Concealed carry for hunters – your opportunity to make a difference

By Aaron Kirkingburg & Larry S. Moore

The Ohio Division of Wildlife is once again holding its annual open house meetings for each district. These meetings will be held on March 4th at the District Offices in districts 1-4 and at the Greene County Fish and Game clubhouse for district 5. These public forums are held every year in order to give Ohio hunters, trappers and anglers a chance to bring policy and regulatory concerns directly to Division of Wildlife personnel.

Attending these district meetings is a great opportunity to for CHL holders to make their collective voice heard in a way that will be noticed.

As many of you know, the Division of Wildlife has been unwilling to fall in line with state law, and allow sportsmen and women, with a CHL to carry while deer hunting in Ohio. The issue has been brought up at these open houses in the past, but without success. Only thirty-five comments regarding concealed carry were received at the open houses in March 2006. Quite frankly, that is not enough demand to drive change.

Click on 'Read More' to learn how you can help make a difference this time around!

The regulations, including those which prohibit concealed carry, are reviewed only once per year. Preliminary regulations were presented to the Wildlife Council earlier in January. They do not contain any changes regarding concealed carry for hunters. The Chief, Division of Wildlife will officially present the proposed changes on March 7. The Wildlife Council will discuss the proposed changes. However, there is no public testimony at the Wildlife Council meetings. The Ohio Wildlife Council meets at 7:00 PM at the District 1 office.

A final public state fish and wildlife hearing is held on March 8 at the District 1 office beginning at 9:00 AM. Public comments are heard depending upon specific time limitations. The Ohio Wildlife Council will have final discussions and vote on the proposed regulations on April 4, 2007.

Leaders of Buckeye Firearms Association have engaged in discussions with Division of Wildlife personnel over the past two years without success. Quite frankly, without an outpouring of sportsmen demand for change, nothing is going to change. Even if legislation is introduced and passed, it will be 2008 before the regulations would change.

This is the ONE-TIME-THIS-YEAR opportunity to make an impact and help change Ohio’s wildlife regulations that deny the right of self-defense!

The contact information for each district is listed below for your convenience. This link provides information including maps to the open house locations:

http://www.dnr.ohio.gov/wildlife/Publicmeetings/councilmeetings.htm

Anyone unable to attend the open houses may submit written testimony to their District Office or to:

Mr. Steve Gray, Chief
Ohio Division of Wildlife
2045 Morse Road
Building G
Columbus, OH 43229-6693

Comments may be sent via email to Chief Gray, and CC'd to your State Representative and State Senator by using our Write a Letter feature.

If you are mailing your comments, please be sure to mail in time to have it delivered by Friday, March 2. After the Sunday, March 4 open houses conclude, the District Offices are in a crunch the next morning to recap, summarize and get to Columbus in time for
PowerPoint slides to be made for each district and consolidated to the
state level for the Wednesday evening presentation to the Wildlife Council.

UPDATE: Concealed Carry for Hunters progress

Open house locations:
12:00 - 3:00 PM

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Wildlife District One
1500 Dublin Road
Columbus, Ohio 43215
(614) 644-3925
District Manager Dan Huss

Wildlife District Two
952 Lima Avenue
Findlay, Ohio 45840
(419) 424-5000
District Manager John Daughtery

Wildlife District Three
912 Portage Lakes Drive
Akron, Ohio 44319
(330) 644-2293
District Manager Jeff Herrick

Wildlife District Four
360 E. State Street
Athens, Ohio 45701
(740) 589-9930
District Manager Jeff Harris

Wildlife District Five
Greene County Fish and Game Association
1538 Union Road, Xenia
(937) 372-9261
District Manager Todd Haines