Buckeye Firearms Association offers proponent testimony on SB 60 (Close Media Access to CHL Records Loophole)

by Chad D. Baus

Larry S. Moore, a long-time journalist and outdoor writer, offered proponent testimony today for Senate Bill 60 on behalf of Buckeye Firearms Association.

Sen. Joe Uecker's SB 60 is legislation that would close the media access loophole that currently allows journalists to view the private, personal information of persons who have obtained a license to carry a concealed handgun from the State of Ohio.

Moore's testimony, offered before the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, is included below in its entirety:

Chairman Eklund
Members of the Committee

Thank you for allowing me to present testimony in support of SB 60 today.

I come as both a journalist and a concealed handgun license holder. I write for the three Greene County Dailies (Xenia Gazette, Fairborn News Herald, Beavercreek News Current). I write the outdoor column, plus cover community events and news in eastern Greene County. I am also a volunteer leader for Buckeye Firearms Association, which strongly endorses the passage of SB 60.

Since Ohio first passed our concealed carry law in 2004, state law has always considered the private, personal information about license-holders to be confidential - not a public record. O.R.C. § 2923.129 (B) (1) states: "The records that a sheriff keeps relative to [concealed handgun licenses] are confidential and are not public records."

Immediately, some newspapers across Ohio violated the journalist access to this information with many printing lists of concealed handgun license-holders in their communities. The Ohio General Assembly moved to restrict this loophole so that journalists must provide the reason to see specific requested records. No more perusing of the files. Additionally, journalists may view, but no longer copy, the information.

However, abuse of the intent of Ohio law that the personal information remain confidential has continued. One of the more significant abuses occurred in southwest Ohio when the Middletown Journal published a list of elected officials who have obtained a concealed handgun license. Making this information public presents risks to the elected officials who have exercised a legal right under Ohio law. It may also inadvertently present a risk to those elected officials not listed by possibly making them an easier target for attack. Meanwhile, journalists fail to use the loophole to investigate whether people accused of gun crimes have a concealed handgun license which, of course, is overwhelmingly no.

The Ohio Newspaper Association has made claims that the lists are needed to possibly expose convicted felons who may get a concealed handgun license or to otherwise protect the public. The claim that convicted felons may obtain a concealed handgun license is a direct slap in the face to our Sheriffs, the fingerprinting and the background check to which applicants are subjected. As to serving public safety, what function does the journalist loophole actually serve in protecting society? The success of concealed carry in Ohio certainly proves that the concealed handgun license holder is an upstanding citizen. More often it is the newspapers of Ohio that put these same citizens at risk of having their homes burglarized. The media often use the information to demonize those who exercise their rights under Ohio law. Finally, the media actions exposing concealed handgun license holders may be increasing the risk to our law enforcement officers who must protect elected officials and investigate crimes.

Closing the journalist loophole to truly make the concealed handgun license information confidential as intended by Ohio law is proper. It is a needed and, indeed, overdue piece of legislation. I urge passage of SB 60. Thank you.

As Moore pointed out to the committee, since the day Ohio first passed a concealed carry law in 2004, state law has always considered the private, personal information about license-holders to be confidential - not a public record.

Unfortunately, then Governor Bob Taft succeeded in inserting a loophole that gave the media access to the list of license-holders. As he had been warned, news outlets including The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Elyria Chronicle-Telegram and Warren Tribune-Chronicle quickly began abusing the privilege of having access to the list by obtaining and publishing entire lists of license-holders. In one case, a sheriff in Shelby County even released information to the Sidney Daily News that was forbidden at the time. Despite the fact that illegal release of confidential concealed handgun license records is a felony of the fifth degree, then-Miami County Prosecuting Attorney Gary Nasal spent eight months "investigating" the incident, only to refuse to indict the sheriff.

In late 2006, the General Assembly passed HB9, which modified the media access loophole to prohibit journalists from copying the records. As originally passed by the House (by a 93-1 vote!), HB9 contained contained language which would have to allowed people with CHLs to completely protect their private, personal information from the media. Sadly, the language was stripped out by Republicans in the Ohio Senate and replaced with the watered-down "view but not copy" modification, which eventually became law, and which we warned at the time was not going to be enough to prevent anti-gun newspapers from obtaining and publishing the names of license-holders.

Before the law went into effect, Sandusky Register editor Matt Westerhold made one last grab of the list and published it. In response, Buckeye Firearms Association utilized Westerhold's own truly public records to demonstrate just how easy it is for someone with a grudge to abuse them.

Even after the modification took effect, and at the encouragement of the Ohio Newspaper Association, journalists' attempted to argue over what the word "copy" actually means. The Ohio Attorney General's Office was asked to weigh in, and in late 2007 issued an opinion finding that journalists cannot photo-copy, photograph, dictate, or otherwise jot down the permit holders' personal information.

While no complete list has since been published, journalists continue to abuse the loophole that provides access to these private records. In 2011, The Middletown Journal published a list of elected officials in the Buckeye State who have obtained concealed handgun licenses.

Following that incident, then-Rep. Uecker introduced a bill that would have required journalists to obtain a court order to view information on concealed carry licensees. That bill was not given a serious look by Uecker's caucus, and it died at the end of the last General Assembly. We certainly hope that, in the wake of the abuses in New York, which law enforcement officials have said may have led to the theft of firearms from people's homes, the Republican caucus in the Senate will give this bill the attention it deserves.

Click here to read SB 60 in its entirety.

Chad D. Baus is the Buckeye Firearms Association Vice Chairman.