Letter to the Editor: Signs barring guns invite criminals inside

April 11, 2004
Columbus Dispatch

It is alarming that Sunday’s Business section article "Armed and ready?" ignored one crucial question on the possible consequences of Ohio businesses prohibiting legally concealed weapons from their premises. The article highlights the potential financial backlash of the signs in lost business. No doubt that is a serious concern for a business owner. But surely the safety of their employees and customers is a larger issue.

The unasked question is: Does the display of a "Weapon Free Zone" sign in the window of your business make you an easy target for those bent on armed robbery or worse?

The Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence believes that posting a sign makes the workplace safer. But does anyone really believe that armed robberies will increase in retail stores because a legal permit-holder now will be able to carry a firearm on the premises? Or that a sign in the window will prevent a criminal from entering armed?

In reality, an armed criminal will now have two choices when picking his target: He can walk into a store with no sign displayed with the fear that he may meet deadly resistance when he draws his weapon to threaten others, or he can enter a store with a "No Firearms" sign, confident that he has easy pickings. A simple, logical choice that even the most dimwitted of thieves can no doubt manage.

Will the patrons of the business with a sign really be or even feel safer?

It is equally obvious that there are places best left void of firearms, but these prohibitions are already written into the law. Many employers have long-standing prohibitions on weapons in the workplace; however, most of those businesses are not likely targets for opportunistic, armed criminal activity.

Certainly, it is the right of any business owner to prohibit firearms from his location, but retail business owners need to ask themselves what kind of armed citizen they wish to discourage: the legally licensed, trained citizen or the criminal who scoffs at established laws and intends harm.

TONY MEYERS
Lewis Center

Commentary:
Mr. Meyers gets it, but many in the Ohio media certainly do not. Now that Ohioans are about to see for themselves that the dire warnings they've been offering for years will not come to pass, Ohio editorial boards have switched to a new prediction.

The latest claim by the media elitists is that concealed carry will bring...nothing. Click on the "Read More..." link below for more.

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Cease-fire needed on new gun law
Crime will not fall dramatically, nor will it increase dramatically. Homicides, suicides, accidental gun deaths, gun thefts and armed robberies will not cease, nor will they increase outrageously.

Columbus Dispatch*: Concealed-carry law will go into effect and disprove both sides’ claims
Ohio joins the majority of states on Thursday as its concealed-carry gun law goes into effect. The Hollywoodlike scenes of spontaneous violence painted by opponents simply will not materialize. However, neither will the proponents’ vision of decreased crime and improved personal security.
*This editorial was also reprinted in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Toledo Blade, and Akron Beacon Journal.

Gannett News Service: New gun law takes effect: Will it make us safer?
Sen. Eric Fingerhut, D-Cleveland, an outspoken critic of the gun law, has argued repeatedly that no one can prove crime rates go up or down due solely to the fact that more people are carrying concealed guns.

In fact, he doubts the gun law will have any significant impact on crime numbers. The number of times a person is actually able to brandish a weapon to stop a criminal attack is statistically insignificant, he said.

Mansfield News Journal: Carry, conceal to drop crimes?
From 2000-2002, according to the National Education Association Health Information Network, Ohio had 31,000 violent crimes involving a firearm.

Supporters of concealed carry expect those crimes to drop.

I don't know.

I've never known anyone to fire a firearm out of happiness. Even with the law, I expect there will be unhappy people who fire guns.