Better off with a DUI than a CCW

I don't know if this is just political correctness run amok or shear stupidity by our legislators. It is obvious that the left leaning Ohio newspapers have pushed for this ability to publish lists of CCW holders for no other reason than to stigmatise the evil gun owners. We all need to contact our congressmen and push to get this fixed. It is an abomination of our privicy rights as well as a down right dangerous practice.

By Chad D. Baus
"....The latest examples of this discrimination against those who choose to exercise their Second Amendment right to bear arms comes direct from Columbus, Ohio, where Senators continue to allow journalists to access the private information about law-abiding citizens who obtain concealed handgun licenseholders and publish it on the Internet. ...the Ohio Supreme Court recently decided that the names of all Ohioans convicted of drunken driving are off-limits to newspapers..... When Ohio's concealed carry law first was enacted, Republican Governor Bob Taft, long a opponent of the legislation, made news by removing the names of all former prison inmates from the state's Web site so that the convicts would not have to be "stigmatized" - this just a few weeks after he had insisted that the names of CHL-holders be given to journalists, who could then go publish them on the Internet...... Mark Drum, a lobbyist for the Ohio FOP, told the Dispatch that "our major concern is the criminal element that's using the Internet for a number of criminal ventures, one of which is to seek retribution on law enforcement."Indeed, and yet the FOP and Senate have overlooked an equally obvious danger to many of these same public officials who have obtained concealed handgun licenses - if they have a CHL, ..... As Attorney General Marc Dann recently issued an opinion addressing the concealed carry law's media access loophole. Among his findings is that there is nothing in the law prohibiting journalists from publishing a CHL-holders' name, date of birth and county of residence once they are given access to it. So in the name of protecting these public employees (and the rest of us), shouldn't SB6 be amended in the House to close the media access loophole once and for all?"

Chad D. Baus is a the Buckeye Firearms Association Vice Chairman and Northwest Ohio Chair.

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http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/