To the Editor: 'No need' to carry firearms into bars or restaurants that serve alcohol?

In response to The Dayton Daily News' recent editorial excoriating attempts to pass SB239 (Restaurant & Car Carry Rules Fix), two letter writers, including BFA Region Leader Larry Moore, wrote to set the facts straight.

From the opinion page:

Waiting until there's a 'need' is too late

This DDN editorial completely ignores the reality of crime in our society. The editorial says there is no need to carry firearms into bars or restaurants that serve alcohol. There is no need to dine out, as I have the option to cook at home, yet on a regular basis, crime happens in parking lots where restaurants and popular watering holes are located.

Waiting until there is a need to have a firearm means that you will not have one until it is too late. I don't wait until my battery dies to have jumper cables in my car.

The editorial board, in determining what freedoms should apply to the common people, completely ignores another fact of Ohio law. If a restaurant doesn't want the legal concealed-handgun license holder to carry in that establishment, it only has to post a "No Guns" sign on the front door. That's its right. When I see such a sign, it is my freedom to take my business to a restaurant that doesn't discriminate against my right of legal concealed carry and self-defense.

Ohio's gun laws and freedoms are decades behind the surrounding states regarding concealed carry. Given the slow rate of progress, it would be much easier for me to simply move to another state, rather than continue to wait on the majority of the politicians to get it right. Ohio’s progress in the area of concealed carry and gun law reform is painfully slow.

If Ohio's media were regulated like concealed handgun license holders, the DDN would still be using wooden typesetting and hand-cranked presses.

Larry S. Moore
Jamestown

Question about packing heat was answered a long time ago

Re: "Do you need right to pack heat in bars?," Dec. 13: You're asking the wrong question. Over two centuries ago, the founders acknowledged that we the people already have that right, among other rights, granted by our creator; granted not by Congress, not by the Ohio legislature, and certainly not by the Dayton Daily news or police associations.

"Certain inalienable rights," the three listed in the Declaration of Independence and the 10 or more listed in the Bill of Rights, include the right to bear arms (in modern language, the right to carry, or, in the DDN's words, the "right to pack heat"). Also, note the wording, "shall not be infringed." It doesn't say, "shall not be infringed unless you deem the right to be unwise," or "opposed by organizations of police, police chiefs and sheriffs."

As much as you may think it to be unwise, or that the people's right to pack heat makes you and other liberals squeamish, deal with it. You lost those arguments back in the 18th century. It seems the price of liberty is indeed eternal vigilance of those who insist these rights should be taken away.

Alba J. Hurlbut
Harrison Twp.