“It has been one year since Ohio loosened its concealed carry weapon law, and community advocates, elected officials and law enforcement alike are reflecting on the changing gun landscape,” NBC4 Columbus reported Tuesday.
“A year ago on Tuesday, Gov. Mike DeWine signed into law Senate Bill 215, which eliminated a concealed carry permit requirement for adult Ohioans who are legally eligible to own and carry a firearm in the state.”
The usual suspects, starting with the Fraternal Order of Police that had unsuccessfully lobbied to kill the bill, are still bellyaching, “argu[ing] that Ohio’s streets are less safe – and so are its law enforcement.”
Back before the bill had passed, Ohio FOP president Gary Wolske was actually claiming that requiring licensing and training as prior restraints to exercise a fundamental right was consistent with Founding intent.
“When the delegates met at Philadelphia during the sweltering summer of 1787, the task before the Constitutional Convention was almost insurmountable. How, in the face of the revolution just fought, could a coalition of states unite and govern nationally when individual freedom and state sovereignty were paramount?” he asked. “Our founders got it right in 1787. Their model has stood the test of time and history. The Ohio Fraternal Order of Police strongly urges legislators to look to the founders’ model. Maximize individual freedom.”
Through “compromise”? And means testing against this cop union bureaucrat’s arbitrary definition of the proper “balance between public safety and individual freedom”? That’s what the Framers meant by “shall not be infringed”?
That’s some industrial-grade gaslighting right there, Mr. Wolske.
As for specific FOP objections;
“Michael Weinman, director of governmental affairs for the Ohio Fraternal Order of Police, told the House Government Oversight Committee … [I]t would make police jobs harder by removing the requirement to carry documentation, and prevent officers from holding and patting down someone for a firearm… [and] predicted it would lead to more police officers getting shot.”
That’s a version of the old and unfounded-in-reality “blood in the streets/Dodge City over fender benders” argument the gun prohibitionists used when railing against licensed concealed carry. And note his concern was not for “public safety” but for officer safety.
So: Did his dire prediction come true? Have any of the FOP’s concerns?
It’s been a year now, and you’d think if it were really a serious issue, there would be no shortage of examples of someone otherwise not prohibited from having a gun murdering people because he could carry it without a license. And you can bet if that had happened, we’d not only be seeing headlines, but the storm crows would all be triumphantly squawking about how they told us so.
Instead, because when you’ve got nothing but aren’t ready to admit you were wrong and have face to save, we’re offered this bit of meaningless blather:
“No conclusive research yet exists about the effects of permitless carry on gun crime in Ohio specifically, but a September 2022 study by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found firearm assaults rose about 10% in states that relaxed restrictions on concealed carry weapons.”
That’s an old junk science trick, and it’s no coincidence we see the Bloomberg name attached to it: Present a correlation/causation fallacy under the auspices of a presumably authoritative name, and everybody, particularly NBC reporters, with a narrative to parrot, is sure to be impressed and not recognize it for the total unsubstantiated BS that it really is.
So in the absence of new “war zones” attributable to lawful citizens exercising their rights, we’re instead “treated” to grumblings by “Only Ones” who expect us to “back the blue” without backing us in return, to someone with an economic interest saying he supports permitless carry “but,” and to a victimized gun prohibitionist who says “To not have a permit to carry something that could easily take your life is crazy to me” while thinking going through a similar process to getting a fishing license would somehow make a difference with violent criminals.
Crazy, huh?
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.