COLUMBUS - Gov. John Kasich wants to eliminate gaps in Ohio's background check system that allows convicts to obtain guns – and he isn't waiting for lawmakers to do it.
Kasich will sign an executive order Monday afternoon to improve gun background checks.
"In too many communities, convictions aren’t uploaded to the National Criminal Background Check system as they should be," Kasich said in a tweet. "This afternoon, I’ll take action to help close this gap to keep weapons out of the wrong hands in our state."
The move comes several weeks after Kasich proposed six changes to Ohio's gun laws from banning bump stocks to removing weapons from people whom courts deem to be a threat.
Among the proposals was penalizing clerks of courts and law enforcement officials who don't routinely submit the names of people banned from owning guns – largely because of charges or convictions.
An Enquirer investigation found dozens of courts have gone months without uploading any names to the national background check-database. Some clerks said they were too busy to submit the names. Others couldn't find the paperwork or lost their passwords.
The result? Individuals banned from owning a gun could easily pass a background check and purchase a gun.
That's the problem Kasich's executive order will target Monday.
Republicans recently introduced Kasich's six proposals. In several cases, Democrats had already proposed similar legislation. The GOP plan did not include penalties for local officials who failed to report convictions. Kasich's order could include some teeth to ensure compliance.
Still, an executive order has more limitations than a law passed by state legislators.
Kasich's order comes after a meeting with Fred Guttenberg, whose teenage daughter Jaime died in the school shooting in Parkland, Florida.
"There are bad people in this world who want to do bad things," Guttenberg said. "What the governor and everyone here is trying to do is make it harder for those people to have access to weapons of war."
