Ohio draws bead on bill similar to Michigan concealed-gun law

by James Drew
Toledo Blade Columbus Bureau Chief
December 1, 2003

COLUMBUS - Since the Michigan law that made it easier for citizens to carry concealed handguns took effect in July, 2001, the number of permit holders has nearly doubled and crime has dropped.

Backers of a bill that would give Ohio a similar law say the result - more armed law-abiding citizens and lower crime - could happen in Ohio if the legislature and Gov. Bob Taft break their impasse.

In 2000, Michigan had an estimated 4,109 crimes per 100,000 residents, the FBI says. The rate in Ohio was 4,041 per 1,000 residents.

According to data for 2002, Michigan’s crime rate declined to 3,874 per 100,000 residents and Ohio’s increased to 4,107.

"For over 40 years, Michigan’s per capita crime rate has exceeded Ohio’s; the new [data] proves all that has changed," said Jim Irvine, chairman of the political action committee for Ohioans for Concealed Carry, Inc.

Ohio is one of five states that do not allow concealed handguns. The others are Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, and Wisconsin.

In 1998, as legislators prepared to revise Michigan’s 71-year-old concealed-carry law so more citizens could get licenses, attorney James Neal wrote in the Lansing State Journal: "If concealed handguns are allowed to proliferate in Michigan, it will mean more violence, accidents, deaths, and injuries."

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

Leaders of the gun rights movement in Michigan assert that Mr. Neal and other critics were wrong, but they are reluctant to draw a correlation between more concealed-carry permits and less crime. There are too many variables, they say.

"There’s no way of making any direct connection, but there is no place where there has been any substantial increase in crime all attributable to you and I having more freedom to transport firearms," said Dale Shantz, a resident of Elberta, Mich., who is president of the Michigan Coalition for Responsible Gun Owners.

"It’s one more piece of liberty," added Daniel Bambery, a DeWitt, Mich., attorney who represents the pro-gun group.

Bruce Gelispie, an Akron native who has lived in Michigan for 19 years, said there are several incidents that show how concealed-carry has prevented crimes.

He said last year a friend had left the General Motors plant where he works in Flint about 2:30 a.m. when he reached a blocked train crossing. A man tried to get into his car through a rear passenger door.

Mr. Gelispie said his friend, who has a concealed-carry license, pulled his 45-caliber handgun and pointed it at the man, who ran away.

"My friend then called the police. You always do that, because the person might have gotten your license plate and could call the police and say you might have pulled a gun on them," said Mr. Gelispie, an auto worker who also is a National Rifle Association-trained instructor.

Michigan’s less restrictive concealed-carry law hasn’t created problems, but there is no evidence it has led to a drop in crime, said Jim Kessler, policy director for Americans for Gun Safety, in Washington.

For 2000, Michigan reported an estimated 52,242 violent crimes in urban areas. The figure in Ohio was 35,112.

Last year, Michigan reported 50,097 violent crimes in urban areas. The figure for Ohio increased to 37,428.

In the rural county of Hillsdale, with a population of about 50,000, Sheriff Stan W. Burchardt said the new concealed-carry law hasn’t had an effect on the low crime rate.

"Where the help might be is in areas where there are car-jackings or people are strong-armed robbed, but that doesn’t happen here," the sheriff said.

Detroit City Councilman Kay Everett said the law has given more business owners a "comfort zone" in Wayne County.

In December, 2000, the Michigan legislature approved a bill that says county gun boards "shall issue" permits to applicants who don’t have a criminal record or a history of mental illness. Then-Gov. John Engler signed it into law.

Counting concealed-carry permits with restrictions, Michigan had 51,954 permit holders in 2000.

Nearly 30 months after the revised law took effect, Michigan has 90,369 permit holders, state officials say.

From July 1, 2001, to June of this year, about one-tenth of one percent of licenses were revoked, with the leading reason being applicants convicted of a felony or a misdemeanor. Crimes have included a rape, a felony assault, domestic assault, and alcohol-related offenses.

The low rate of applications denied and licenses revoked does not surprise Mr. Bambery, given the requirement that applicants pass background checks.

"The people who are exercising this right are really the people who have never been in trouble and foreseeably probably never will be," he said.

Although county gun board meetings are open to the public, Michigan law exempts information about concealed-carry permits from the state public records law.

That prevents citizens and the press from finding out who applied for a permit and who has them, said Carolynne Jarvis, executive director of the Michigan Partnership to Prevent Gun Violence, a Lansing-based gun-control group.

"There’s no way to determine what the effect of this law is*. We’d like to pretend there is, but there isn’t. The whole purpose of the way the law was put together is you couldn’t and it’s not accidental," Ms. Jarvis said.

In Ohio, Governor Taft - who has said for nearly five years he won’t sign a concealed-carry bill into law unless it has adequate background checks, training requirements, and support from law enforcement - surprised legislators recently when he said he would veto any bill that bars the public from knowing who has permits.

Backers of the bill say that cloaking who is carrying handguns is crucial to deterring crime. They also point out that the House version of the bill would require an annual report on the number of licenses issued, renewed, suspended, revoked, and denied - similar to information that the Michigan State Police provide.

Last month, two men drove up to 22-year-old Johnny Donaldson, Jr., as he beat a 16-year-old girl with a metal pipe on the west side of Detroit, police said.

The man in the passenger seat shot and killed Mr. Donaldson and sped away. No arrests have been made and there is no evidence that the gunman had a concealed-carry permit.

But John Birch, president of a group in Oak Brook, Ill., that supports such laws and other gun issues, said he hopes the gunman does have a permit and will step forward.

"Stopping an in-progress felony is good citizenship. I think the fear level has been transferred from the victims to the criminals," Mr. Birch said.

Click here to read the entire story in the Toledo Blade.

*Click here to view the website Ms. Jarvis says doesn't exist, which shows exactly what the effects of that state's law are, published by the Michigan State Police. Despite assertions from Bob Taft and members of the Ohio Newspaper Association, similar data would be available under House Bill 12, even without revealing citizens' private information.