John Kasich, trying to burnish his conservative credentials, signed a strong concealed carry enhancement bill in Ohio just in time for Christmas. He gave gun owners a wonderful Christmas present. What did the Million Moms Demanding Action on the Street Corners of Everytown get? They got a big lump of something in their stocking, and it might not have been coal.
Here's what the bill includes, courtesy of the good folks at Buckeye Firearms:
As passed, Am. Sub. SB 199 contains language addressing improvements to were originally proposed in both House Bill 48 (Eliminate many 'no-guns' victim zones), sponsored by Rep. Ron Maag, and Senate Bill 180 (Protect Workers' Constitutional Rights), also sponsored by Sen. Uecker.
The law allows for concealed carry in some places it is already legal to open carry guns. It removes several victim zones – places that are easy for bad people to kill many innocents – such as day-care facilities, private aircraft, and public areas of airport terminals – and it makes improvements to school safety zones by allowing CHL-holders to leave their firearms in their vehicles on school grounds, just as they've been allowed to do on college campuses for many years. The new law also also grants political subdivisions, colleges and universities the authority, if they choose, to allow people to legally possess concealed firearms.
The law also stipulates that a business entity, property owner, or public or private employer may not establish, maintain, or enforce a policy or rule that prohibits or has the effect of prohibiting a person who has been issued a valid concealed handgun license from transporting or storing a firearm or ammunition inside the person's privately owned motor vehicle.
And of course the bill still contains its original language, which allows active duty military members to carry concealed weapons without licenses provided they have military ID and proof that they successfully completed firearms training that meets or exceeds Ohio concealed carry law training requirements.
Sweet! Permitless carry for active duty military. Guns on school campuses! A safe harbor provision for storing your gun in your car at work and elsewhere. Guns on non-sterile areas of airports. Nice! Ohio's getting serious about taking away disarmed victim zones!
Of course, Shannon Watts <aka Shannon Troughton, President and owner of of VoxPop Public Relations, a boutique liberal PR firm> and the Million Moms Demanding Action on Street Corners of Everytown vigorously opposed these common sense changes. In fact, after Kasich signed them the MMDASCE Ohio Spokeswoman had this to say:
Governor Kasich ignored the concerns of law enforcement, business leaders, gun violence survivors, moms, daycare providers, campus stakeholders and students. By signing Senate Bill 199, Governor Kasich is siding with gun lobby interests over public safety.
Yep. Kasich ignored the concerns of a tiny minority of street cops, a few business leaders, gang violence survivors, a few political activist moms, some daycare providers, campus wonks and naive students. He didn't ignore the concerns of four plus million gun owners in the state of Ohio. Kudos to Kasich for siding with the people and not special interests bought and paid for by a billionaire's working girls.