As students across the country participated in walkouts and marches to protest America’s epidemic of gun violence on Thursday, their inspirational mass movement was met with impotent mockery by smug conservative politicians and internet pundits. It was largely the same cynical, fringe talking points that Republicans always trot out in response to anyone that might challenge the NRA’s reign of terror, but this time, perhaps inspired by the pained pleas of children begging for their own lives, some on the right wing rose to the occasion to offer more vile insults and truly unhinged policy proposals.
Niraj Antani, a state legislator from Ohio, became one of the most notable of these next-level lunatics when he suggested that not only should teachers be allowed to have guns, but students should also be permitted to carry firearms in school.
“Students deserve a chance to stand their ground and defend themselves,” Antani, who represents Ohio’s 42nd house district, wrote on Twitter. He later doubled down on the dystopian suggestion, tweeting (incorrectly) that gun-free zones don’t work and telling the Dayton Daily News that 18-year-olds, who are permitted to have long guns in Ohio, should be allowed to bring them into the classroom.
One of his prospective Democratic opponents in the race, Zach Dickerson, seized on the comments during a tense Twitter exchange that gained local notice. Antani tried to clarify that he wasn’t proposing legislation to arm school children, but in a conversation with Progressives Everywhere, Dickerson used Antani’s comments and record on guns to tie the Republican to several terrifying gun proposals that are currently making their way through the Ohio legislature.
“There are a couple of other really dangerous pieces of legislation that I want to make sure get stopped,” Dickerson said. “One says that anybody can have a concealed weapon. Right now under current law, you've got to have an eight-hour safety training and a background check from the sheriff. It is informative and easy. I know because I took the class, I have a concealed carry permit. They want to do away with that. And then the other says that if you've got a concealed carry permit, you can take your gun anywhere you want. So you put those together, anybody can have a concealed weapon and they can take it anywhere they want — that's crazy. It's scary. It's a dangerous policy and so I want to make sure that those things don't get pushed through and get to the governor's desk.”
Dickerson, a first-time candidate who works as a researcher for LexisNexis, is originally from Texas, where he learned to hunt with his father, who is a Republican. So he thinks “there’s a place for guns in America,” but also believes in common sense gun reform. He’s been moved by the students from Parkland who have led the protests and echoes their calls for raising the age on gun purchases, the banning of bump stocks, red flag laws and extreme risk protection orders, and looking at larger laws around weapons of war.
“It gets a little trickier when you start talking about banning assault weapons, but I personally don't think that an AR-15 and similar rifles need to be marketed for purchase by civilians,” he said. “It’s gonna be hard to define what an assault weapon is in that sense, but I think that's something we need to look at.”
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Dickerson wasn’t the only politico to put the heat on Antani after the bone-headed remarks. Almost all of the Ohio GOP power structure distanced themselves from the legislator’s comments.
“Both state and federal law prohibit unlicensed individuals like students from carrying guns in high school buildings, and we believe that is the right policy,” Mike DeWine, the state’s attorney general and leading GOP gubernatorial candidate, said. Senator Rob Portman concurred: "There’s a federal law requiring that there be no weapons, not even within a certain distance of schools, and I think that’s appropriate.”
Marcus Rech, a Republican who is running against Antani in a primary, said that “I remember myself when I was that age … there’s a lot of fights that break out and conflict, a lot of hormones. It’s not a good mix.”
Gun control has taken center stage in Dickerson’s campaign, but was not the initial inspiration for his run. Dickerson is part of a mass wave of local and state-level Democrats who have gotten personally involved in politics in response to the GOP’s lurch to the far right.
“I've always been engaged in politics, but there has been a slow creep of this really just corrosive, toxic partisanship,” he said. I like a lot of Democrats sat home on election night in 2016 and watched Donald Trump get elected, and I was like, OK, I gotta get off the bench. I come from a Republican family, so I'm a pretty moderate Democrat, and more importantly, I know how to disagree with people without demonizing them. I really think I could do a better job than the guy that's in there. And I think I will bring a much more collaborative, cooperative atmosphere to the Ohio House of Representatives.”
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