Gun law puts people at risk for harm at the hands of 'individual Rambos' |Opinion - The Columbus Dispatch
Guest columnist
The March 12 Dispatch guest column for Senate Bill 215 arguing that police were the biggest roadblock to permitless concealed carry in Ohio revealed a frightening misunderstanding of the law, rejection of law enforcement expertise and implicit support for vigilantism.
More:'Problematic' police biggest roadblock to law-abider's permitless concealing rights| Opinion
There is a long history of states imposing restrictions — including outright prohibitions — on private citizens carrying concealed weapons to avoid surprise attacks. Years ago, the then-governor of Texas explained a prohibition on concealed carry of guns by saying that the “mission of the concealed deadly weapon is murder.”
The Ohio Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Ohio’s prohibition on carrying concealed weapons and ruled that “there is no constitutional right to bear concealed weapons.” President Ronald Reagan, moreover, recognized “Government's first duty is to protect the people ..."
By enacting the law to allow untrained individuals to carry concealed weapons, government fails in this first duty to protect us and turns to untrained vigilantes for the concealed carrier’s subjective view of protection.
Buckeye Firearms Association knows that the purpose of carrying a concealed handgun is to surprise an opponent: “you hope to have the element of surprise” when you carry concealed. That surprise cannot happen if you are carrying openly. Enacting permitless concealed carry would lessen my ability — and the ability of others — to defend by avoiding people who are carrying guns.
Rev. Timothy Keller wrote, “Anything in life can serve as an idol, a God-alternative, a counterfeit god.” He continued, “The greater the good, the more likely we are to expect that it can satisfy our deepest needs.” He concluded, “If anything becomes more fundamental than God to your happiness, meaning in life, and identity, then it is an idol.”
The right to bear arms in homes for self-defense is an important right — a good right. However, when people expand it to argue for a right to carry concealed guns in public without any training, it becomes a false idol.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost praised Ohio’s current concealed handgun law. He wrote in 2021, “By any measure, Ohio’s concealed carry licensing system has succeeded in combining safeguards that protect the public and provisions that uphold Americans’ right to bear arms and protect themselves.”
Twenty-three state attorneys general, including Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, concluded in the U.S. Supreme Court that laws requiring a background check and training in firearms decrease crime rates: “objective permit regimes that allow a permit to any individual who meets a certain set of objective criteria, .… a background check, … and training in firearms handling …. have set the national standard in improving public safety while also respecting individuals’ rights.”
This brief by 23 Republican attorneys general confirmed that requiring background checks and training in the use of guns “enhanced citizen safety.”
Of course, some law enforcement personnel make mistakes from time to time, as we all do. Mistakes should be corrected, but not by allowing private individuals without any training in guns to carry concealed firearms in public places to surprise others. The following statements are not mistakes about the danger to Ohioans of Senate Bill 215:
• Retired officer Mike Weinman testified last week that Senate Bill 215 would make the lives of police officers “significantly more difficult.”
• The Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police, the Ohio Mayors Alliance and the Ohio FOP testified that the bill “will make our communities less safe.”
More:Attorney: Bill would let unqualified 'sneak up on others with a concealed handgun'
Why put the lives of law enforcement and all Ohioans at greater risk of death and other harm to satisfy a vigilante craving for 21-year-olds without any training in guns to act like individual Rambos?
As Hamilton County Sheriff McGuffey said, “Gov. DeWine is going to be held responsible for gun violence that results from the passage of this bill.”
Ohio voters should keep Gov. Mike DeWine’s signature on Senate Bill 215 in mind when they exercise their constitutional right at the ballot box this fall.
Bexley resident Douglas Rogers is a graduate of Yale Law School and a former military police captain. He was a partner in the law firm of Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease for more than 20 years, and a Moritz College of Law adjunct professor at Ohio State University from 2011-2016.
source: https://www.dispatch.com/story/opinion/columns/2022/03/18/opinion-new-concealed-carry-law-result-more-gun-violence/7067412001/
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