CLEVELAND — Seventeen states have some form of a "red-flag" gun law.
Gov. Mike DeWine hopes to add Ohio to the list. He has been working with gun-rights groupls to write a bill that can win the backing of fellow Republicans, many of whom have been reluctant to embrace this and other gun-control measures.
The hang-up for many is the concern that such laws trample on due process rights guaranteed in the United States Constitution.
I caught up with former Ohio Attorney General and Lt. Governor Lee Fisher to ask him about the proposed law. Fisher has been out of the political arena for about a decade and now serves as the Dean of Cleveland State University's Marshall School of Law.
The life-long Democrat applauded DeWine's approach.
"When the Dayton crowd said 'Do something' to the Governor, it struck a cord with him and he did something. I think that's right," Fisher told me. "Lots of crimes are committed out of emotion and emotion of the moment. To give somebody even a short cooling off period by taking away their guns and getting some perspective, that's going to save lives whether it's suicide, homicide or mass shootings."
But can both sides of the political aisle work together?
"Yes," Fisher said. "As long as we have leaders in both parties who talk about what we talk about at our law school. That is living justice, learning the law, and trying to put political differences aside once in a while."