Betty Montgomery: "I will never be the candidate of the NRA."

By Jim Irvine

At the Strongsville Republican’s club pig roast, on August 13, I talked with gubernatorial candidate Betty Montgomery about concealed carry. Though she maintained that she never made any disparaging comments about CHL holders, we did "agree" on several other areas.

Betty stated that she thought HB12 was a terribly drafted bill. With regard to the Senate's amendments, I could not agree more. So it is confusing that her recent campaign material states, “As Governor I will not seek to change the rights of Ohioans to carry concealed weapons under Ohio law.”

She admitted that she was wrong about the adverse effects concealed carry license holders would have, and that she did not know of a single problem. While she is happy about the positive effects of the law, she is not eager to give license holders the additional freedoms we need.

Betty does not like the provision where information about license holders is available only to the media. She did not say if she thinks all CHL info should be private (as we think it should be) or if all should be public, as (the recently convicted) Governor Taft thinks it should be, and as she has stated in the past.

I explained how difficult it is to properly carry on a motorcycle. Betty was not familiar with the ridiculous car carry provisions in current law, so could not comment on a fix.

Betty did agree that forcing license holders to store their firearm case, “in plain sight” when dining at a class D restaurant was a bad idea, and understood how that might contribute to stolen firearms. She stressed the need to listen to the guidance of law enforcement for changes to our law, but seemed to miss the fact that the “plain sight” language which has helped criminals steal guns on several occasions was inserted at the insistence of the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

While Buckeye Firearms Association agrees with listening to the concerns of law enforcement, it’s hard to see that the Ohio State Highway Patrol has offered any good advice regarding concealed carry.

Betty stated that she would “never be the candidate of the NRA, and I’m fine with that. I don’t want their endorsement.”

I can’t speak for the NRA-ILA, but I’d guess that Chris Cox would say something like, “Well Betty, let me ease your troubled mind…”

Betty does not want to live in a place where everyone has to carry a gun. I don’t want to live in a place where everyone has to have smoke detectors and lock the doors to their house. But we don’t live in utopia, we live in Ohio. And because I can’t predict what day (hopefully never) I’ll be attacked by a vicious criminal any more than I can predict what day (hopefully never) my house will catch fire, I’ll ensure that I have good batteries in my smoke detectors, and I’ll carry a gun. My family deserves the added safety each tool provides.

Related Stories:
Betty “Just call me Kerry” Montgomery begins chase for gun vote

2nd Amendment among Betty’s website ''keywords'', but content nonexistent