AP: Joint committee approves concealed carry bill

11:52 p.m. UPDATE: The HB12 Conference Committee report passed the Ohio Senate 25-8, and passed the Ohio House 69-27. The bill now faces a veto-threat from Governor Bob Taft, who has time and again, proven he would NEVER compromise on making a concealed carry reform bill law. Both Senator Doug White and House Speaker Larry Householder say they have enough votes to override a potential veto.

Due to deadline constraints, this AP story is the one nearly every Ohio newspaper reprinted in today's issue. Thus we will not reprint them all here.

The Associated Press
12/10/2003, 11:36 p.m. ET

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — As House and Senate lawmakers worked late Wednesday to pass a bill allowing Ohioans to carry concealed weapons, Gov. Bob Taft said he will veto the bill out of concerns over public records.

Ohioans could carry concealed weapons after passing a background check and completing safety training, under the bill approved by the full Senate 25-8 Wednesday night.

The House was also expected to pass the legislation Wednesday.

A joint Senate-House committee working out differences in the bill earlier approved it 5-1 with Rep. Lance Mason, a Shaker Heights Democrat, casting the "no" vote.

Taft said he would veto the bill after pushing unsuccessfully for reporters to have access to the names of all permit holders in a county.

"We got very close to a bill the governor could accept, all the public safety provisions were agreeable to the governor," said spokesman Orest Holubec. "But the public records provision as passed by the conference committee is too limiting."

The bill would give reporters access to limited public records on a name-by-name basis.

House Speaker Larry Householder, a fellow Republican, said he was willing to risk a veto and said he believed he had the votes to override it.

"You're trying to curb crime by criminals not knowing who is carrying concealed weapons," said Householder, of Glenford.

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

The bill removes a current 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.

That provision is known as an affirmative defense.

Instead, people who fear for their lives could receive an emergency 90-day permit after undergoing a background check and signing an affidavit saying they believed they were in danger.

In addition, people without a permit could carry a concealed weapon on their own property and still use the affirmative defense. That exception is aimed at large property owners, such as farmers.

The bill settles an issue over carrying a concealed weapon in a car by requiring a permit holder to carry the weapon in plain sight or keep it in a locked container.

A person carrying a gun in a holster under a jacket, for example, would have to take his jacket off in the car.

Householder earlier Wednesday replaced a member of the committee working out differences on the concealed weapons bill.

Householder, without explanation, announced that Rep. Jimmy Stewart, an Athens Republican was replacing Rep. Bob Latta, a Bowling Green Republican.

Householder said he wanted to let a new House member have experience on a high-profile conference committee. Earlier Wednesday, White took himself off the same committee and added Sen. Steve Austria, who oversaw the bill's passage in the Senate.