Ohio Governor Mike DeWine released his 17-point public safety plan on Monday, and already gun control advocates are complaining it doesn’t go far enough, while gun owners have some concerns of their own. What’s clear, however, is that DeWine is taking a different approach to background checks and “red flag” legislation than what’s been offered by anti-gun activists. Unlike the lip service paid to the 2nd Amendment by those self-proclaimed “gun safety” advocates, this is a real attempt to come up with ideas that are constitutional, enforceable, and effective.

On today’s Bearing Arms’ Cam & Co. Sean Maloney of Buckeye Firearms Coalition in Ohio joins me to talk about the details of the bill, including changes to the state’s background check and civil commitment laws.

While Sean and I both have some concerns over the bill, Maloney says he believes it’s possible, with a few legislative tweaks, to make the legislation better and alleviate the concerns that gun owners and other critics currently have. One particular concern for Maloney is part of the governor’s plans to change the state’s background check law. DeWine decided against a “universal background check bill”, but instead wants to change the standard currently needed to convict someone for giving a gun to a prohibited person from “recklessness” down to simple “negligence”. At the same time, DeWine wants to double the penalty for transferring a gun to a prohibited person from 18 months to a 3-year prison sentence. I think gun owners would be on board with raising the penalty, but not when paired with lowering the legal standard to convict. As Maloney argues, it would be far to easy for overzealous prosecutors to claim that anybody who transferred a firearm without going through a background check was negligent. The intention is good, but the results could be less than ideal, according to Maloney.

Check out the entire interview in the link above, as well as today’s self-defense story (also from Ohio), an accused killer who should have been behind bars in Alabama instead of allegedly committing a double murder in Tennessee, and a South Carolina officer in the right place and right time to save the life of an infant.

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