FLASH: House Bill 12 Conference Committee to meet December 10!

Ohioans For Concealed Carry has learned that a HB12 Conference Committee meeting has been scheduled for this afternoon. With recent news about Ohio's skyrocketing crime rate, the time for delay and obstruction on this crime deterrent bill has obviously passed. Ohio's defenseless citizens deserve action on this bill.

House, Senate, discuss weapons compromise with Taft

The Associated Press
12/9/2003, 7:18 p.m. ET

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Reporters would be allowed access to limited public records on a name-by-name basis under a House and Senate compromise on a bill allowing Ohioans to carry concealed weapons.

In addition, people carrying concealed weapons would be allowed to keep the weapon in a holster when they get into a car, House Speaker Larry Householder said Tuesday.

An earlier proposal would have required them to remove the gun from a holster and place it in a locked box or glove compartment.

"The safest place is in a holster, on someone," Householder said. "You're telling someone who has a gun holstered to get into their automobile, take the gun out of the holster, fumble around, get it in a locked box ... This is the problem, the handling of the gun in the car."

Gov. Bob Taft's insistence that the names of permit holders be public stalled recent negotiations over the bill.

House and Senate lawmakers are discussing a compromise on a concealed weapons bill to try to pass legislation before year's end. A joint committee trying to work out differences over the bill scheduled a tentative vote Wednesday.

Click on the "Read More..." link below for more.

The Legislature has been unable to pass a concealed weapons bill for the past eight years.

Taft is aware of some proposals and is waiting for the committee's final report, said spokesman Orest Holubec.

No deal has been reached, said Maggie Mitchell, a spokeswoman for Senate President Doug White.

Householder said debate continues over a provision of law that allows people arrested for carrying a hidden gun to prove to prosecutors or a judge that the practice is essential for safety reasons.

The House objected to the Senate's removal of that provision, known as an affirmative defense, from its version of the bill.

The open records compromise is similar to current law regarding personal information about police officers and firefighters, said Frank Deaner, executive director of the Ohio Newspaper Association.

That provision allows reporters — but not the general public — to gain the home addresses of police and fire personnel.

Deaner said his organization opposes such media exemptions.

"The more you apply that exemption, the more you're cutting the general public out of information," he said. "You're allowing a government keepers of records to discriminate according to who the requester is and how the information is going to be used."