Op-Ed: Taft’s late monkey wrench throws concealed-carry for a loop

November 24, 2003
LEE LEONARD

The recent wrangling over a concealed-handgun bill in the General Assembly resembled a badly played game of rock-paper-scissors.

That’s the game, played with handgestures, where scissors (two fingers) cut paper (flat hand), but paper wraps rock (fist) and rock smashes scissors.

Lately, the players in the concealed weapons game have all been rocks trying to smash the scissors.

Gov. Bob Taft made a fist last week and threatened to veto House Bill 12 unless it’s changed to allow the disclosure of the names, birth dates and counties of residence of concealed-carry permit-holders.

Gun-rights advocates were incredulous, pointing out that for five years, the governor has based his opposition to the gun legislation on the skepticism of much of the law-enforcement community.

Now, at the 11th hour, he introduced a new element to his opposition, based on editorial comments in major newspapers. Taft said through a spokesman his office began to research the newspapers’ objections to the public-records provisions in early November, and the results just became available.

But the timing of his four-page letter raising a new objection couldn’t have been worse; it came the day a House-Senate conference committee convened to negotiate the bill giving qualified Ohioans 21 and older the right to carry concealed handguns under limited circumstances.

In fact, Taft’s letter to Republican leaders and the six conferees was received after the first meeting. Ground rules had been set for negotiations, and they did not include talking about identifying permit-holders.

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Gun-rights groups hold sacred the right to anonymity. They say identifying the permit-holders only shows criminals where the guns are, and surprise is the best defense.

Jim Irvine of Ohioans for Concealed Carry accused Taft of trying to sabotage the negotiations, saying the governor was just looking for another excuse to oppose the bill.

But perhaps Taft was responding to the equally bullheaded attitude of the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Jim Aslanides, who chairs the conference committee and set the rules. The Coshocton Republican certainly was correct in limiting the conference discussions to the differences between the House and Senate versions of the handgun legislation.

But he went even further. He said only two issues could be discussed: how a permit-holder handles a weapon in a motor vehicle and whether Ohioans still will have legal defenses built into the law if they get taken to court for carrying.

Those two issues just happen to be the basis for the Ohio Highway Patrol’s opposition to House Bill 12, and the patrol seems to be the last law-enforcement agency encouraging Taft to keep the bill from becoming law.

Politically, it’s wise to limit the discussion to those two issues. Opening it further would risk getting bogged down over some minor points. But legally, all the differences between the House and Senate, not just two, should be in play.

Nor is Senate President Doug White, a fellow Republican, immune from blame. White appointed himself to the conference committee but looked like he’d rather be back on his Adams County farm.

As senior Republican on the conference committee, White had a chance to object, but he went along, anyway. He later indicated he didn’t care for the procedure. "I think the communication could be better," he said.

White has been walking a fine line on concealed-carry. Although he doesn’t hunt, his sentiments lie with sportsmen and rural folks who regard firearms as a part of life. But White also has concern for safety and law enforcement.

He said he wants to get a bill passed but does not want to have to override a veto by the governor.

Taft said Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Texas release some information about permit-holders. He said the public needs it to compile statistics on how many permits are issued and in what counties.

Toby Hoover of the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence says even more information should be divulged to see how the law is working. Of most interest is whether permit-holders commit crimes.

There should be a way to study the effectiveness of the legislation without revealing the identity of permitholders.

But Taft deserves to be cast in the role of heavy for his clumsy, late-date intervention.

Lee Leonard covers the Statehouse for The Dispatch.

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Click here to read the op-ed in the Columbus Dispatch.