OH Gun Activist Says Antis Should Be ‘Accountable’

OH Gun Activist Says Antis Should Be ‘Accountable’
Date: Dec 1, 2005 8:45 PM
The New GUN WEEK, December 1, 2005
Page 11

OH Gun Activist Says Antis Should Be ‘Accountable’
by Dave Workman
Senior Editor

One of Ohio’s leading gun rights activists told Gun Week
that anti-gun extremists should be “held accountable" for
their fear-mongering against concealed carry, now that the
law has been in effect for more than 18 months, and none of
the dire predictions about blood in the streets have come
true.

Chad Baus, an activist with the Buckeye Firearms
Association, was encouraged by data recently released by
Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro that shows more than 70,000
Ohioans have gotten their concealed carry licenses, and
statistically, they are proving “much more law-abiding than
anyone predicted they would be."

According to the figures released by Petro’s office last
month, during the past year and a half, only 0.14% of
concealed handgun licenses have been revoked, a total of 104
licenses. Baus told Gun Week that a quirk in the statute
requires that licenses be revoked upon the death of the
person holding them, so he is convinced that a large share
of those revocations have been because someone passed away,
rather than violated a law.

Right now, he said, Ohio sheriffs are issuing about 130
concealed handgun licenses every day around the Buckeye
State.

Yet, with such a steadily growing number of citizens legally
arming themselves, Baus noted that there have not been the
gunfights at traffic accidents, taverns and elsewhere that
were predicted by opponents of concealed carry.

“Absolutely not, (predicted violence) hasn’t happened," Baus
said. “All the dire predictions did not come true. I’d like
our legislators to remember that those same people (who
opposed concealed carry) will be back testifying against
HB-347, the concealed carry fix-it bill that also addresses
statewide preemption."

House Bill 347 is legislation authored by State Rep. Jim
Aslanides that was announced two months ago (GW, Oct. 10).

Baus said gun rights activists have every reason to expect
that anti-gunners, who fought hard to keep law-abiding
citizens from getting the right to carry concealed, will be
challenged on their credibility if and when they troop to
the state capitol to lobby against new legislation that will
modify the state carry law. He added that gunowners now
licensed to carry have been well-behaved, and that the
applications have met expectations.

During the first 18 months after enactment, only 272 people
(0.38%) had their licenses suspended for any reason, and
many of those had been reinstated, Baus reported in a press
release.

The law became effective in April 2004, and in some counties
was off to a slow start because of what Baus described as
“foot dragging" by anti-gun sheriffs who did not want to
issue the licenses until they were compelled to by the
courts.