Columbus, OH — In a move signaling trouble for gun owners in the Buckeye State, term-limited governor-turned-gun-control-activist John Kasich is hitting the campaign trail in Ohio for gubernatorial candidate Mike DeWine.
Kasich is widely despised by gun owners across Ohio and notorious amongst American conservatives in general.
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Preparing for an admitted presidential campaign to unseat President Trump, Kasich initially drew ire from Ohioans for refusing to support Trump as the nominee in the 2016 campaign against Hillary Clinton.
And Kasich has consistently courted the leftwing media to launch his assaults on Trump, a president widely beloved by the grassroots in Ohio.
But for gun owners particularly, Kasich’s support of the Clinton Assault Weapons Ban during his years in Congress are what started the disdain gun owners have for him.
His first betrayal of gun owners was crystallized when President Bill Clinton wrote Kasich a public letter thanking him for serving as the bipartisan face of Republican support for Clinton’s Assault Weapons Ban.
After Congress, Kasich went back to Ohio and vowed he had changed his mind about gun-control as he ran to become governor of Ohio.
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But after the Parkland, FL shootings on February 14, 2018, Kasich reverted to his Congressional persona and began aggressively spearheading a massive gun-control package through Ohio’s legislature.
Tops on Kasich’s gun control agenda is a “Red-Flags” firearms confiscation bill that removes due process for gun owners in the courtroom and creates gun confiscation by judicial decree rather than through the process of adjudication.
It is Mike DeWine’s public pledge to support Kasich’s Red Flags gun confiscation that has gun owners worried.
DeWine, like Kasich, is already on thin ice with gun owners as a result of his history as a US Senator.
In 2004, DeWine earned an F rating by the NRA when he teamed up with Senator Chuck Schumer (D-New York) and Senator Diane Feinstein (D-California) in the United States Senate to reinstitute Bill Clinton’s notorious Assault Weapons Ban – which was the exact same ban Kasich had supported a decade previously.
Fueling the fire of gun owners’ concern further is DeWine’s previous endorsement by the Brady campaign in 2006 and DeWine’s vote for allowing gun-control groups to sue firearm companies for manufacturing firearms used in crimes.
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Many believe that DeWine’s first debate performance against Democrat Richard Cordray, in which DeWine pledged fealty to Kasich’s “Red Flags” gun confiscation, was a signal directly to Kasich that he would continue Kasich’s gun-control agenda in exchange for his support.
Pro-gun Statehouse sources indicate, however, that when it comes to the Second Amendment, they believe gun rights may be more easy to defend from Cordray attacks rather than DeWine attacks.
“No Republican in the GA (General Assembly) wants to go on record opposing a governor from their own party. But if Cordray becomes governor and launches a campaign for Red Flags gun-confiscation, gun control becomes a partisan issue, and you’ll likely see Republicans in the (Ohio) House and Senate become eager to block a governor’s move for gun-control to tee-up the issue for whoever the 2022 Republican governor nominee is,” said one Statehouse insider, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of their affiliation with the Kasich administration.
During the Republican primary, DeWine bested pro-gun challenger Mary Taylor, who is expected to receive a massive quantity of protest write-in votes in Tuesday’s general election.
Early voting is already underway in Ohio, and the race between DeWine and Cordray is expected to be close.