Right now, people all over the country are walking into their local gun stores and buying suppressors over the counter. They're getting the NICS check or flashing their concealed carry card, filling out a Form 4473, then taking their happy butts back home with their new suppressor that same day. It's kind of glorious if you're able to do it.
I'm not, damn it, and I'm still salty about it. After Tuesday night's results, it doesn't look like life is going to improve for me, either.
Ohio has the same issue we have in Georgia. Republicans will still control the statehouse next year, but an anti-gun Democrat is going to be the state's next governor.
Time is of the essence here, but some lawmakers are still dragging their heels.
Ohio’s Senate has taken clear, decisive action on suppressor reform, but the House has not finished the job. Senate Bill 214 passed the Senate by a decisive 31–1 vote, yet months later, the bill remains stalled in the House Public Safety Committee. SB 214 would remove firearm mufflers and suppressors from Ohio’s legal classification of “dangerous ordnance.”
This is not a personal attack on House Speaker Matt Huffman or legislative leadership. Speaker Huffman has a proven track record of strong pro-gun leadership, consistently advancing Second Amendment priorities and defending the constitutional rights of Ohio gun owners throughout his tenure. Rather, this is a demand for basic legislative accountability and a recognition that a rare reform opportunity must not be taken for granted. A bill sitting in committee changes nothing, a vague promise to consider it later provides zero legal certainty, and an unverified assumption that Governor Mike DeWine will sign it is a dangerous gamble.
Governor DeWine’s track record on the Second Amendment has been lukewarm at best—and openly hostile at worst.
Throughout his decades in public office, from his tenure in the U.S. Senate to the governor’s mansion, DeWine has earned a reputation among gun owners as an unreliable defender of constitutional rights. During his time in Washington, DeWine’s anti-gun voting record earned him abysmal ratings from grassroots firearm organizations, including an “F” rating from Buckeye Firearms Association (BFA) and the NRA. That record alienated Ohio’s firearms community and played a pivotal role in his 2006 U.S. Senate defeat to Sherrod Brown, as thousands of constitutional conservatives simply refused to rally behind a candidate who failed to defend their fundamental rights.
I have to agree with Ammoland's Sean Maloney here, because DeWine has not exactly been the best governor on guns. Some of us remember him pushing gun control in the wake of the shooting in Dayton, something he kept pushing even after it was clear there was no political will in the legislature to see it passed.
Since then, he's signed a number of pro-gun measures, but he's not really championed any of them I can recall as I sit here writing. That may be some lukewarm support for gun rights or an understanding that if he vetoed a pile of pro-gun bills, he was going to find it hard to get anything else accomplished.
However, as we see the aftermath of the election, we see that a Democrat will be moving into the governor's mansion. Now is the time for the legislature, if it can, to pass suppressor reform before Governor-elect Amy Acton has a chance to veto the bill.
DeWine might do it. Acton will.