Ohio denies press pass to concealed-carry backer

Regular readers of the Cleveland Plain Dealer will likely not be surprised that the following report contains less than half of the whole story. Commentary from OFCC's Chad Baus provided in blue.

April 13, 2005
Julie Carr Smyth
Cleveland Plain Dealer

Columbus- A volunteer for one of Ohio's most vocal concealed-weapons groups tried last month to join an enemy camp of sorts: the press corps.

Chad Baus, the volunteer news manager for Ohioans for Concealed Carry's Web site, asked the Ohio Department of Public Safety in a March 23 e-mail to declare him a journalist and issue him its special media credential card.

Actually, applications for the "State of Ohio News Media Credential Card" are submitted via snail mail, using a form which can be downloaded here. Email was used only in reply to an initial denial of the application. That exchange was as follows:

----- Original Message -----
From: "Michele DeGraffinreed" - [email protected]
Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2005 12:12 PM
Subject: Ohio OPIO Card

Dear Mr. Baus:

Thank you for your recent application for the Ohio OPIO card.

I'm unable to process your application due to the fact that I am unable to find your media organization in the 2004-2005 Ohio News Media Directory. Please clarify what CCW stands for.

Sorry for any inconvenience that this has caused you.

Sincerely,

Michele LC. DeGraffinreed
Administrative Assistant II
Ohio Dept. of Public Safety
1970 West Board Street
Columbus, Ohio 43223
614-466-4775 work
614-637-3529 pager
614-752-8410 fax
[email protected]

----- Original Message -----
From: Chad D. Baus
To: "Michele DeGraffinreed" - [email protected]
Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2005 4:25 PM
Subject: Re: Ohio OPIO Card

Ms. DeGraffinreed:

I am not aware of anything in Ohio law which defines a journalist as someone who is listed in a commercial media guide.

I am, however, aware that RC 149.43(B)(5) and RC 2923.123(B)(2) both define a "journalist" as follows:

..."Journalist" means a person engaged in, connected with, or employed by any news medium, including a newspaper, magazine, press association, news agency, or wire service, a radio or television station, or a similar medium, for the purpose of gathering, processing, transmitting, compiling, editing, or disseminating information for the general public."

OhioCCW.org is a news medium. My duties as News manager for OhioCCW.org include "gathering, processing, transmitting, compiling, editing, and disseminating information for the general public."

As such, I am requesting a "State of Ohio News Media Credential Card" which the state makes available to journalists upon request.

Chad D. Baus
News Manager
OhioCCW.org

Journalists are the only ones under Ohio's year-old concealed-carry statute with access to lists of permit holders.

Ohioans for Concealed Carry opposed the so-called "journalist privilege" in the bill as a threat to the privacy, safety and Second Amendment rights of gun owners.

Baus acknowledged that the permit holder list would make a handy membership recruiting tool for a group such as his - but he said getting hold of it wasn't his intention.

"It was more curiosity than anything," said Baus, whose day job is working at a family car dealership. "I wanted to see if the Highway Patrol would use the same definition of journalist as the Ohio Revised Code, which would include what I do for OhioCCW.org. They didn't."

It was obvious when she called that Carr-Smyth thought she had discovered a juicy little secret, and that it was her intent to suggest that I was secretly wanting to access the list of license-holders names.

In a follow-up email, which she quotes liberally elsewhere in the article, I stated as follows:

Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2005
From: Chad D. Baus
To: JULIA CARR SMYTH - [email protected]

You may find it interesting to know that some have told us we shouldn't oppose CHL-records being public because it could be used by OFCC as a membership recruiting tool. But as I explained, the whole reason we all give our personal time as volunteers to OFCC is because we believe so strongly in allowing people the ability to PROTECT themselves. The media access loophole diminishes that ability for some people when it is abused as it has been, and that's why we oppose it.

Additionally, the way the concealed carry law reads in terms of the very loose definition of what a journalist is, our legal counsel has said they believe the OPIO card wouldn't be necessary if we wanted to access the names anyways - we'd just send the request and point to the code to verify our status as a media outlet. OhioCCW.org clearly fits the definition. This highlights yet another of our problems with the law.

On the other hand, we HAVE used open records law to find out what media sources are collecting this information without license-holders' knowledge. A simple request to any sheriff can give us copies of every records request ever sent by a journalist. In a few instances, we've even found some examples of improper requests (not following statutorial requirements) being honored by sheriffs. There have also been denials by sheriffs who have argued that the "public good" was not established.

The Department of Public Safety - which oversees the patrol - rejected Baus' request in an e-mail, saying the passes are for major media only: "We don't, by policy for security reasons, issue them to free-lance journalists or Internet-only organizations."

The final email exchange with DeGraffinreed went like this:

From "Chad D. Baus":
3/29/2005 10:11:26 PM

Ms. DeGraffinreed:

As I did not hear back from you last week, I am copying you again on my
correspondence, to ensure you received it. Please advise.

Chad Baus

----- Original Message -----
From: "Michele DeGraffinreed" - [email protected]
Sent: Friday, April 01, 2005 11:29 AM
Subject: Re: Ohio OPIO Card

Mr. Baus:

I'm checking with Capt. Born, with Ohio State Highway Patrol. He is out of
the office today. It may be sometime next week before I hear back from him.
I haven't forgot about your request.

Thank you,

Michele LC. DeGraffinreed
Administrative Assistant II
Ohio Dept. of Public Safety
1970 West Board Street
Columbus, Ohio 43223
614-466-4775 work
614-637-3529 pager
614-752-8410 fax
[email protected]

----- Original Message -----
Quoting Michele DeGraffinreed - [email protected]:

Mr. Baus:

The OPIO media credential card is issued to journalists who work for media organizations recognized by the Audit Bureau of Circulations and/or the Ohio Media Directory (as established by the policy of the participating organizations in OPIO). We are under no legal obligation to provide the media card in the same way we can restrict who obtains a ID card to enter this building.

We provide the media card so that law enforcement agencies and personnel can, at critical incidents, more quickly identify journalists working for large media organizations. We don't, by policy for security reasons, issue them to freelance journalists or internet only organizations.

Thank you,

Michele LC. DeGraffinreed
Administrative Assistant II
Ohio Dept. of Public Safety
1970 West Board Street
Columbus, Ohio 43223
614-466-4775 work
614-637-3529 pager
614-752-8410 fax
[email protected]

----- Original Message -----
From: Chad D. Baus
To: "Michele DeGraffinreed" - [email protected]
Sent: Monday, April 04, 2005 1:03 PM
Subject: Re: Ohio OPIO Card

Michele -

I appreciate your explanation. Perhaps you all could include more of an explanation on the website. All that's there now is the application itself, and as I explained, under the definitions in Ohio Revised Code, we are clearly a media organization.

As you are not issuing these cards under any statutory obligations, however, I understand you can set your own rules. Again, however, I think a better explanation on the website would be in order.

Please give my best to Capt. Born.

Chad

Baus - who calls himself "an open-records kind of guy" - said that while he believes that the OFCC already is a qualifying "media outlet" under the concealed-carry law, it would never seek access to the list.

"The greater goal of self-protection is more important to OFCC than any membership enhancement tool," he said. "And it would be totally hypocritical to use it to gather information."

As Carr-Smyth was told yesterday, the reason behind applying for this card was simple:

There is currently a national debate on just who qualifies as a journalist. The White House recently issued the first-ever press credential to an Internet-only news organization. The definition of "journalist" in the Ohio Revised Code is extremely loose, and we have always feared the lists of license-holders could be made open to almost anyone as a result.

Along with my comment that I'm an open-records kind of guy, I offered words to this effect:

I support the idea that records of governmental activity should be public. However, many records held by the government (the personal info on driver's licenses, W2 statements, tax returns, etc.) are personal and private, as should be a persons' status as a CHL-holder.

Ohioans who have obtained Concealed Handgun Licenses so that they may exercise a constitutional right to bear arms for self-defense have broken no laws, and are statistically proven not to be a threat to anyone but criminals who might attack them. This is the type of private information that most Ohioans clearly are more interested in keeping private.

Society has a vested interest in safeguarding the privacy of individuals and keeping private information secure.

After describing some types of persons who have a vested interest in keeping their status as CHL-holders private, I posed to Smyth a question:

I would HOPE that in the midst of the concerns for open records at your end,
there would be some concern for the types of individuals I mentioned...?

There was no answer.

So, anyone curious what other information Michele DeGraffinreed and/or Capt. John Born shuffle over to their friends at the Cleveland Plain Dealer?