Dayton has never quite gotten over the tragedy of a mass shooting that took place in its Oregon district three years ago today. It probably never will. But the one thing Howard Wilkinson knows about Dayton the city where he was born and raised is that they have dealt with calamities before and have never failed to bounce back.
Gov. Mike DeWine's GOP base is mostly OK with his approach to gun issues, but the question for DeWine as a candidate for re-election is whether or not he is alienating voters who are fed up with gun violence and mass shootings.
The suspects in the shootings at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school and a Buffalo, New York, supermarket were both just 18, authorities say, when they bought the weapons used in the attacks too young to legally purchase alcohol or cigarettes, but old enough to arm themselves with assault weapons.
In some cases, weapons were obtained legally under current firearms laws. In other instances, shooters were able to get the guns because of background check lapses or law enforcement’s failure to heed warnings of concerning behavior.