Letter to the Editor: There won't be any shootouts

January 30, 2004
Akron Beacon Journal

The only thing loaded about the concealed-weapon issue is the media and
certain elected officials. The Jan. 9 story about the new Ohio law
("Concealed guns a loaded issue'') amazed me. Too bad I have to wait until
April for the shootouts in the streets.

Our elected officials and the Beacon Journal insult all Ohioans with the
assumption that we can't be trusted with firearms. The fact that dozens of
other states -- most of the United States -- allow law-abiding citizens to
carry a concealed firearm doesn't seem to matter. We in Ohio will be the
exception and start shooting each other along the highways and streets.

Except that won't happen. It hasn't happened anywhere else, and it won't
happen here -- unless, of course, there's something different about Ohio that
I missed over the 14 years I've lived here.

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

Congratulations to the Ohio legislature, which finally figured it out after
only 10 years. I hope they don't screw up the details as implementation
unfolds. It is a shame that our Summit County sheriff is worried. If public
safety were truly the top concern, he would've supported this idea from the
beginning. As for the media, this will quietly go away when all the doom and
gloom doesn't materialize.

You only need to worry about getting caught in the crossfire when this law
comes into play if you are in New York or Washington, D.C., where this kind of
thing happens with more frequency than in Ohio. Why these places? They have
strict gun laws, and the bad guys know everybody else is unarmed.

In a time when terrorism is the big unknown and our safety cannot be
guaranteed, it is nice to know that citizens of Ohio now have a choice to not
be helpless victims.

Perhaps the Beacon Journal should talk with law enforcement officials in other
states about the issue and see if there are problems out there. Ask
specifically how many crimes are committed by holders of concealed-firearms
permits? Now there would be news -- imagine using facts to objectively educate
the public. We haven't seen this analysis; it doesn't exist, because there is
no problem.

The best quote in the article came from Paul Hlynsky, president of Lodge 7 of
the Fraternal Order of Police: ``Law-abiding citizens will never use a weapon
against a police officer, whether they've got 10 weapons in the car or one
weapon in the car.... There's no reason to panic.'' This really captures the
reality of the issue. Finally, some common sense.

Paul Labovitz
Akron