Gun control to be big issue in Ohio's governor race

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX) — Every time there’s another mass shooting, no matter what part of the country it happens in, Nan Whaley’s phone lights up.

That’s understandable, since she was mayor of Dayton in August 2019, when a gunman shot and killed nine people in the city’s Oregon District before police stopped him with bullets of their own. Now, Whaley plans to make gun control a major issue as she runs for Ohio governor, trying to unseat Republican incumbent Mike DeWine.

The school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, brought it all back for Whaley.

“It brings back everything that happened in Dayton on August 4 and frankly no mayor, no community should have to go through that,” Whaley said.

Whaley is facing off with DeWine, a few years after they shared a stage in Dayton the night after the Oregon District tragedy. Now she wants his job, especially after she claims he caved to his party on gun control issues.

“He signed permitless conceal carry and Stand Your Ground,” Whaley said of Dewine. “He is not really interested in making our communities more safe. He has made our communities less safe.”

Whaley said she wants more background checks and to get guns away from those with mental health issues.

“Passing universal background checks so we can make sure guns don’t get into the hands of the mentally ill,” she said. “We know that extreme risk protection orders save lives.”

DeWine ordered flags to half-staff in honor of the Texas victims and tweeted that he was heartbroken by the tragedy. But Wednesday he was in Nashville for the Republican Governors’ Association Conference and didn’t have time for an interview Wednesday.

But his spokesman points out DeWine established an Ohio School Safety Center, which helps to monitor social media for school threats, and created a school threat tip line. He also allocated $50 million for violent crime reduction programs and he claims to have improved the statewide warrant system to help keep guns out of the hands of those who are legally forbidden from carrying.

DeWine’s team said background checks wouldn’t have stopped the Texas deaths as the shooter passed a federal background check.