Last month, Gov. Mike DeWine signed into law a controversial stand your ground measure, a perplexing thank you to his party after GOP lawmakers had stonewalled him for more than year on gun reform.
Now, DeWine is tucking the few proposals that he feels have the best chances of winning GOP approval into the pending state budget bill.
The ideas aren t new and shouldn t be controversial; DeWine talked about very similar reforms a decade ago, when he was still the attorney general.
Those reforms were proposed after he commissioned a study in 2011 that ultimately found that people convicted of three or more violent offenses accounted for less than 1% of the population but 33% of all violent-crime convictions over nearly four decades.
Columbus police have charged two men for separate homicides and are asking for help in locating the suspects.
Smith is suspected of shooting Ximines around 8:24 p.m. on Jan. 30 in the 3800 block of Bufflehead Drive on the Northeast Side.
Ximines was transported in critical condition to Mount Carmel East Hospital, where she died at 6:30 a.m. on Jan. 31. Her death was Columbus 22nd homicide of 2021.
Detectives are also seeking a 41-year-old Franklinton man wanted on a murder charge after a shooting at a carryout left an employee dead.
Jimmy Crum, 51, of Franklinton, was shot around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at Van s Carry Out, located at 1270 W. Town St.