Concealed-carry bill fizzles

By JEFF ORTEGA
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
COLUMBUS -- A House-passed bill that would allow law-abiding Ohioans to carry concealed handguns is dead for this legislative session, Republican House Speaker Larry Householder said.
"When that bill left the House, it was a great bill," Householder said Friday.
Changes made by a Senate committee have made it too restrictive, said Householder, of Glenford.
"We can't agree to that," the speaker said just before the House adjourned, possibly for the year. "We'll just start over next year."
Gun-rights activists couldn't be reached to comment late Friday.
A Senate committee is scheduled to vote Tuesday on the bill, sponsored by state Rep. Jim Aslanides, R-Coshocton. The Senate is expected to wrap up legislative work for the year next week.
Terms of the bill
Under the bill, county sheriffs would be authorized to issue permits to qualified Ohioans older than 21 to carry concealed handguns in most public places.
Among the changes, said Aslanides and state Rep. Tim Grendell, R-Chesterland, whose district covers a portion of Trumbull County, were provisions that would allow private and public properties to post signs prohibiting concealed handguns.
Grendell said the House version of the bill allowed that for private property owners but allowed an exception to be able to store a gun in the trunk of a vehicle.
The bill, passed by the House in March, was silent on the issue of public property, Grendell said.
"It basically creates a situation where the only certainty is, you can carry a gun on your own property," said Grendell, who was a co-sponsor of the House-passed bill.
Law-enforcement support
Householder's declaration came after Republican Gov. Bob Taft had been talking with law-enforcement groups about their concerns with the legislation. Taft also had been trying to put some of his own ideas into the bill.
Taft had threatened to veto a concealed-carry bill unless it received support from a majority of police-related organizations.
Although the Buckeye State Sheriffs' Association supported the bill as it emerged from the House, the Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio opposed it, as did the Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police and the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
Recently, Mike Taylor, state secretary for the Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio, said his organization would probably not oppose the current bill.
But Capt. John Born, an OSHP spokesman, said his agency still opposed the bill.
"Our largest concern is the loaded firearm in the vehicle," said Born. "A loaded firearm in the vehicle that a driver or passenger can get to is something that means too much to our troopers."
In current law, Born said, it is illegal to have a loaded gun accessible to the driver or passenger of a vehicle. A loaded gun can be in the trunk, or an unloaded gun can be in a car if the action is off.