Headline: "Number of issued concealed-carry permits sharply rises"

The Lancaster Eagle-Gazette is reporting that the Fairfield County (OH) Sheriff's Office experienced a surge in concealed handgun licenses (CHLs) issued for the first four months of 2009, and that with nearly 700 new and renewal licenses issued this year, the county is well on its way to surpassing the number issued in 2004 - the first year the county issued licenses.

From the story:

Sheriff's Office officials chalk up the increase to several factors. They say people fear a backlash from rising unemployment rates and an increase in crime, such as burglaries, robberies and breaking and entering incidents. Others, such as Tom Parrish, feel their Second Amendment rights are on the line.
Parrish said his decision to get his concealed-carry permit came just months after President Barack Obama took office.

"I don't think he really wants to protect our Second Amendment rights; his party doesn't want to protect our Second Amendment rights," Parish said.

But the main reason Parrish chose to get a concealed carry permit was to protect himself, he said. Parrish drives a vehicle with a handicap license plate, which he said pinpoints him as an easy target for criminals.

"In my mind, criminals look for weaknesses in people, and if they see my license plate with a handicap (symbol), they might assume they have an easy prey," he said...

Carl Drury, the owner of Ohio Valley Outdoors, a gun club and shooting range in Lancaster, told the newspaper he's noticed an uptick in the number of people enrolled in Ohio concealed carry courses. The increase began this past year, he said, when the law began allowing for CHL-holders to more easily carry the gun inside their vehicles.

[Drury] said having a concealed carry permit has a range of advantages, and they're often different for each person. Mainly, though, it's for personal protection, he said.

"One of the things that this law helped with - when they finally passed it - now criminals have to stop and think, 'I wonder if he's carrying. He might be carrying,' " Drury said. "It might have stopped a problem before it started."

The concealed carry law, passed Aug. 8, 2004, allows Ohioans to carry handguns after passing a safety course and background check.
Fairfield County Sheriff Dave Phalen said he doesn't think the increase in concealed carry permits poses any dangers to residents; nor does he think it makes the county safer as a whole.

"I don't see any big change one way or the other," he said. "The vast majority of the people that have the CCW permits are law-abiding citizens that are not in the criminal justice system, so we have not had any issues."

Numbers provided with the story show the county has already processed more licenses in the first four months of 2009 than in all of 2008, which had also reflected an increase over every year from 2005 - 2007.