5 shot and killed in Columbus last weekend. What New York Times says about city sadly true.

The premise of a recent New York Times article is sadly spot on — if not at all surprising.

More guns and deconstructed gun laws have made Columbus — and other cities in Ohio and around the nation — far more deadly in the years since the pandemic.

This fact was clear even before a spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg clapped back at House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan last year. The Ohio congressman rallied against violence in New York in hearings about Bragg's so-called "pro-crime, anti-victim policies."

“In D.A. Bragg’s first year in office, New York City had one of the lowest murder rates of major cities in the United States (5.2) nearly three times lower than Columbus, Ohio (15.4)," the aide wrote in a message posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. "If Chairman Jordan truly cared about public safety, he could take a short drive to Columbus, Dayton, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Akron, or Toledo in his home state, instead of using taxpayer dollars to travel hundreds of miles out of his way,"

Diligently working for more gun violence

Jordan, an Urbana Republican who represents Ohio's 4th District, including portions of Columbus, Dublin, and Westerville, hasn't heeded that advice to focus on violence in Ohio.

Gun violence takes more than life. My cousin's heart was smashed when her son was killed.

In fact, he and his counterparts in the Ohio Legislature have worked diligently to make gun violence worse.

To the pleasure of the gun lobby and the chagrin of a long list of Ohioans (city leaders, Fraternal Order of Police, county prosecutors and mothers who lost children to gun violence included), Statehouse Republicans have systematically dismantled sensible gun control measures, including the concealed carry permit requirement.

Gov. Mike DeWine signed the state's "stand your ground" law in 2021. A bill dropping the training hours a teacher needs to be armed in school from 728 hours to about 24 became law in 2022.

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All this while gun violence and the threat of it looms in Columbus and other communities around the state.

Just this weekend, five people died as a result of three fatal shootings. Three people have shot at Columbus officers this month and died as a result.

Gun violence spreading

With relaxed gun regulations and more guns, it is little surprise that the Times analysis found that gun violence is closer to more Americans.

Of fatal shootings across the nation between 2020 and 2023, more than 47 million Americans lived within a five-minute walk of a deadly shooting, up from 39 million over the prior four years, the Times found.

Forty-one percent of Columbus residents lived within a quarter mile of a fatal shooting, compared to 28 percent before the pandemic.

What would be surprising is if Ohio lawmakers did something to address gun violence.

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Even the idea of requiring guns be kept under lock and key to keep them out of kids' hands is a road lawmakers refused to travel.

About 75% of Ohioans support a law requiring guns to be safely stored, according to a 2023 USA TODAY Network/Suffolk University survey. 

There have been 205 unintentional shootings by children since 2015, according to Everytown For Gun Safety.

There is no shortage of things that can be done to reduce gun violence. There is a shortage of will to do anything about it.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Is Columbus violence as bad as New York Times analysis claims