Dayton Daily News: Taft aims to calm concealed-carry foes

Governor wants rights legislation

By William Hershey, Laura A. Bischoff
Dayton Daily News

December 18, 2003

COLUMBUS -- Gov. Bob Taft said Wednesday that his aides and staffers from the Ohio House are negotiating in a last-ditch effort to avoid a veto of legislation passed last week that would give law-abiding Ohioans the right to carry concealed handguns.

"I would hope that we could get this resolved as soon as the legislature comes back (in the first week in January)," Taft said in a year-end interview at the governor's residence in suburban Bexley.

The efforts to work out a compromise on concealed-carry have continued despite Taft's threat to veto the bill passed last week, saying it doesn't give the press and public adequate access to personal information about permit holders.

That bill would give journalists -- not the public -- access to concealed-carry records on a name-by-name basis.

Taft said negotiations focus on a proposal agreed to by him and Senate Republicans that would give journalists access to each county's database on permit holders, providing the names and counties of residence.

That falls short of Taft's initial public record demand that called for giving the public access to permit holders' names, counties of residence, and birth dates.

"In the interest of passing a bill, we think if you got names and counties that would be sufficient, just as long as there is full access to the database on the part of reporters," Taft said.

House Republicans declined to go along with this plan last week. But one legislative source close to the negotiations said, "I think there's a likelihood of that (an agreement) happening. . . We're so close we may be able to go."

Dwight Crum, spokesman for House Speaker Larry Householder, R-Glenford, would say only, "We're continuing to work to try and give law-abiding Ohioans the ability to protect themselves and their families."

If the House and Senate both agreed to the new bill, Taft would sign it as well as the one passed last week, with the new bill's provisions being paramount.

In one sign that negotiations are going on, the House, where the bill that passed last week originated, has not sent the legislation to Taft yet. The 10 days the governor has to veto a bill do not start until it arrives on his desk.

If Taft gets only the bill passed last week -- without the new legislation -- he would veto it, said Orest Holubec, Taft's spokesman.

Householder has said he believes he has the votes in the House to override a veto, but Senate President Doug White, R-Manchester, has said he does not.

Click here to read the entire story in the Dayton Daily News.