Toledo Blade: Showdown looms for gun bill

5:48am Wednesday, December 10, 2003

House, Senate preparing for vote as early as today

By Jim Provance, Blade Columbus Bureau
December 10, 2003

COLUMBUS - Legislative leaders will try to strike a compromise today with Gov. Bob Taft in a last-ditch effort to pass a highly controversial bill allowing qualifying Ohioans to carry concealed handguns.

A joint House-Senate conference committee, charged with the task of working out differences between differing House and Senate versions of the bill, has scheduled a meeting today for a possible vote.

That could set up a final vote in both chambers before the General Assembly wraps up business for the year as planned by tomorrow.

Mr. Taft has threatened to veto the bill if the list of those receiving permits to carry concealed handguns is not considered public record.

"That defeats the purpose of concealed carry," said House Speaker Larry Householder (R., Glenford). "Concealed carry is about people not knowing who the permit holders are."

Mr. Householder said a counteroffer calls for the list as a whole to remain private, but would allow reporters, using specific names of individuals, to receive information piecemeal.

The governor had yet to commit to anything last night.

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"There are ongoing conversations," said Taft spokesman Orest Holubec. "The phone lines remain open."

The conference committee also plans to deal with the contentious issue of how a gun should be stored in a motor vehicle, particularly during traffic stops by police. The Ohio Highway Patrol has insisted that the gun be kept "in plain sight."

The committee plans to consider an amendment that would allow the gun to be locked in the glove compartment, locked in a secure box, or holstered by the permit-holder.

The committee also must deal with the issue of affirmative defense, which, under the House-passed version, would allow those found to be carrying concealed handguns without permits to avoid prosecution by proving they would have qualified if they’d applied.

The Senate-passed bill removes affirmative defense in cases where drivers are found to be carrying guns in their vehicles without a permit.

Jim Irvine, spokesman for Ohioans for Concealed Carry, said the organization remains opposed to any provision making the names of permit-holders public.

"We don’t like the fact that the list exists and we don’t believe it should be public," he said. "In other states, people are dying because of these lists and no one has offered any benefit to making the list public."

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