Ohio Governor Race Tests Appetite for Gun Control in Open-Carry State

In the wake of Parkland, Cordray’s perspective has shifted. He says he supports more extensive background checks but has not called for an outright assault weapons ban.

On the debate stage Wednesday night, Cordray did not distance himself from the NRA and instead adopted a familiar position that could align him more closely with conservatives than the Democratic base.

"Everybody on the stage has recognized in the wake of the shootings at Parkland, we have to tighten our gun laws," he said. "We have to tighten our gun laws and keep guns out of the hands of criminals, the mentally ill, domestic abusers and make sure that they are not able to wreak havoc."

That position contrasted sharply with Kucinich's approach. The former presidential hopeful called for a complete ban on assault rifles, including the popular AR-15, which suspected gunman Nikolas Cruz used in the Parkland massacre.

"Cleveland had an assault ban but that assault ban was overturned through the actions of Mr. Cordray, and that's a big issue in this election. We must ban assault weapons," Kucinich said, referring to his opponent's time as attorney general.

"We need to do this for the children of Ohio. We need to do this to protect our public spaces," he added during his closing statement.

O'Neil touted his Second Amendment credentials and called himself an "expert marksman." The former state supreme court justice urged local law enforcement to keep a registry of AR-15s and require citizens to apply for a permit to use the military style weapon.

"My local chief of police told me he had no idea how many AR-15s there are in a small four thousand people. We need to register them, we have to regulate these. This has got to stop," O'Neil said.

That put him to the right of outsider Schiavoni, a 38-year-old state senator and amateur boxer. He comes from a district that voted overwhelmingly for Trump, but outlined several policies on gun control and public safety.

"We need to shore up our schools first and invest in services in our schools, make sure we have the behavioral specialists, security at the doors. We need to make sure we close the gun show loopholes. [We need to have] mental health background checks and have a national conversation about an assault weapons ban," Schiavoni said.

He went even further after Wednesday’s debate and told reporters he would support an assault weapons ban. Kucinich and O'Neil also spoke to reporters but Cordray did not come into the press room after the debate to take questions.

"Rich has never been funded by the NRA," his spokesman Mike Gwin told the Columbus Dispatch. "He's always made his decisions, not based on one interest group or another, but based on what he thinks is in the best interest of his constituents, the state and the country."

The widening debate on gun control legislation has also ensnared Republicans.

Since he was elected in 2010, outgoing Ohio Governor John Kasich has signed over a dozen gun bills into law, including easing regulations on where Ohioans can carry concealed handguns. Day cares, state parking garages, bars, restaurants and universities are all fair game for handguns under state law.

In recent weeks, Kasich has taken a more moderate position, calling for gun reform and saying he supports "common sense" restrictions.

Gun-rights advocate Chris Dorr, director of the nonprofit Ohio Gun Owners, described Kasich as a "wolf in sheep's clothing" and said he was concerned about the current political climate.

"Historically, a lot of these people say at election time that they're going to be voting against gun control," Dorr said in a phone interview Wednesday. "What we're seeing right now is this shift amongst this Republican Party, especially at the leadership levels all the way down to our local legislative races."

Comments by the frontrunner in the Republican race for governor suggest Dorr has good reason to be concerned.

As a moderate Republican congressman in Washington, D.C., Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine supported background checks at gun shows and, in the wake of the Parkland shooting, he has suggested enhancing background checks without changing any current laws.

DeWine is facing off in the May 8 GOP primary against Lieutenant Governor Mary Taylor. Kasich can’t run again because he is term-limited.

On the other side of the political spectrum, Toby Hoover, founder of the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence, said she was skeptical of the Democratic candidates' evolving positions. She said she would like to hear more from Cordray on background checks.

Hoover blamed Democrats’ past coziness with the NRA on redistricting, which she said made liberal politicians feel outnumbered and pressured them into listening to the gun lobby.

"In Ohio, we're divided as far as rural areas and our big cities," she said. "We have a lot of legislators from those [rural] areas that are catering to people who are really talking about hunting instead of talking about carrying a gun around in your pocket in Cleveland or Columbus, and that's a huge difference."

A Pew survey from July 2017 underscores the divide between rural and urban gun owners.  The poll found that almost six in 10 rural Americans own a gun. Only 28 percent of adults who live in the suburbs said they are gun owners. In cities, 19 percent of adults own firearms, the survey found.

Eighty-two percent of gun owners in rural parts of the country said that the right to own a gun was essential to their person sense of freedom, compared to 59 percent of gun owners living in cities.

How much the issue of gun control will matter in this year's general election in November remains to be seen.

Democrat Marc Dann, another former Ohio attorney general, says he now regrets embracing the NRA. He believes the public in Ohio is ready for gun control legislation but said that Cordray and other candidates "haven't caught up yet."

"It was very tempting to tell yourself the story that, 'Well, the NRA's right. This is about the constitutional rights of individual gun owners,'" Dann said in a phone interview. "The fact is you can respect the rights of individuals in this country to own guns for their own protection or for recreation and at the same time support reasonable regulations on those guns."

Dann added that gun lobby would always feel more comfortable with a pro-gun Republican in the governor's mansion than a pro-gun Democrat and suggested Cordray and the other Democratic candidates have nothing to lose by staking out an opposing position.

"Any advantage Rich Cordray might have from his pandering to the NRA over the past two decades, it goes out the window because he's not going to get their endorsement anyway," Dann said.

Instead, as activists push for more gun control, it might just be the wedge issue that increases turnout on the Democratic side.

"It can be a base-driving issue for the Democratic nominee, but if it's somebody who doesn't support reasonable steps like banning assault weapons, I don't know that that will work for the Democrats," Dann said.

Dorr, meanwhile, said the call for more gun control had more to do with the mainstream media and a "leftist agenda."

He said Ohio gun owners still support "rational, reasonable laws" that improve public safety and that his group, Ohio Gun Owners, is still opposed to an assault weapons ban.

The state's gun owners will be the "800-pound" gorilla in any district whose representatives waver on gun rights, he said.

"The only thing that has changed…is weak-kneed politicians who have abandoned the field, and now gun owners are going to be the ones who have to step up and send a very loud and clear message to their representatives and their senators, that if you cross that line you'll be held accountable for it," Dorr said.

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