Law allowing guns in parks irks Beavercreek councilwoman

A cou­ple of things both­ered me about this arti­cle, found in my local newspaper.

“I agree with the right to bear arms, but my chil­dren play in a park,” said Councilwoman Phyllis Howard, who called the change an “acci­dent” wait­ing to hap­pen. “It’s just ridicu­lous to allow in a park. What in the world would you need a con­cealed weapon for in a park?”

What about the con­cept does this Councilwoman not get? I hon­estly don’t know what the crime rate is of Beavercreek Parks, but it’s one of the first places I would want to carry, espe­cially if my chil­dren played there. Turns out that Phyllis Howard is a Republican, which I was very shocked to hear. It goes against the grain. I thought all Republicans were for guns and Bible. Apparently, not this one. Why wouldn’t I want to conceal-​carry in a park? Last time I checked, the Greater Dayton Area did not have a huge police pres­ence in the local parks, Beavercreek included.

Furthermore, why just parks? If we are going to ban firearms from parks, why stop there? I see chil­dren at the malls, gro­cery stores, gas sta­tions, and plenty of other places. If the true prob­lem is “it’s about the kids”, why draw a line there?

Do I need to bother point­ing out that the mass blood­shed, expected years ago in Florida, never hap­pened? It hasn’t hap­pened in any of the states that allow con­cealed carry. Some states even let you go into a restau­rant and have a drink!

And then we have this smaller gem,

John Mahoney, deputy direc­tor of the Ohio Municipal League and which advo­cates on behalf of cities and vil­lages, had filed a brief with the Supreme Court in sup­port of a municipality’s abil­ity to ban guns from parks. He said he was not aware of many munic­i­pal­i­ties need­ing to alter exist­ing ordi­nances because, before the con­ceal carry law, walk­ing around with a gun was not allowed anywhere.

I’m not sure if he mis­spoke, was mis­quoted, or just gen­er­ally doesn’t have a clue. The Ohio Conceal Carry law, put in place in 2004, did not allow peo­ple to walk around with guns. It has never been ille­gal to open carry in Ohio. Our state Constitution says that we have a right to defend our­selves. The CC law sim­ply put a pro­vi­sion in place that allowed Ohioans to do it con­cealed. In 2007, Ohio law­mak­ers became even smarter by cre­at­ing the pre­emp­tion law, ORC 9.68, which states

(A) The indi­vid­ual right to keep and bear arms, being a fun­da­men­tal indi­vid­ual right that pre­dates the United States Constitution and Ohio Constitution, and being a con­sti­tu­tion­ally pro­tected right in every part of Ohio, the gen­eral assem­bly finds the need to pro­vide uni­form laws through­out the state reg­u­lat­ing the own­er­ship, pos­ses­sion, pur­chase, other acqui­si­tion, trans­port, stor­age, car­ry­ing, sale, or other trans­fer of firearms, their com­po­nents, and their ammu­ni­tion. Except as specif­i­cally pro­vided by the United States Constitution, Ohio Constitution, state law, or fed­eral law, a per­son, with­out fur­ther license, per­mis­sion, restric­tion, delay, or process, may own, pos­sess, pur­chase, sell, trans­fer, trans­port, store, or keep any firearm, part of a firearm, its com­po­nents, and its ammunition.

This is the law that is forc­ing Beavercreek to change its ordi­nances. Englewood did the same thing, I believe last year, as a result of a law­suit by a Englewood Citizen who was stopped in the park for car­ry­ing in 2006 or 2007. It basi­cally makes it ille­gal for any munic­i­pal­ity to cre­ate an ordi­nance that bars me from car­ry­ing in pub­licly owned areas except for places already for­bid­den by state or fed­eral law. Strangely enough, it has been the efforts of our Democratic State Attorney General, Richard Cordray, that has helped change a lot of the atti­tudes that exist with city offi­cials and LEO’s in our state. Now if we can just get Cleveland to buckle down and fly right, we would really be doing well.

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