Ohio Guns In Bars Law Signed By Governor John Kasich

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio Republican Governor John Kasich on Thursday signed into law a bill that allows gun owners in the state to carry concealed weapons into bars and other places where alcohol is served.

The measure, which was forwarded to Kasich on June 22 by the Ohio General Assembly, was signed on Thursday afternoon. Kasich is scheduled to sign the Ohio budget later Thursday.

Businesses can ban concealed weapons on their premises for safety reasons if the want to and some, like the Cincinnati Bengals football team, have indicated they will continue to bar gun owners from bringing firearms into the stadium.

The law also prohibits gun owners from consuming alcohol or being under the influence of alcohol or drugs when they carry their weapons into bars.

The new laws allow residents to carry concealed handguns into licensed establishments in the state, including shopping malls and sporting venues.

The new law also allows a person with a concealed carry license to transport a loaded handgun in a motor vehicle without securing it in a holster, case, bag or box -- and allows them to remove a handgun from a secure location.

Opponents of the laws had said that mixing guns and alcohol would endanger public safety. Supports argued that the laws bring Ohio into line with other states that have concealed carry rules.

(Writing by David Bailey and Greg McCune)

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

Comments

[LCM11]

02:14 PM on 07/07/2011

Why do so many people need to defend themselves with guns? I just stay away from dangerous areas and live a clean life.

[Tao21Zen]

09:39 AM on 07/11/2011

Sure, because people get to pick the time and place that they are attacked. And, because criminals ONLY stay within dangerous areas, only attacking other people with questionable backgrounds.

This has to be the most absurd statement I have ever heard. Most of the major gun tragedies have happened in normal high campuses (Columbine, Virgina Tech), cafeterias (Luby's Cafe), shopping malls (Westroads Mall, Salt Lake City Mall), etc. The one thing that these places DO have in common is that there were all "gun free zones." Places where it was already against the law for law abiding citizens to be armed.

Now, contrast the body counts that occurred during these shooting to those where at least one civilians was legally armed and able to intercede:

Gun free zones:
Virgina Tech: 32 dead, 25
Luby's Cafeteria: 23 dead, 20 wounded
Columbine: 16 dead, 24 wounded
Westroads mall: 8 dead, 4 injured

Places where where one or more legally armed civilians have interceded:

Pearl High School: 2 dead
Appalachian School of Law: 2 dead
New Life Church: 2 dead

*Salt Lake City church was interesting. Off duty police officer from another city was armed able to intercede. He was acting in the capacity of an armed civilian. However, the mall was still a "gun free zone" for average civilians.

[LCM11]

08:31 PM on 08/02/2011

Those are EXTREME situations.

[OldSFMJT]

04:30 PM on 07/07/2011

Lame!!! And flagged!

De Oppresso Liber
Old SF

[roudy]

06:46 PM on 07/07/2011

What, you say your weapon is "lame" and your desire has "flagged" since you started carrying concealed? Now that's just sad.

[OldSFMJT]

09:47 PM on 07/07/2011

"roudy,"
Thank you for proving my point. Specifically, that you bring nothing to the table except pathetic, low-brow attempts at humor and snark.

De Oppresso Liber
Old SF

[nomoredead]

08:02 PM on 07/05/2011

Field and Stream did an article last month on the year long process to get a gun license in Germany with the testing and classes needed then its given on a federal level and in the event of a DUI you will lose that license for life...Makes one stop and think how america could tighten up their process.

[JimInHouston]

11:18 PM on 07/05/2011

Actually, makes one stop and think about how lucky we are that we are citizens instead of subjects, in the realm of self-defense.

[enlightened45]

10:44 AM on 07/07/2011

Also serves to make some stop and think about all the victims of guns in this country, many of whom are innocent. Self-defense is the self-indulgent, narcissistic excuse for abundant, unregulated firearms that have proven highly lucrative for a manipulative section of those in the "business". Appears that some "citizens" can be fooled all the time.

[gevan]

02:40 PM on 07/05/2011

Carry Nation carried a hatchet a century ago. Now I suppose she'd have to carry an AK47.

http://www.kshs.org/p/online-exhibits-carry-a-nation-introduction/10588

[butchcliff]

08:19 AM on 07/05/2011

Til the first gun fight in a bar and innocents are shot. Dumb beyond belief

[JimInHouston]

08:57 AM on 07/05/2011

Is this what happens in the 40 other states where licensed carry is permitted in establishments that serve alcohol?

If not, WHAT is "dumb beyond belief"?

[LCM11]

04:13 PM on 07/07/2011

And you know it will happen in Ohio. It always happens in Ohio!!

[amyb26]

07:57 PM on 07/04/2011

Can anyone give me one GOOD reason why it's necessary to carry a concealed firearm into a bar?

Just curious. I honestly can't think of one.

[rikilii]

08:22 AM on 07/05/2011

Who said it was "necessary"?

It's desirable for the same reason one would want to carry a firearm anywhere else:  self defense.

[Jacques Steen]

11:01 AM on 07/06/2011

Give me a break.


Silly RepubliKlan.

[gevan]

02:41 PM on 07/05/2011

shelf devence.

[troutster]

10:09 AM on 07/03/2011

I guess some of you who have concealed carry permits may find it offensive - so I apologize in advance - but I don't know that I trust you.

I don't know if you're sane. I don't know if you're sober.

I even like handguns. I don't own one anymore, but I used to enjoy going to the range. But the thought of lots of people in a crowd carrying weapons - I dunno - kinda freaks me out.

And as to carrying in bars? Isn't that where bar fights happen?

[rikilii]

01:44 PM on 07/03/2011

I don't know if you're sane. I don't know if you're sober.

The same can be said of just about every aspect of life.  Other drivers.  Police officers.  People who cook your food.  The lifeguard who's watching your children.

The facts indicate that concealed carry permit holders on the whole, and the fact that they're carrying, is not an area that should be of significant concern to you.

[effete insouciant]

02:20 PM on 07/03/2011

The facts also indicate that concealed carry permit holders undergo the same scrutiny, and pass the same tests, as scores of homicidal psychopaths, whose urges, undetected by those procedures, only come to light when they reach their particular snapping point.

[Jerry Bourbon]

09:38 PM on 07/04/2011

DO NOT visit Vermon Alaska or Arizonat. People can carry guns legally there with no form of permitting at all.

I hear the blood is literally running in the streets....Stay in Chicago, where carrying guns is illegal, and it is safe.

[Huffer-10]

10:37 PM on 07/09/2011

I know that has to be a joke. The last time I was in Chicago I saw a guy walking down the street in broad daylight carrying a baseball bat. I asked my friend, "Is it rough enough here to need that?", "Yes" he said.

[giuseppi]

05:51 PM on 07/02/2011

To those in fear,
Unless you are a criminal, you should have no problems with people who CCW anywhere. CCWers don't randomly shoot people, hold up banks or go on drunk shooting sprees.
But tell me this, if you were a criminal and went into some venue with the thought of say, robbing someone or violently mugging them, and someone made you aware that almost anybody in the room might have a concealed weapon on them, do you not think that you would reconsider, and maybe just go home? That is how an armed society becomes a polite society. This is also why criminals tend to rob homes when no one is home, it's the fear of getting shot by a homeowner.

Anyone with any regard for freedom is not going to pull a gun on someone just because they antagonized them. In most places that is a jail-able offense.
I have held my CCW permit for almost 10 years. In that time I have never had any need to draw my weapon, and hope I never do. But god forbid, I should need a firearm, I will have one.

Good, honest people with concealed guns aren't to be worried about, it's the criminals who would wish to do you harm.

AZ has had permitless concealed carry, and also adopted the bar rule for some time now, and so far I have as yet to hear about any shootings in bars.

[Wide Stance]

06:08 PM on 07/02/2011

Oh, so crime stopped in AZ?

[giuseppi]

06:20 PM on 07/02/2011

I didn't say crime has stopped in AZ. I did say though that I haven't heard of any shootings in bars. But I do hope the laws help to deter crime, and I believe they will.

[InYourWorld]

08:15 PM on 07/02/2011

CCW holders are not the problem. Now you don't need a CCW in AZ. The Brady Center and VPC love this, everytime there is a shooting in AZ, they can chalk it up to a CCW holder, as ALL AZ citizens that can legally own a gun can carry one.

[TeamSanity]

02:27 PM on 07/02/2011

And the craziness continues. When I lived in Ohio I found it hilarious that banks had to have IN BIG LETTERS ON EVERY DOOR that it was illegal to enter their establishment with a gun. I mean, hello? Banks? Guns? Bad idea. Bars? Guns? Worse idea. What in the name of anything remotely sane is going on?

[rikilii]

05:01 PM on 07/02/2011

Why is it a bad idea to allow licensed concealed carriers to take a gun into a bank?

[style counselor]

05:47 PM on 07/02/2011

Research has shown that 5% of all adult Americans suffer from serious mental illness. Of that percentage, 15% typically seek or receive treatment. If there are 5 million concealed carry permit holders, none, besides those who have been forcibly treated, having been screened for mental illness, it follows that around 170,000 people carry concealed guns while suffering from serious mental illness. The fact that such people are allowed to move about freely in our society, let alone in places such as banks, is a condemnation of our gun laws.

[TeamSanity]

05:49 PM on 07/02/2011

Why would you want to bring a gun into a bank?

[InYourWorld]

08:16 PM on 07/02/2011

I've had a firearm in a bank....

It's safer with me, concealed, than unattended in my vehicle.

[DSOTM]

12:32 PM on 07/02/2011

Kentucky enacted this exact same law two years ago, I like what one bar owner said, "I'm closing my bar and going into the funeral home business, cause theirs going to be a lot of dead drunks in our state"

[rikilii]

05:01 PM on 07/02/2011

I hope he didn't mortgage his home based on that idea.

[JimInHouston]

10:47 PM on 07/02/2011

So, how'd that all work out for him?

PLEASE tell us the REST of the story.

[Rendy Bee Mulyono]

08:14 AM on 07/02/2011

Sometimes, it takes some victims to make people see logic. Let them fall.

[David Carson]

11:23 AM on 07/02/2011

while I agree drinking and carrying firearms don't mix, most of the civilian disarmament advocates seem short of logic

[style counselor]

02:36 PM on 07/02/2011

Please describe for us the logic that you employed in arriving at the conclusion that those who do not condone concealed gun carry in bars are "civilian disarmament advocates".

[ByThePowerOfGrayskull]

12:28 PM on 07/02/2011

People who share that sentiment have been holding their collective breath for twenty years. Seeing stars yet?

[ScorpioTop]

12:00 AM on 07/02/2011

Great. Turns a bar fight into a gun fight.

[CmonAlreadyWouldja]

10:33 AM on 07/02/2011

Yup. Just like the other states where this has been legal for years. Oh, wait...that hasn't happened?

[DSOTM]

12:33 PM on 07/02/2011

You know that how? Cite some sources to back up your statement, just make sure they are not from Fox news, a right wing blog or a pro-gun blog.

[mangafreak2128]

11:00 PM on 07/01/2011

"The law also prohibits gun owners from consuming alcohol or being under the influence of alcohol or drugs when they carry their weapons into bars."
Here's the problem: IT'S A CONCEALED WEAPON. It's not like it's going to be obvious. And there's nothing to stop a person from lying. Governor Kasich, us Ohioans already hate you. You have among the lowest approval ratings among US governors. Do you really think this is going to help?

[JimInHouston]

11:14 PM on 07/01/2011

"IT'S A CONCEALED WEAPON. It's not like it's going to be obvious. And there's nothing to stop a person from lying"

That's right, and there's nothing to stop people from carrying illegally now. But interestingly, the conviction rates of concealed carry holders show that they are for more lawful than the general public in this, and other, matters.

[style counselor]

11:27 PM on 07/01/2011

Recent history has demonstrated that concealed carriers are unlikely to engage in such inconsequentialities as barroom brawls. If they're anything like their fellow licensees Christopher Speight, or Omar Thornton, or any of the other scores of legally concealed carrying homicidal psychopaths (and why wouldn't they be? They have all undergone the same scrutiny and passed the same tests.) they would more likely choose a broader canvas, say, a crowded workplace, or a family gathering, upon which to express their depression and anger.

[allisonisa39e]

06:00 AM on 07/02/2011

to freak2128:
There is nothing to stop you from lying. You may be lying about your feelings about the Governor.
The person next to you may have a concealed gun so don't antagonize him.
Guns make society very polite.

[mangafreak2128]

08:33 AM on 07/02/2011

So you're saying that the premise of society is built upon a foundation of fear and mistrust?

I'm more concerned about the one with a concealed gun being drunk.

[TeamSanity]

02:31 PM on 07/02/2011

Guns make society very frightened. Politeness is a form of social compromise so that all may get along with strangers in public places. The fear of a threat to your physical well-being is another thing entirely.

[Pyrrhus]

10:40 PM on 07/01/2011

One more reason why I will never, ever set foot in Cleveland again.

[style counselor]

11:00 PM on 07/01/2011

What do you mean, "again"?

[David Carson]

12:52 AM on 07/02/2011

welcome back guffie--how long are you going to last this time

[TeamSanity]

02:32 PM on 07/02/2011

Poor old Cleveland. Was once a lovely city. Now, an example of how horribly downhill things go when you eviscerate the working class and send their jobs overseas.

[JimInHouston]

09:59 PM on 07/01/2011

You're right, it's not my "first", Mr Top of the Thread. It's not your business, but I'm an atheist who detests infantile and foul bloggers that violate the TOS. Some of your replies meet those criteria. When you grow up and argue like a man, using data, logic, and facts, I will treat you accordingly.

[Wide Stance]

10:43 PM on 07/01/2011

Don't hold your breath, Jim, nothing you have written is worthy of anything other than ridicule. I save debate for minds I respect. I am an agnostic. Atheists and theists share the same illogical method, argumentum ad ignorantiam. Don't preach logic to me, Jim, you know nothing about the subject. I would skate circles around you, if I found you interesting. I don't.