Buckeye Reporter

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose said Issue 1 opponents want to “come after our gun rights” after Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb endorsed a “no” vote on the initiative, while calling for a ballot measure on 2nd Amendment restrictions.

"The Mayor of Cleveland just said the quiet part out loud - they are desperate to defeat Issue 1 because the radical left's next risky scheme is to use their 'political power' to come after our gun rights," LaRose wrote in a July 26 tweet. 

According to a July 27 report from the Cleveland Reporter, during a press conference on "summer violence" in Cleveland, Mayor Justin Bibb (D) expressed support for a ballot driven constitutional amendment in Ohio on gun control.

"We can use our real political power to change our culture of guns," Bibb said at the press conference. "It starts by voting no on Issue 1, by the way, so that we can maybe put a ballot measure on our state Constitution."

Issue 1, which will appear on the ballot on August 8th, would require petition-based amendments to Ohio's Constitution to pass with 60% of the vote rather than a simple majority.

In a statement to the Lima Reporter, State Rep. Tim Barhorst (R-Fort Loramie) of Ohio's 85th District said that Ohio's Constitution "is the most unprotected and most vulnerable of all the 50 state constitutions in our great country. The Ohio Constitution must be protected from out of state interest groups that spend millions of dollars to destroy our values."

The changes made in Issue 1 are "designed to help protect the Ohio Constitution from continued abuse by special interests and out-of-state activists," so that it can serve as a framework for the state's government as they assert it was intended to be, according to a release from the Ohio Secretary of State's office.

Last year, Measure 114 passed in the state of Oregon with 50.65% of the vote, a margin of fewer than 25,000 votes of the over two million total votes cast. Due to Oregon's 50% threshold to pass initiatives, Measure 114 would be the current law in Oregon if not for a number of legal challenges over the measure's constitutionality. According to a previous report from Buckeye Reporter, Measure 114 would ban magazines with more than a 10-round capacity and would require permitting to purchase and transfer firearms.

The National Rifle Association's Institute for Legal Action called measure 114 "the nation's most extreme gun control initiative," and found that under Measure 114 gun owner's personal information would be collected in a government registry and that this data would be published annually.

In addition to Secretary LaRose, Issue 1 has the support of US Sen. J.D. Vance, Gov. Mike DeWine, Senate Majority Leader Rob McColley, among other conservative leaders, according to a Buckeye reporter previous report. 

Opposing the measure, according to prior reporting from the Buckeye Reporter is a "a roster of left-leaning advocacy groups." These groups include Black Lives Matter Cleveland, Black Lives Matter Dayton, Pro-Choice Ohio, Black Out and Proud, the Cleveland Bi+ Network, Columbus New Liberals, Democrat Socialists of America-Cleveland, Ensuring Parole for Incarcerated Citizens, New Voices for Reproductive Justice and the Ohio Federation of Teachers.

The Communist Party of Ohio also reportedly joined the Vote No in August coalition and recently gathered to “stand with drag queens and families” during a protest outside a "Drag Story Hour" event at the Near West Side Theatre in Cleveland, Ohio, according to the Cleveland Reporter.

As previously noted by Buckeye Reporter, Ohio is one of only fifteen U.S. states allow for ballot driven amendments to their constitutions. Of those fifteen , four of them, Illinois, Arizona, Florida, and Colorado, have thresholds for passage above a simple majority.