DELAWARE, OH (WCMH) — The mass shooting in Orlando is already campaign fodder, with Donald Trump calling for a ban on Muslim immigrants, and Hillary Clinton calling for a ban on assault rifles.
Governor John Kasich is more pragmatic.
“Colleen, when you look at that specific incident, you see someone who may have been mentally ill; somebody who abused his wife; somebody who had been investigated twice by the FBI, and somebody who threatened a coworker. Now when you see that I’m not sure somebody like that ought to have access to any kind of firearm.”
Not a comment you would expect on the campaign trail, but Kasich is now going about business of running the state. Today he signed a bill to consolidate and streamline some park and water services.
He’s also thinking about security. The Republican National Convention is just weeks away, it’s the middle of Pride Month and too many venues are vulnerable.
“Basically we’re going to have to think about better exits from any of these establishments. Number two, I think every business owner is going to have to think about security going in there or people who are in a place where you have big crowds, because its an opportunity for a lone wolf. The problem is the lone wolf is kind of hard to find unless somebody notices something,” Kasich said.
Kasich says he takes his cues for the Cleveland convention from security experts.
“I met with the head of Secret Service. I talk to our patrol all the time and we will have a perimeter around the convention, but outside the perimeter for people who just want to disrupt and not kill somebody, the question is what do you do there?”
Much of the security concerns fall on Kasich’s shoulders. He is the governor of the host state for his own party’s convention, but he says may not have a role in the convention himself. That doesn’t concern him however. “What I’m going to do inside the convention hall is yet to be determined.”
This might have to do with his lack of endorsement of GOP presumptive nominee Donald Trump. And there doesn’t much to change his mind.
“Well, you know there was a guy named Saul, who got knocked off his ride and was blinded on teh way to Damascus, and wrote three quarters of the new testament. I think it’s going to take pretty much that kind of Damascus Road experience for me to see a transformation. I haven’t seen it yet, but look, it’s up to him, it’s not up to me.”
Kasich is settling back in to the job he was trying to do from the road: signing bills, running the state, and being governor.What others are clicking on:
