Why cops don't open carry off-duty, and why we shouldn't be forced to either

Dec. 04, 2003
Akron Beacon Journal

Akron SWAT trainer foils possible robbery
Plainclothes officer, sensing he's target, arrests man

Rule One for would-be criminals: If you're planning a robbery, don't make the lead instructor for the police SWAT team your target.

Akron police officer Kevin R. Davis, in plainclothes, was on his way to the Peanut Shoppe on South Main Street at lunchtime Wednesday when his peanut break turned into a bust.

Davis had left the training bureau at One Cascade Plaza and walked from the Cascade Parking Deck into an elevator lobby, where he saw a masked man standing with what he thought was a gun. The man said "excuse me'' to Davis and then mumbled something, Davis said.

"I thought he was trying to rob me,'' said Davis, 42, a 14-year police veteran. "I thought he was going to shoot me.''

So, Davis said, he quickly moved to the left of the man, pulled out his police pistol and ordered the man to put his gun down and get on the ground.

The man complied, Davis said.

Charged with robbery was Oneal Martin, 21, of Akron, who was on probation for a robbery conviction, Davis said.

The item that Martin was carrying looked like a gun because it was a metal, gun-shaped cigarette lighter, Davis said.

"It looked like a small semiautomatic weapon,'' said Davis, the lead defensive-tactics instructor for Akron police and the lead instructor for the SWAT team.

"Needless to say, I was fairly convincing in my orders,'' Davis said.

Davis said Martin told him he was in the area to "frighten someone in the parking deck.''

The police officer said he and about 50 other police officers had been participating in a training session at the training bureau just before the incident.

Davis said he was thankful he ran into the man first. "I am glad it wasn't some older customer of one of the banks downtown,'' he said.

Davis was also glad the suspect surrendered. "I didn't have to shoot him,'' Davis said. "He made a wise choice.''

Commentary by Chad D. Baus:
When HB12 passes, Rule One for would-be criminals will be: If you're planning a robbery, think twice. Almost ANYONE you consider making a target could be armed, not just off-duty police officers.

This incident is a perfect example of why openly carrying a firearm is not nearly as effective a self-defense or crime deterrent as carrying it concealed (we're Ohioans For Concealed Carry for a reason - if open carry is the best choice, why do police departments advocate concealed carry for their off-duty officers?).

Had Officer Davis been carrying openly, Martin would not have targeted him (or if he had, he would have adjusted his tactics to increase his chances of disarming his intended victim before he could respond).

Had Officer Davis been carrying openly, Martin also would not likely have been apprehended. Instead, Martin would simply have let Davis pass, and waited until an unarmed victim came along.

The entire outcome of this incident rested not on the fact that Mr. Davis was a police officer, or that he was in possession of a firearm, but on the fact that he was concealing the firearm as he went about his personal business.

In a recent press release, Ohio Coalition Against Gun Safety (as her organization was aptly referred to recently in the Dayton Daily News) founder Toby Hoover stated that "Ohioans already have two ways to carry; openly or concealed with an affirmative defense, we don't want or need another permission to carry hidden guns."

Hoover and other anti-self-defense Ohioans have been in a bit of a quandry as a result of the Ohio Supreme Court's ruling which upheld bearing for defense as a "fundamental individual right", and they have resorted to becoming vocal advocates for the practice of openly carrying firearms for self-defense.

There is no logic in their position. They claim concealed firearms, carried by citizens who have undergone some of the strictest training and background checks in the country, would present a danger. At the same time, realizing that most Ohioans truly believe there should be a legal means for which to defend oneself with a firearm, they are now aggressively advocating a practice (open carry) which requires of citizens no training or background checks, and labels no restrictive victim zone exclusions.

They can't have it both ways.