OFCC meets with legislators to discuss 2009 goals

Written by Gary Witt

Tuesday, 10 February 2009 14:12

Several members of OFCCs legislative team, Sean Culley, Derek DeBrosse and Gary Witt, met with state legislators from both chambers on Tuesday February 10 at the statehouse in Columbus to discuss OFCCs goals for legislative reform in 2009. The legislators warmly received the team as they made their rounds.

There are many onerous restrictions in Ohio that we need to work on fixing, including removing the ban on self defense while dining in a nice restaurant that happens to serve alcohol (even if youre not drinking).

Another important reform needed is to extend the protections offered by the so called Castle Doctrine (assuming a person is innocent until proven guilty) to any place you have a legal right to be. Similar legislation has been enacted in multiple states, including Florida, and has been successful.

It is also important for the Ohio legislature to enact protections to ensure that citizens are not disarmed and rendered defenseless during a state of emergency, a calamity which occurred several years ago in New Orleans in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina.

Last year, Ohio reformed the law to disallow banning of firearms in public parking garages. This protection should be extended to employer parking lots as well, to protect the rights of employees who are otherwise denied their self-defense rights to and from work.

Other requested reforms include changing the concealed handgun license to a concealed weapons license(so it applies to knives, pepper spray, etc), legally prohibit Sheriffs from requiring appointments for dropping off CHL applications, remove the requirement that an unlocked box containing a loaded firearm in a motor vehicle needs to be in plain sight, make certified instructors exempt from competency certification provided their certification is kept current, remove the LEO notification requirement for CHL holders, permit loaded magazines for all firearms in a vehicle if not loaded into the firearm and accessible only by leaving the vehicle (with no CHL required, narrow down the list of CPZ's (remove police stations, sheriffs offices, council meetings, city halls, fire stations, public buildings, universities, hospitals, & churches), create a non resident CHL, and work to allow air guns for the range requirement of the CHL training, making it less expensive and more convenient to acquire the required training.

One of the team members commented after the meetings that there was encouragement but that doesnt mean it will be a cake walk. Theres plenty of opposition to what we see as improvements in Ohios gun laws, especially to the #1 and 2 items OFCC would like to see - the ability for concealed handgun license holders to dine in any establishment without disarming and the extension of the Castle Doctrine outside of the home.

As we work with the legislature on these issues, we will need your support in making phone calls and sending emails to your representatives when the time comes. Together, we can work to make Ohio a safer place for us all.