Dispatch: Marchers will have guns on hip

Gahanna event designed to display support for legal concealed weapons
Saturday, October 11, 2003
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

They will gather Sunday, openly wearing their handguns for a march through Gahanna.

Robert Maroldy of Gahanna and Gerard Valentino of Pickerington said they are demonstrating their support for changing Ohio’s law to allow people to carry concealed weapons.

They hope that as many as 150 sympathizers show up for the "defense walk," starting at 2 p.m. Sunday at Veterans Memorial, a park off Granville and Mill streets in Gahanna. Similar events are planned in Dayton and Lima.

About 80 people, many of them wearing guns, marched on Sept. 28 in Cincinnati. There were no arrests.

"Our goal is to have a very peaceful, nonconfrontational event," Valentino said.

Gahanna Police Chief Dennis Murphy said Maroldy and Valentino have cleared the event with him. He said there will be extra officers on duty.

Murphy said he has no problem with the group exercising its First and Second Amendment rights. Murphy has testified at the Statehouse in favor of a law that would require those carrying concealed weapons to be licensed and trained.

Valentino said anyone bringing a handgun must have it in a holster and openly displayed. Each person will decide whether to load the gun. Valentino said his handgun will be loaded.

The Ohio House passed a bill that would allow people to carry concealed weapons once they are trained and licensed. There are 45 states with similar laws.

Conceal-carry proponents blame Ohio Senate President Doug White for delaying the appointment of a committee to iron out differences between House and Senate versions. Gov. Bob Taft has said he will veto any proposal that isn’t supported by a majority of the law enforcement community.

The Ohio Supreme Court recently upheld Ohio’s 144-year old law on carrying concealed weapons. It makes the act a crime but allows those charged to be acquitted if they can prove they needed the gun for self-defense; for example, if they routinely carry large sums of money.

Maroldy said the absurdity of the law is that it allows people to openly carry weapons, which Sunday’s event will demonstrate.

He lived in Texas, where he was licensed and trained to carry a concealed weapon, he said. When he moved to Ohio about seven years ago, he was shocked to find there wasn’t a similar law.

"I felt like I was stripped naked and thrown to the wolves," Maroldy said.

Toby Hoover, executive director of the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence, said the demonstrations are designed to "provoke society’s displeasure with people carrying firearms."

Hoover said gun owners think the march proves that people should be allowed to carry concealed guns. "I think it proves most people don’t want to share space with people with firearms."

Commentary:
When denouncing the first two court rulings in Ohio, which unanimously agreed that Ohio's ban on concealed carry is unconstitutional, Hoover praised current Ohio law.

On February 25, 2001, she was quoted in the Cincinnati Enquirer as saying the very 'open carry' law which she is now complaining out, was "adequate" and "sufficient". Now she is telling media she doesn't want people carrying guns concealed OR in the open.

Unfortunately for Hoover (and Ohio's defenseless citizens), Ohio law and the Ohio Supreme Court says she doesn't have that option.

The choice for Ohioans and legislators is not guns or no guns, and never has been (both because Ohio law has allowed for open carry since 1859, and also because gun control laws do NOT work to stop criminals from using them).

Rather, the choice now is between an 'open carry' law which is dreadfully inadequate, and which requires no training, background checks, and which delineates no so-called "gun free" zones; or a more subtle form of self-defense, via concealed carry reform which would become law under House Bill 12.

Click here to read the story in Columbus Dispatch (subscription site - paid access only).