Enquirer reporter reveals proof that criminals don't get Ohio CHLs

By Chad D. Baus

Greg Korte, the Cincinnati Enquirer reporter who recently found himself in the middle of a lawsuit by sending requests for the list of CHL-holders to all 88 Ohio county sheriffs, has published a blog article that graphically illustrates a fact long-held by this political action committee:

Criminals do not apply for concealed handgun licenses, and are not deterred by gun control laws.

Click on 'Read More' for the entire commentary.

In his blog post, Korte notes that charges for illegally carrying a concealed weapon and for having a weapon while under a disability "are up significantly since 2000, according to statistics from the Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office."

According to Korte's post, just over 400 people were indicted in Hamilton County for carrying a concealed weapon in the year 2000. Last year, approximately 800 were indicted - an increase of nearly 100%.

Korte's post also reveals that indictments for having a weapon under a disability (i.e. a gun control law says that a person is ineligible to be in posession of a firearm for some reason) have gone up even more - roughly 300% from 200-plus indictments in 2000 to approximately 650 in 2006.

Korte highlights the fact that "the numbers for all charges go up even after the Ohio General Assembly made it legal for qualified people to carry handguns in 2004."

For years before passage of Ohio's concealed carry law, gun ban extremists claimed that a CCW law would allow criminals greater ability to carry guns and threaten officer and citizen safety. Pro-gun advocates calmly explained that since criminals, by definition, don't care about the law, they certainly would not be the ones to apply for Ohio concealed handgun licenses. As it has so many times in the past, the truth has once again proven pro-gun advocates correct, and exposed gun control laws for the failed social experiment that they are.

Click here to view graphs which illustrate these figures, and include data on the number of charges on these two offenses which did not result in an indictment.