Ohio Gun Laws Changed March 21 - Restrictions Removed for Concealed Handgun License Holders

COLUMBUS, OH - Buckeye Firearms Association is pleased that Senate Bill 199 takes effect today. It makes a variety of improvements to Ohio law that allow Ohio gun owners with a Concealed Handgun License (CHL) to more fully exercise their rights.

Beginning today, business entities, property owners, and public or private employers can no longer ban a person who has been issued a valid CHL from transporting or storing a firearm or ammunition when the items are locked in a person's privately-owned motor vehicle on company property.

"This is important," said Dean Rieck, Executive Director of Buckeye Firearms Association, "because, previously, if a business bans guns at work, including parking lots, employees are essentially banned from having their firearm all day, and are defenseless from the time they leave home in the morning until they return home in the evening."

In addition, the new law allows CHL-holders to keep their handgun locked in a motor vehicle on school premises; allows colleges and government bodies to decide for themselves if concealed-carry should be allowed; allows CHL-holders to carry on private aircraft, in the non-secure area of airports and in day-care centers, unless the day care posts a "no-guns" sign, allows active military members who have the same or greater training than CHL holders to carry a concealed handgun without a license; and allows the sale of firearms to active duty military members without regard to their age.

Rieck continued, "For well over a decade, Ohioans with a Concealed Handgun License have proven themselves to be overwhelmingly law-abiding and trustworthy. And SB 199 makes welcome improvements that citizens deserve."

A list of changes is available here.

Media Coverage:

Cincinnati.com- Changes to Ohio concealed carry law take effect Tuesday

Joe Eaton, with the Buckeye Firearms Association, said his group pushed for the changes in the law.

"It's currently a felony and that's where we ran into a problem because a lot of people don't know if their kids are going to be called sick from school," he said. "They may be at work, and they have their firearm, and they would have to go home first and dispose of the gun at their house before going back and picking up the kids. There was a lot of honest people just trying to stay in line with the law."

Eaton said these laws will bring Ohio in line with neighboring states like Kentucky and Indiana.

He said now his members won't get fired for storing their guns in their car to go hunting after work.

Cleveland.com - New Ohio gun law expands where people can carry concealed weapons

Jim Irvine, president of the Buckeye Firearms Association, said employees deserve the right to defend their lives.

"An employee's gun is their private property and their vehicle is their private property, and there's nothing that allows the employer to dictate what's inside that employee's private property."

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Irvine and other supporters said the changes are intended to prevent law-abiding gun owners from accidentally breaking the law. For example, parents who have to unexpectedly pick up a sick child from school don't have to stop home first to store the weapon before parking at the school.

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Irvine said some schools are considering allowing some faculty or staff to carry on campus. He declined to identify the schools.

"All of this stuff is all about protecting people's rights and protecting people's lives," Irvine said. "It's about safety and making the law work well."

Columbus Dispatch - Ohio laws allowing guns in parking lots, driving through red lights take effect

"This is important," said Dean Rieck, executive director of the Buckeye Firearms Association. "Previously, if a business bans guns at work, including parking lots, employees are essentially banned from having their firearm all day, and are defenseless from the time they leave home in the morning until they return home in the evening."

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Under Senate Bill 199, today also would be the first day that guns could be carried on college campuses and in daycare centers, if trustees or center owners choose to allow them.

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Rieck said he wasn't expecting universities to act quickly on the matter.

WCPO (NBC Cincinnati) - Big changes to Ohio’s gun laws take effect today

"When someone tells you, 'Guns in day care. Well, why do you want that?'" said Sean Maloney, a pro-gun attorney for Buckeye Firearms Association.

He says parents with concealed carry licenses face a quandary when it's time to pick up and drop off their kids.

"Think about how dangerous it is with us in the parking lot, arming and disarming ourselves, with people in the parking lot watching that happen -- with kids, potentially, in the back seat of the car, and us leaving a firearm in there," Maloney said.

Maloney hopes day care operators and others will embrace Ohio's changing gun laws, which create more places where legal firearms are allowed.

"Nothing that Ohio is doing is groundbreaking,” he said. “Every other state has already had it. So it just makes sense."

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The revision to the concealed carry law affects more than day cares and airports. For more information on where concealed carry weapons license holders can potentially carry their guns, click here.

WLWT (ABC Cincinnati) - Ohio concealed carry holders can bring guns to work now, thanks to new law

Jim Irvine, chairman of the Buckeye Firearms Association, argued that a company that bans concealed weapons is also liable for any crimes committed against employees on the way to and from work that could have otherwise been defended against with the use of a handgun.

“For any business that tells you they don’t like this, ask them, ‘Are you willing to take the liability for the 25-year-old single mother who gets car-jacked on the way home?’” Irvine told the Dayton Daily News. “There is no right to be free of guns. There is no right to be free of stupid people. We don’t have the right to be free of danger.”

WRGT (FOX Dayton) - New gun laws take effect today in Ohio

"Fear not, we've been in public carrying our firearms since 2004," said Buckeye Firearms Association Regional Manager Larry Moore.

That's the message Larry Moore hopes to get across now that there are new concealed carry gun laws.

"Every time they come in, there's a great deal of anxiety. Most of the time, two years later we don't think abnything about it," said Moore.

Starting today employers have to let CCW holders bring their gun on to company property.

"Locked in the truck or in a container inside the vehicle," said Moore

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"I've had calls as a grandparent to go pick up a sick grandchild at school. I'd been out running errands. I had my handgun with me so I have to go home, drop my gun off and then go three or four more miles back to school," said Moore.

Gun owners said the new law gives them more flexiblity.

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"I think it's a great step forward for Ohio gun owners," said Moore.

Moore said the Ohio Chamber of Commerce is against the new law.