GOP Rep. Michael R. Turner of Dayton backs assault-weapon ban, magazine limits

Rep. Michael R. Turner (R-Ohio), shown above March 28 on Capitol Hill, said his daughter and a family friend were near the scene of the mass shooting Sunday in Dayton, Ohio. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

Rep. Michael R. Turner (R-Ohio), whose congressional district includes Dayton, where nine people were killed in a mass shooting over the weekend, endorsed a ban on military-style weapons Tuesday, going further than many of his GOP colleagues on stricter gun laws.

The mass shooting, which came some 13 hours after the deadly shooting in El Paso, was personal for Turner, not only because it occurred in his district, but also because his daughter and a family friend were at a bar across the street from where the shooting began.

“As they ran home, I followed their progress & prayed for them & our community. Thank you to @DaytonPolice for their bravery in stopping this evil,” Turner tweeted Sunday morning.

Two days later, Turner, who has a 93 percent rating from the National Rifle Association and in February voted against a House-passed bill to expand background checks for firearms, released a statement announcing his support for stopping the sale of assault weapons to civilians, limiting the size of magazines and enacting red-flag laws to bar firearms from any individual considered an imminent threat to themselves or others.

“The carnage these military-style weapons are able to produce when available to the wrong people is intolerable,” Turner said in a statement. “This tragedy must become a catalyst for a broader national conversation about what we can do to stop these mass shootings.”

Turner said he will discuss these measures with President Trump when the president visits Dayton on Wednesday.

A spokeswoman for Turner would not say what role the congressman’s daughter being at the scene played in his decision to come out publicly for stricter federal firearm policies.

The congressman was not immediately available for an interview.

Turner took office in 2003. A year later, Congress let lapse a federal ban on assault weapons that had been signed by President Bill Clinton in 1994.

There was no opportunity for Turner to vote on a major gun law until the February vote this year. His spokeswoman did not respond when asked whether Turner would vote differently on that legislation now.

The closest Congress came to passing a significant change in gun laws occurred in the months after the December 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in which 20 students and six school employees were killed. A bipartisan bill co-written by Sens. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.) to expand background checks came up six votes short in the Democratic-led Senate in 2013 and never received a vote in the House.