Ohio>>> call for action

[Ukraine Train]

This just in via email...

The impossible is happening. This Wednesday activists from all over the State of Ohio are coming to Columbus, straping on holsters, and walking around the State Capitol carrying handguns in the open.

If you're interested in attending, visit our website at http://www.OhioCCW.org right now and read the third "white box" from the top of the main page for details and contact information.


Concealed Carry is on the verge of either being passed into law, or set aside for a very long time. If you have not heard, the legislation is in a conference committee -- if that committee can agree upon a bill, and both the Senate and House agree to that compromise, the bill could very well go to the Governor's desk before the end of this year.

With that said...

Please take a moment to read this important request for your assistance. If you've ever wanted to see concealed carry reform legislation in Ohio pass, now is the time to do something -- even if you've already done this one before. If you sit on your hands this time, you have nobody to blame but yourself if this bill is destroyed, delayed, or prevented from passing at all. The people below MUST hear from you on a regular basis until they either recess for the holidays or this bill is passed!


We need your help to pass concealed carry. Past actions (and inaction) by the leadership of the Senate Republicans has given us concern with the conference committee. There are six key players that need to hear from you, by telephone, immediately!

These two Republican Senators will sit on the committee that will craft the version of HB12 that is to become law. They need to know what is important to you, and that should be GOOD PUBLIC POLICY over POLITICS and poison pill amendments!

Republican Committeemen:

--> Sen. Pres. Doug White - 614-466-8082
--> Sen. Scott Nein - 614-466-8072

These three Republicans fill out the Senate Leadership. They need to apply pressure to Senators White and Nein to listen to the concerns of fellow senators, NOT the concerns of Governor Taft. They need to be leaders, and you need to call them and tell them where you stand on concealed carry reform legislation.

Republican Leadership:

-->Sen. Pres. Pro Tempore Randy Gardner - 614-466-8060
-->Sen. Maj. Whip Jeff Jacobson - 614-466-4538
-->Sen. Jay Hottinger - 614-466-5838

AS ALWAYS, POLITENESS IS A REQUIREMENT! -- If you call present yourself in a professional and polite manner your calls won't take more than ten minutes of your time, and the staff of these elected officials will hang up with a better impression of your position. Threats and inappropriate language will simply hurt the cause, so please, use common sense and courtesy when calling these numbers.

Ohioans for Concealed Carry is calling on the committee to move quickly
to, at minimum:

-+- Remove Taft's lockbox/carjacker protection provision that bans parents from protecting their children.

-+- Reinstate all Affirmative Defenses, including the so-called fifth affirmative defense provided in House Bill 12 as passed by 69 House Representatives.

-+- Recognize CCW licenses from any bordering state immediately, via the statute.

-+- Respect privacy by removing language which would register CCW license holders in a Police Database.

-+- Reconcile contradictory language regarding peaceable journey in school zones to match federal law.

IMPORTANT: The Governor's office in conducting a poll regarding concealed carry.

Let them know you want the House passed version of HB12 to become law and that you are opposed to the senate version.

--> Governor Bob Taft - 614-466-3555

 

[Mark Tyson]

Is open carry legal there?

 

[Ukraine Train]

Yes but you almost never see it because it has a tendancy to "incite panic in the general public" which is illegal.

 

[AZRickD]

Inciting a Panic by ORC

No.

To be guilty of inciting panic, one must first be doing something listed in ORC 2917.31. Merely carrying a gun and having some weak-minded individual dial 911 doesn't trip the meter.

ORC 2917.31
§ 2917.31 Inducing panic.

(A) No person shall cause the evacuation of any public place, or otherwise cause serious public inconvenience or alarm, by doing any of the following:

(1) Initiating or circulating a report or warning of an alleged or impending fire, explosion, crime, or other catastrophe, knowing that such report or warning is false;

(2) Threatening to commit any offense of violence;

(3) Committing any offense, with reckless disregard of the likelihood that its commission will cause serious public inconvenience or alarm.

(B) Division (A)(1) of this section does not apply to any person conducting an authorized fire or emergency drill.

Ohio activists have been doing open carry marches every Sunday for the last couple of months. Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland, Youngstown, Dayton, Lima, Findlay, Akron, somewherer near Toledo, etc. Others have been open carrying as part of their regular routine.

Cops have been supportive.

The only fly in the ointment is that loaded vehicle carry is illegal and requires unholstering and holstering when getting in and out of a vehicle.

 

[Barbara]

Good luck to you folks. I work in Ohio and would love for us to get a recip. agreement with them. Let me know when the next Toledo rally is and I'll try to make it down, and bring some of your friends from MI.

 

[Coronach]

CAVEAT:

The piece of legislation quoted was from the Ohio Revised Code, and is correct, statewide. HOWEVER, local municipalities can and sometimes do adopt legislation that differs from the ORC. So make sure that open carry is legal under local ordnances.

That said, I know of no localities in which open carry is illegal. Columbus Division of Police's spokesman has gone on record as saying that open carry is legal.

FYI. IANAL. YMMV. LLAP.

Mike

 

[Ukraine Train]

My mistake then. I was under the wrong impression. Either way though, I've never seen anyone open carry in a public place.

 

[Barbara]

He's right. If CCW doesn't pass this time around, try to get some kind of preemption law first. It has saved us here and allowed us to keep a uniform carry law statewide, although its a constant battle to get municipalities to conform.

 

[TheBluesMan]

I just called Senate President Doug White's office to leave a message. His machine is full already and is not accepting any messages. If you hold for assistance, you will be invited to try your call again later.

I'll start calling the rest now.

 

[AZRickD]

Contact the boys and girls at http://www.ofcc.net

Sign up for the e-mail listserve.

Barbara:
If you want to start an open carry march in Toledo, then get with them and tell them you will help organize it. However, Toledo is one of the few municipalities which actually has a ban on carrying of weapons. However, the OFCC argument is that the recent Ohio Supreme Court decision ("a ban on concealed carry is okay since open carry is legal") makes that city ordinance null and void.

Ukraine:
There are many that have begun openly carrying with no ill effects. Why not talk to the OFCC folks and get some background. You may decide to open carry in your area.

This post-Supreme Court decision has things in a bit of flux. You have to take the bull by the juevos and define the issue now before the gendarme define it for you. So far, it looks like open carry is the way to go.

Rather than having them go for CCW with its permits, fees, and background checks, all Ohioans have to do is repeal the ban on loaded vehicle carry and pass strong state preemption. As well, many of the CCW activists are so hostile to open carry that they are bad-mouthing it to the press at every turn. Here is one quote: "Open carry is silly. We want concealed carry." They may wind up getting neither. I wonder if they would be willing to trade free open carry with a costly, and revokable laminated card.

Rick

 

[TheBluesMan]

Sen. Maj. Whip Jeff Jacobson - 614-466-4538
Sen. Jay Hottinger - 614-466-5838

These are the only two offices accepting messages.

If you live *anywhere* in Ohio, call 'em now!

 

[Pheonix]

So under STATE LAW, is it legal to open carry into a business such as Wallyworld, Lowes, Mc D's etc?

 

[AZRickD]

Many have done so. Wallyworld. McDeez, local grocery stores, etc.

Get in contact with www.ofcc.net and learn what is happening in your state.

Rick

 

[Standing Wolf]

The nation stands with you, Ohioans.

 

[Mark Tyson]

Good luck guys. More demonstrations like this that gun owners are peaceful and law abiding will knock down anti demonizations of us as trigger happy lunatics. This is the kind of thing that can change people's minds much more than any study of defensive gun uses.

 

[Henry Bowman]

Thank you, Standing Wolf.

Folks, the front lines right now are Ohio, MO, and WI. We need everyone's help now. We will not forget and will return the favors three fold when asked.

 

[Coronach]

So under STATE LAW, is it legal to open carry into a business such as Wallyworld, Lowes, Mc D's etc?

Yes. Private property rules apply, however. If the owner, or a representative of the owner, requests that you leave, you must leave. However, the charge that would be leveled against you would be criminal trespass, and not a gun charge.

Again, check your local listings!

Mike

 

[Hutch]

This got some airtime on NPR "Morning Edition" today. Only a little biased against gun-rights. I was impressed. For the first time, the reporter mentioned that it was police chiefs (rather than "The Police") who opposed legal CCW.

 

[Coronach]

And not even all of them. Gahanna's Chief is a true stand-up guy, putting his rep on the line to back CCW.

Mike

 

[TheBluesMan]

So...

Who attended the armed demonstration today? How did it go?

 

[Bigjake]

what retard picked wednesday?? thier numbers would've been greatly increased if someone had the brains to plan that for a weekend and get the work out better. this is the first ive heard of it!

 

[TheBluesMan]

The legislature is not in session on the weekends.

There are a lot more people downtown during the week.

Fewer people watch the weekend news than weeknight news because the media "second stringers" work weekends.

They'll be talking about it in the halls of the statehouse tomorrow morning.

There was to be a conference committee meeting on HB12 today. (It was cancelled due to the death of a longtime former legislator)

The people who picked this day didn't pick it because it would be easy for everyone. They picked it because it would be the most effective day to demonstrate.

Oftentimes that which is difficult is the most rewarding.

The word was given more than a week ago. Check out www.ohioccw.org for more info.

-Dave

P.S. I don't think you're quite old enough to carry anyway, Jake.

 

[AZRickD]

From Jeff Garvis at OFCC.net

Preliminary reports suggest we had approximately 120 people show up in Columbus today to participate in OFCC's open carry walk around the State Capitol.

Numerous personalities from the news media showed up, including Columbus Channels 6 and 10, Ohio Public Radio, and the Dayton Daily News to name a few.

More details will likely be available as the day continues.

To those of you who attended this event, thank you very much for showing up. We all know how hard it is to hold any type of rally, but this was a very unique rally. Why?

It was in the middle of the week, in the middle of the day, it was in the middle of the state, and we asked people to show up carrying a firearm.

Having 120 people show up at an event like this is nothing short of success!

Lets hope the Conference Committee heard our message, and lets keep the pressure on those members of the Senate leadership until this bill moves to the Governor desk and becomes law.

More to come later!

Jeff

To that I replied:

"What is really impressive is that over the span of just a few years, Ohio activists got a case to the Supreme Court, turned that CCW ruling from a defeat to a victory by defining the terms under which you would carry a firearm openly, and then, and even more impressive, is that you were able to turn a simple gun issue from a state issue affecting a few legislators and the Guv, to a national issue and a Presidential Election Year Issue. Heck, I've read people's posts on forums across the country say that they have written Bush Cheney (and even called up Taft) and said that if Ohio doesn't get the House version of HB12, they won't vote for Bush.

That's just plain whack.

Come to think of it, 120 gun-toters in 40 degrees and drizzle traveling cross-state is notable."

Rick

 

[cuchulainn]

from the WTOL site

http://www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=1522588

Concealed Weapons Bill

COLUMBUS -- More than 100 supporters of legislation that would allow Ohioans to carry hidden guns wore their weapons out in the open during a march around the Statehouse.

The gun-rights advocates say they want to send a message to lawmakers who are trying to reach a compromise on the bill. Ohioans for Concealed Carry, which helped organize the march, wants fewer restrictions than a Senate version of the bill. Governor Taft says he'll veto the House version of the bill -- which most of the pro-gun groups support.

Toby Hoover of the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence says the gun-rights advocates who lawfully carried their weapons in the open prove the concealed-carry bill isn't needed

Posted 7:00 p.m. Wednesday, November 12th
Associated Press