Summer slump: CCW instructors looking forward to autumn rebound

Reprinted with permission of the Dayton Daily News

September 23, 2004
Dayton Daily News

Concealed-carry applications post sharp drop

MORAINE | — Bill Seevers got his permit to carry a concealed weapon as soon as he could. Seevers already had taken a concealed-carry course and was ready to apply under Ohio's new law when sheriff's offices opened their doors April 8 to potential applicants.

"Do I carry all the time? No," Seevers said Monday, as he prepared to shoot at Sim-Trainer, a firearms training company that opened its range in May. "But I like to think that criminals are worried about who is carrying."

Seevers, a Centerville resident who is a competitive shooter, is one of thousands of Ohio people who lined up to apply for the permits.

From April through June, 26,307 permits were issued statewide, with 247 applicants denied and eight licenses suspended, according to the Ohio Attorney General's Office. Numbers for the third quarter are not yet available.

But the early rush has faded for permits to carry concealed weapons in the Miami Valley.

In Montgomery County, 163 applied on the first day. The demand dropped sharply in less than two weeks.

The decline has persisted. For all of August, 166 people applied in Montgomery County, just three more than the first day's total.

"It's real slow," said Jeff Pedro, one of several local law-enforcement officers who founded Sim-Trainer. "Nowhere near the volume. It almost tailed off in 45 days."

In Montgomery County, where the sheriff's office issued 1,710 permits through Sept. 13, it is processing 107 applications, all from August and September. During the first five months, the office denied 14 applicants, according to Major Jeff Busch.

Between April and June 30, the Miami County Sheriff's Office averaged about 45 appointments a week. Since then, it has averaged 10 to 12.

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

"Everybody who really wanted them has gotten their licenses now," said Lt. Jerry Mays, chief of the Warren County Sheriff's Office's investigative unit.

Mays said 90 applied in April. By August, it was 26. So far in September, nine have applied.

Mays said there could be another surge in four years, when the permits must be renewed. But some training facilities are shutting down, Mays said.

Sim-Trainer runs one conceal-carry weapons class every six weeks, Pedro said.

"I didn't found the business on CCW," Pedro said. The company offers other classes, for civilians and professional law enforcement officers.

Why so slow?

Pedro said, "People are just waiting to see how it plays out."

Jim Irvine, a spokesman for Ohioans for Concealed Carry, which lobbied heavily for the legislation, said the initial surge was expected, given the pent-up demand by those prevented from carrying a concealed weapon.

"This surge pattern has been repeated in every state that's passed it," Irvine said. "You're doing years worth of stuff in the first couple months.

"Training always trails off in the summertime," Irvine said. "I would expect things to pick up again as we head into the fall (hunting season)."

Others might be waiting to see if Ohio legislators remove some restrictions. When the permit holder is driving a car, the gun must be in plain sight, locked in a glove compartment or locked in a transport box, a rule that many gun owners object to, Irvine said.

Other people do not like a provision in the law that allows journalists to obtain some license information: name, date of birth and county of issuance, but not their home address.

Some newspapers have been publishing that information, just as they print birth, divorce and death records.

"We know of a woman who is living in fear for her life" and does not want anyone to know where she is living, Irvine said. She did not seek a permit after learning about the public disclosure rule.

Related Story:
Evaluation: First 90 days with Ohio's Concealed Carry Law