Pushed relentlessly by the gun lobby, Ohio legislators last year voted to allow those with a permit to carry a concealed weapon to take their guns into bars, restaurants, nightclubs and arenas. This week, other misguided and potentially tragic bills expanding gun rights are expected.
State Rep. Ron Maag, a Lebanon Republican, was a co-sponsor of last year’s legislation. What he now has in mind are bills that would allow guns in the garages of the Statehouse and the Riffe Center. He and his supporters also propose eliminating the current requirement that those with a concealed weapon promptly tell officers they are armed when pulled over for a traffic stop.
Both steps would increase needlessly the chances of deadly confrontations.
Maag, himself a permit holder, argues he feels unsafe when he drives to the Statehouse, because he must leave his gun at home. The Ohio Highway Patrol, which provides security at the Statehouse, has a better idea: Keep weapons as far away as possible from legislative chambers and offices. Such common sense shouldn’t be hard to grasp.
The idea of dropping the requirement that gun owners promptly tell police officers they are armed also runs counter to common sense. Maag apparently drew inspiration from an incident involving a Canton police officer who verbally abused a man who failed to announce that he a weapon. The logical response? The officer was fired. That should be the end of it.
Once again, the Ohio Highway Patrol provides the correct understanding. The current law serves to make a potentially volatile situation safer for both the officer and the permit holder.
What Maag and his allies fail to see is that the right to carry a gun is not absolute. Rather, a balance must be maintained, recognizing that the public’s safety, and the safety of law enforcement officers, must come first.
