As many of you have heard, Ohioans For Concealed Carry coordinator Dave Milthaler has been working with Representative Uecker to introduce legislation that would allow a concealed handgun licensee to have a concealed handgun in their vehicle without fear of employer retribution.

The first draft of this bill has been introduced as Ohio House Bill 571 with THIRTY co-sponsoring members of the Ohio House of Representatives, or nearly 1/3rd of the Ohio House indicating support for this legislation at introduction.

You can read the bill in pdf format here or online in standard web HTML.   The underlined text is new, the crossed out text is removed, and everything else is existing law.   There are many areas of this legislation that OFCC has expressed some concerns over the language, but this bill's introduction is a testament to the power of grassroots activism.

Dave Milthaler spent quite a bit of his personal time shopping this OFCC legislation agenda item around among Ohio House members and has been quite successful.  The beauty of a bill that addresses a very narrow aspect of the law is that members of the House are not in a position to hide behind "some other aspect" of the bill as a means of not supporting the core purpose of the bill, but at any point in time a bill like this could be adopted or amended into other legislation, such as Senate Bill 239.

With the very narrow time left in this General Assembly this bill has a very short opportunity to have a hearing and be voted upon.  Its imperative that you call your House and Senate members and tell them that you want them to pass this legislation before the end of the year, even if it means amending it into another moving bill.