Ohioans For Concealed Carry has learned that the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation is working to advise private businesses to post signs discrimating against concealed handgun license-holders.

A Summer 2004 Issue of Worker's Comp Quarterly article, written by contributing writer Rick Burson, states as follows:

"Because of the risk of injuries caused by mishandled firearms or intentional acts of violence, the workplace should be added to the list of places where firearms cannot be carried."

In the article, Tom Wersell, the Bureau's special investigations/ security director advises:

"Business owners develop a clear and concise policy informing employees and visitors that carrying a concealed weapon is prohibited on company property."

"This is one more way to provide a safe environment for both your workers and your customers."

Amazingly, Wersell is also quoted in the article making an absolutely false statement:

"The reality is, there are a lot more places you can't carry a gun than places you can."

It is likely that management of Con Agra listened to exactly this type of advice when posting "no-guns" signs.

align="right">Yet just over a month ago, in Kansas, a disgruntled former employee walked right past the signs and murdered six people before killing himself.

As families of victims of two recent Ohio public shootings at Case Western Reserve University and Watkins Motor Lines trucking company are painfully aware, there will always be instances of persons bringing firearms into public places, in spite of signs, bans, or legal prohibitions (those shootings happened when concealed carry was illegal in Ohio).

UPDATE! An alert OFCC supporter has noted that the Bureau of Workers' Compensation has intimate experience with the fact that gun bans do nothing to stop those intent on victimizing defenseless people:

On September 5, 1997, James L. Dailey was convicted and sentenced to two separate three years terms (which ran concurrently), stemming from a hostage-taking incident at the Bureau of Workers' Compensation building!

Upset over a benefit claim that had been denied, Daily entering the Bureau of Workers' Compensation building on November 13, 1996, with a rifle, a shotgun, a handgun, two cans of gasoline and a butane lighter, and proceeded to the 12th floor.

Once there, he took four hostages, including a former FBI agent (all disarmed by Ohio law and BWC policy). The hostages were held for over seven hours. According to one OFCC source, who was working in the building at the time, building "security" prohibited occupants of the rest of the 30-story building from leaving, despite the fire threat.

Dailey was eventually overpowered by one of his hostages, ex-FBI agent James Carter, and taken into custody by the Columbus SWAT.

''It was a hostage situation in the classic sense. He took a great deal of pleasure in pointing that shotgun at my face for
seven hours,'' an angry Carter said after the hearing in Franklin County Common Pleas Court.

''We have people at Workers' Comp who are still afraid to go to work. It's been extremely difficult for me and my
family,'' he said. ''He had three [guns] and bottles of gasoline and a Bic lighter. He said he was going to light up one of
the employees on TV and film it while he burned.''

After the attack, workers told the Columbus Dispatch they had complained repeatedly about the lack of security on the floor.

James Conrad, administrator of the Bureau of Workers' Compensation, told the newspaper the hostage--taking also prompted a threat from a person who identified himself as a former Navy Seal, who said, ''I don't have to come into your building to take out your employees.''

Sadly, in our state's past, the persons who brought guns into public places nearly always meant to do others harm, and cared nothing for signs, company policies, or legal prohibitions.

The majority of multiple victim-public shootings occur where guns are banned, and the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation has no business offering such negligent advice to private companies.

To express your concerns about this state agency offering advice in the name of "safety" that is provably UNsafe:

Click here to access House & Senate phone numbers.
*Telephone communications are preferred over email.

Contact information for the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation follows:

Governor Bob Taft
Administrator/CEO James Conrad
30 W. Spring St., Third Floor
Columbus, OH 43215-2256
800-644-6292
FAX: 877-520-6446
Online BWC Contact Page

Inquiries can also be emailed to deborah.katterheinrich@bwc.state.oh.us

Related Stories:
The Truth about Concealed Carry and Business

What Business Owners Need to Know About CCW

August 19, 2004
Columbus Dispatch

by Lee Leonard

Katherine Thomsen, who lives in the Grandview Heights area and works at Ohio News Network, will carry the Democratic flag against Republican state Sen. Steve Stivers.

Thomsen was selected by the Franklin County Democratic Party to replace Melissa A. Mahoney of Dublin, who withdrew from the contest. Yesterday was the final day to slate candidates for the Nov. 2 ballot with local boards of election.

Stivers, appointed in 2003 for the remaining two years of a term, will be facing his first election in the district. Don Eckhart, of Galloway, an independent candidate, also is in the race for the 16 th District, which encompasses western Franklin County.

The major parties failed to fill out their slates in the nine contests for state representative in Franklin County.

August 19, 2004
Port Clinton News Herald

Clyde has been temporarily barred from prohibiting concealed weapons in city parks.

And there is the very real possibility that the injunction could be come permanent.

But something's seriously wrong here, and it appears to be up to the state legislature to correct the situation.

Click on the "Read More..." link below for more.

August 19, 2004
Cleveland Plain Dealer

by Christopher Montgomery

Concealed-law policies cause few protests from either side

Hand-wringing and speculation abounded earlier this year over the implications of Ohio's new concealed-carry gun law for businesses.

If you enacted a strict policy denying entrance to gun-carrying customers, would you lose their business and invite the wrath of pro-gun groups? If you didn't put such a policy into place, would you alienate customers opposed to the new law?

Now, nearly five months after concealed-carry went into effect in Ohio, the law's impact on business is more akin to an inconsequential ripple than a cresting wave of uncertainty. Whether or not businesses put prohibitive policies in place, it appears, has meant little in dollars and cents.

Between early January, when Gov. Bob Taft signed the concealed-carry bill, and April 8, when it became law, companies and business owners across Ohio had to decide what their gun policies would be. For retail chains with operations in other states where concealed weapons were already permitted, the decision was easier.

One of those chains was Tops Markets, a supermarket operator that, in addition to its Ohio presence, has stores in New York and Pennsylvania, which both have concealed-carry laws on the books.

"We can't say to our Ohio customers that you can't carry [weapons], because how are we going to know? Enforcement would be impossible," said Stefanie Zakowicz, a spokeswoman for the Buffalo, N.Y., company. "It would be almost disingenuous to say we have a policy."

Click on the "Read More..." link below for more.