OHIO GUN RULES Handgun licenses are issued to 45,000

Trumbull County granted 522 more concealed-carry premits than Mahoning County.
COLUMBUS -- Ohio sheriffs issued 45,497 licenses to carry handguns in the first eight months of liberalized rules, Attorney General Jim Petro's office said.
Trumbull County ranked 9th in 2004 with 1,328 licenses. Mahoning County was 18th with 806 licenses and Columbiana Country 24th with 603.
A proponent of the law said the number of licenses issued so far is on track with the experiences of other states.
"I think it's in the ballpark of where we should be,'" said John Hohenwarter, a Fairfax, Va.-based lobbyist for the National Rifle Association. "The 45,000-50,000 range is historically what we've seen in other states. It's pretty much what we saw in Michigan."
According to news accounts, more than 80,000 licenses were issued during the first two years of concealed-carry in Michigan since the law there was passed a few years ago.
But the sponsor of the Ohio concealed-carry law says he believes the number of licenses issued in this state so far is low.
Fear of publication
State Rep. Jim Aslanides, a Coshocton Republican, said he believes the numbers of licenses issued statewide thus far should be approaching 100,000.
Aslanides said he's been hearing complaints from some over a provision in the Ohio law that allows journalists to obtain the names of concealed-carry permit holders by county.
Aslanides said some newspapers have published lists of concealed-carry permit holders, which might have affected the numbers of license applicants.
Aslanides said he plans to pursue changes to the concealed-carry law in a bill later this year but wouldn't elaborate on any proposed changes.
Frank Deaner, executive director of the Ohio Newspaper Association, which represents more than 250 daily and weekly newspapers in the state, said he believes only a few newspapers have published lists of permit holders.
"I think newspapers have definitely been acting responsibly,'" said Deaner.
"I would also contend that there are so many social issues implicated with concealed carry that I don't think you can isolate journalists' access to the list as a cause-and-effect for the numbers of permits,'" Deaner said.
A variety of reasons
Those social issues could range from people having children or grandchildren in the home to whether people grew up learning about guns and gun safety, he said.
"People will choose to carry or not carry concealed weapons for any number of reasons,'" Deaner said.
Kim Norris, a spokeswoman for Petro, a Republican, said the rollout of the concealed-carry law in Ohio has been fairly smooth.
While sheriffs in Ohio are responsible for issuing the licenses, the attorney general's office was responsible for creating the forms for the license and for answering questions from the public and law enforcement officials.
Sheriffs said they denied 428 applications for failure to meet the requirements of the law.
The numbers of concealed-carry licenses issued ranged from a high of 2,285 permits issued in Clermont County in southwest Ohio to a low of 46 in Paulding County in northwest Ohio, Petro said.
And proponents said they were pleased with one statistic that they claim shows most gun owners are law abiding. Just 42 licenses have been revoked and 76 have been suspended.