Op-Ed: Fear people, not guns

by Sam Greene

In case you hadn't heard, Pistol Pete, starting this [past] Friday it [became] legal to carry the ol' six-shooter into your favorite saloons and taverns — that is, assuming you're licensed, completely sober and the bar owner is OK with it.

This past June, Ohio Gov. John Kasich signed into law House Bill 45 which allows gun owners with concealed carry licenses to bring their weapons into bars and other locations where alcohol is served, as long as they consume no alcohol on the premises and are not intoxicated.

The polarizing piece of legislation has drawn fairly standard responses from both sides of the aisle, as those who are against all things gun-related seem to uphold the sentiment that nobody can ever be trusted with a firearm, while those who typically support gun owners argue that plenty of other states already allow them in bars and haven't had a problem with it.

At first glance, the idea of allowing guns in bars and clubs looks like absolute madness. It's a common understanding among educated people and folks with the sleeves still attached to their shirts that deadly weapons and alcohol do not ever mix.

After a closer look, however, being afraid of licensed gun owners carrying their weapon into a bar or ballpark is about as simpleminded and ignorant as fearing your own shadow.

Guns already are and have always been in bars, whether legal or not.

Any good Wild West movie includes at least one scene where some guy dressed in black enters a saloon scene, draws a revolver and shoots up the place.

Sometimes he gets away with it, but sometimes before he can escape, he's cut down by John Wayne and his Peacemaker, who you hadn't noticed in the room until you needed him.

Violent scenes in bars all too often turn out like the former, and the bad guy gets away after emptying his clip.

Just this past weekend Kordero Hunter, a 21-year-old football player at Central State University, was killed and one other was injured in a Dayton, Ohio nightclub when 30-year-old Jason Dashaun Shern allegedly opened fire following an argument. Hunter was an innocent bystander to the altercation, according to Dayton police.

It's clear that the police and nightclub rent-a-cops aren't always enough of a deterrent for criminals to leave their guns at home. The addition of sober, licensed and trained gun owners to the bar scene won't necessarily turn the tide of crime in the state, but contrary to what those apposed to the law change believe, it definitely can't hurt.

If one thing is for sure, it's that things won't get any worse.

Click here to read the entire op-ed at The (University of Cincinnati) News Record.