The Dayton massacre was a strange situation. Not only did a druggie get a gun and suddenly start shooting up an outdoor bar, it happened the same weekend as El Paso, thus dividing our attention between two horrific mass murders.

But for those who live in Dayton, it's really not that hard to focus on one.

I get that.

But on the same token, Dayton isn't the entire state. They've been pushing for gun control since then and gotten nowhere. In fact, Ohio has passed numerous pro-gun laws since that day.

Despite that, the Democrats vying to represent Dayton in the state senate are all pushing gun control.

The three Democrats running in the March primary for the Ohio Senate 6th District representing Dayton and much of Montgomery County have come out in favor of a slew of priority gun control measures recently put forth by the party.

The district’s new Democratic lean not only gives Ohio Democrats a rare chance to pick up a Senate seat, but it could also allow them to replace staunch pro-gun rights Republican incumbent Sen. Niraj Antani, R-Miamisburg. 

...

The candidates in the Democratic primary are state Rep. Willis Blackshear Jr., D-Dayton; Dayton School Board Member Jocelyn Rhynard; and Kettering City Councilwoman Jyl Hall.

Blackshear is pushing a magazine restriction measure, one that limits magazines to 30 rounds, which isn't the worst restriction we've ever seen by any stretch of the imagination, but is still an infringement on the Second Amendment.

Rhynard, by contrast, seems to simply be offering blanket support for gun control rather than supporting particular policies. That's probably good in the primary, though unless the district has gone heavily anti-gun, may hurt them in the general election.

Hall was much the same, though the paper did note that all three candidates supported a particular set of measures.

All three Democratic candidates support measures recently introduced in the General Assembly that would declare gun violence a public health crisis; revoke the state’s permit-less concealed carry law; remove ways to evade background checks; make it illegal for a person charged or convicted of first degree misdemeanor domestic violence to possess a firearm; and create a task force to study gun violence in Ohio.

Of course, this requires voters to ignore the massive drop in violent crime seen across the state, including in a number of the larger cities in the state, since constitutional carry was passed.

In other words, a pro-gun bit of legislation is working and we simply can't have that.

Yes, I know that this is just from a single year and, as such, isn't really comprehensive justification for the law, but it negates the talking point that many want to make about constitutional carry, that it will cause violent crime to increase. That's a point I've made before.

At the end of the day, Dayton might well elect one of these three to the state Senate. However, I don't think anyone should get their hopes up that Ohio is suddenly going to backslide toward the anti-gun side of things. That doesn't seem remotely likely, even if Democrats pick up a seat.