Op-Ed: Gun permits an explosive issue still

July 8, 2004
Columbus Dispatch

by Mike Harden, Dispatch Metro columnist

Three months after Ohio became the 46th state to implement a conceal-carry law, some Buckeyes feel safer and others don’t.

"I usually carry a Smith & Wesson .38 special revolver," said Dr. Joe Wildi, a Columbus dentist who totes the weapon with him three to five times a week when making bank deposits from his East Side practice. "I feel safer."

Not so for Toby Hoover, of Toledo, who is executive director of the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence.

"The rest of us have been put at a higher risk because of this few number of people — they’re saying 25,000 to 50,000 — who want to carry a gun in their pocket everywhere.

"We’ve been accused of saying there would be bloodshed in the streets, and that is an overstatement."

Nonetheless, Hoover thinks Ohio should establish a central clearinghouse to report any shootings involving a person with a permit to carry a concealed handgun.

"There was nothing put into the law requiring the reporting of any of that information, and we need to ask that question every time there is an incident," she said.

Franklin County has issued 780 conceal-carry permits since the law took effect, said Chief Deputy Steve Martin of the sheriff’s office.

Discussing the law with a handful of those who now qualify for the permits suggests it hasn’t made much of a change in their gun-toting behavior.

"My primary weapon is a .357," said Ken McIntosh, "but I have not had it out of the house since we went to the shooting range to qualify (on March 22).

"I just like the idea, if I choose, to take my weapon with me, and I can now legally do that."

McIntosh’s conceal-carry classmate Richard Urbano, of Columbus, said he carries his Kimber .45-caliber a little more often.

"I’ve got a part-time job at a retail store, and I close up late at night," he said. "The parking lot is dark."

Columbus’ Evalyn Hammonds, a Medicaid health-systems specialist who moonlights as a college basketball referee, said she took the course because she wanted to carry a handgun while returning home late at night from games. She said she has not carried her weapon since the basketball season ended.

Doug Dean, who instructed Hammonds, Urbano, McIntosh and Wildi, said the number of people applying for classes to earn the permit has slacked off since spring.

Dean said he expects it to begin rising again come autumn, given the likelihood that many gun owners didn’t want to fight the early crush of those applying to sheriffs offices for permits in April.

He downplayed the quip from a Cleveland lawyer who said that — given the restrictions on venues where guns are permitted — all that conceal-carry assures is permission for a gun owner to back up and down in his driveway while carrying his gun.

Hoover seems to fear that a nation of officially approved, card-carrying gun toters will spell nothing but unchecked carnage. Any fool knows, though, it is the uncertified ones that should make her tremble for the future.

Commenatary:
As regular readers of this website well know, Toby Hoover is not just "any fool".