Handgun trainers have their hands full

March 26, 2004
Tiffin Advertiser-Tribune

Northwest Ohio gun dealers have been flooded with customers interested in training classes required to get a concealed-carry permit.

Permit applications will be available at the Seneca County Sheriff's office beginning April 8. Applicants must complete the 12-hour class and pass a background check to get a permit.

Seneca County Sheriff Thomas Steyer said permits will take up to 45 days to process but he has not decided if successful applicants will pick up permits or receive them in the mail.

Rick Osterwalder, owner of Route 53 Recreation Inc. north of Tiffin, said 40 people signed up for the $125 classes this weekend. Route 53 Recreation provides facilities for Saturday's eight-hour instructional class and written test. The other four hours of training at a shooting range will be Sunday at Izaak Walton League.

"Boy, we've been getting a lot of requests for it," Osterwalder said of the training class.

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

Theresa Cleland, owner of Cleland's Outdoor World in Swanton, said a couple hundred people have completed the concealed-carry class since mid-February. She said the next class, April 3, is almost full. The cost of the 12-hour Saturday class is $149.95.

New Riegel Police Chief Craig Robbins teaches the class at Route 53 Recreation. The first class Feb. 28-29 had 15 members. He said mostly retired people from Van Wert to Sandusky were in that class.

He said people in his class must score a 70 percent or higher to pass the written part of the test. Robbins said the test consists of 25 multiple-choice and 9 or 10 fill-in-the-blank questions.

Robbins said they teach attitude and knowledge toward safe handling. They also teach concealed-carry laws and handling of guns and ammunition during instruction.

At the shooting range, they watch how each person handles a gun.

Robbins said, "If someone isn't shooting with the correct safety precautions, we reserve the right to keep him or her there (until they do)."

Robbins teaches only to use guns when a person feels his life is in danger.

"Almost all shooting (in a life-threatening situation) is from three or four feet away while walking backwards. Ninety-nine percent of what we teach is common sense, but it can be things people never think of," he said.

Steyer went to Ashland Thursday to meet with Lorain, Marion and Crawford county sheriffs and other law enforcement officials. He said they studied the fine points of the concealed-carry law.

Concealed weapons are not permitted at any government buildings, schools or school functions or at private establishments banning them.

Guns carried in a vehicle must be in plain sight. Concealed-carry permits must be with the guns at all times.

-------------

FOR INFORMATION ON WHERE YOU CAN FIND TRAINING, click here!