COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio Senate committee will hear from Democrats and a Republican who are sponsoring legislation that would expand background checks for most firearm purchases and create a "red flag" law aimed at keeping guns from people viewed as threats to themselves and others.
Sen. Cecil Thomas, a Cincinnati Democrat and member of the Government Oversight and Reform Committee, said in an interview before Tuesday's hearing in Columbus that there's little appetite in the Republican-controlled Legislature to pass substantive guns laws.
Thomas says Republicans likely agreed to Tuesday's hearing because of a mass shooting in Dayton in August that killed nine people.
It prompted Sen. Peggy Lehner, a Dayton-area Republican, to become a co-sponsor for legislation on background checks, the red-flag law and increasing the age for firearm purchases to 21.