages.
Kasich also has signed bills reducing the needed training for obtaining an initial concealed-carry permit from 12 to eight hours and eliminating the training requirement for those seeking to renew their permits.
The pending state-budget bill contains a provision that would revoke journalists’ access to concealed-carry permit lists maintained by county sheriffs. Reporters now can only view the lists, not obtain copies or take notes. Kasich is to sign the budget bill early this week.
“He’s been good on the issue as governor,” said Irvine of the Buckeye Firearms Association, adding, “I think it’s fair for people to change over time. He’s become more friendly to the issue.”
Yet Kasich’s disavowal of his 1994 vote and his oath of fealty to the NRA might not ward off criticism by GOP rivals or independent organizations in the early primaries.
“It’s not as though the groups or the candidates attacking Kasich are going to put a year on it,” Sabato said of the 1994 vote.
“They’re not going to say, ‘He voted against gun rights in 1994,’ because some people would say, ‘Oh, well, that was a long time ago,’ ” Sabato said. “That’s going to be his problem, getting out his side of it. They will simply say, ‘Kasich is opposed to gun rights, and he voted against gun rights,’ period, full stop.”
