A few Sheriffs' difficult licensing procedures deterring applicants

June 10, 2004
StateNews.org

Not as many Ohioans as expected are applying for permits to carry concealed weapons. That is sparking renewed debate about the law legislators passed last year to legalize hidden guns. Statehouse correspondent Bill Cohen reports.

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Commentary:
Before the law was implemented, Ohioans For Concealed Carry projected that as many as 100,000 applicants could be expected in the first 12 months. Attorney General Petro suggested that number could be reached in as llittle as six months.

But neither Mr. Petro nor OFCC took into consideration the possibility that a number of Ohio sheriffs would intentionally not follow the law, or would make applications procedures so exceedingly difficult that only a handful of people may apply each week.

Sheriffs in two of Ohio's most populous counties - Cuyahoga and Franklin - along with certain others, have slowed the process down. But they can't stop it. Even in spite of these few Sheriffs' poor performance (some of which have taken lawsuits to attempt to correct), the number of issued licenses is close to 20,000, and this number does not include all the thousands of applications that are still being processed.

Things that will keep us topping 100,000 in the first year are training requirements, restrictive and dangerous carry-in-car provision combined with many victim zones, threats of names and addresses printed in papers, and of course, not being able to get certain sheriffs to process applications in a reasonable manor. Compare us to certain other states which have recently passed laws, and we are way ahead of the curve anticipating and solving these
problems. Now we need to change that into being ahead of the curve in
making improvements to the law.

November is coming. Our success on November 2 will determine (to a large degree) our success from now until 2007. Motivate your friends - we have work to do.