Press Release
Ohio Attorney General's Office

May 17, 2005

COLUMBUS - Ohio sheriffs issued 51,998 licenses to carry concealed handguns between April 8, 2004, when the state law went into effect, and March 31, 2005, according to the statistics gathered by Ohio’s Sheriff’s and complied by the Ohio Peace Officer Training Commission.

“I am the chief public official charged with implementing this law statewide. My office has undertaken a number of actions pertaining to the concealed carry law, and I am proud of the work my staff has done to ensure its smooth rollout,” Petro said. “In the last year, through the efforts of Ohio’s county sheriffs and our office, tens of thousands of law-abiding citizens have taken handgun safety courses from certified instructors, applied for, and were issued, licenses to carry a concealed handgun.”

Sheriffs must immediately suspend a license if the holder has been arrested or charged with certain offenses, or if the licensee is the subject of a protection order. Within the first full year of the law’s enactment, 71 licenses had been suspended by Ohio sheriffs , who also must revoke the license of persons who no longer meet the eligibility requirements to carry a concealed handgun. Ohio sheriffs revoked 52 regular licenses and 5 temporary emergency licenses. The sheriffs reported that they denied 544 applications because the applicants failed to meet the criteria of the law.

Petro’s office answered thousands of questions from citizens and from law enforcement about the new law, created and maintained new publications, a Web site, and electronic databases required by the statute, processed in a timely fashion a majority of the criminal background checks, and provided in-person and online training and assistance to sheriffs to help them fulfill their obligations under the law.

“Our office formalized reciprocity agreements with 16 other states to allow Ohioans to carry concealed weapons outside our borders, and developed processes to let Probate Courts and hospitals securely report data regarding persons disqualified for medical reasons,” Petro said. “My office also issued two advisory opinions concerning the law and successfully defended it against a court challenge in the Ohio Supreme Court.”

The data does not include those in Ohio who may be carrying a concealed weapon under permits issued by other states.

Judging strictly by the headlines, there is now one more reporter arrested for disobeying a lawful order from the police than concealed handgun license-holders this year.

May 17, 2005
Cleveland Plain Dealer

Maple Heights police arrested WEWS Channel 5 anchor Curtis Jackson at a crime scene Sunday as he followed a woman to her apartment for an interview.

Chief Rich Maracz said that Jackson was inside the boundaries of a crime scene. He said officers asked Jackson several times to leave before they arrested him.

"He refused to obey the lawful order of police," Maracz said.

WEWS News Director John Butte said that Jackson believed he had the right to go anywhere the general public could. When police asked him to leave, Butte said, Jackson agreed but asked the officer for his name. That was when he was arrested, Butte said.

Jackson was covering a suspicious death of a 74-year-old man when a woman who notified police of the death agreed to be interviewed. She did not want to be on camera but said she would talk to Jackson in her apartment.

"We have a significant concern when police prevent us from talking to potential sources of news...there is a sense of being singled out which we find pretty unacceptable," Butte said.

He said he was also disturbed when tape from a station videographer showed an officer with his hand on his gun while Jackson, handcuffed, was frisked.

"He wasn't a danger. They knew exactly who he was," Butte said.

Jackson, who recently joined the station as a weekend anchor, was released from the police station shortly after 1 a.m. Monday. He was not charged with a crime Monday, Maracz said. A city prosecutor will review the case and decide whether to charge Jackson.

May 18, 2005
Columbus Dispatch

Section of House bill clear on gun licenses

In its May 11 editorial, "Safety is a local issue," The Dispatch states that "(Ohio Attorney General Jim) Petro contends that the state — and only the state — can restrict where people holding licenses to carry guns can go." Fortunately for the law-abiding citizens of Ohio who have taken the time to get the required training and have successfully passed a background check for a concealed handgun license, Petro is correct.

On Jan. 7, 2004, the Ohio General Assembly passed a revised House Bill 12, making the concealed carry of handguns legal for any Ohioan who qualifies. A quick read of Section 9 of the bill, tells us that "No municipal corporation may adopt or continue in existence any ordinance, and no township may adopt or continue in existence any resolution, that is in conflict with those sections, including, but not limited to, any ordinance or resolution that attempts to restrict the places where a person possessing a valid license to carry a concealed handgun may carry a handgun concealed."

In reading the above, I find it very easy to come to the same conclusion as Petro. I can only conclude that The Dispatch must have missed Section 9.

Mike Bott
Westerville

Support of ban on guns in parks not surprising

I read the May 11 Dispatch editorial "Safety is a local issue" and ended up laughing so hard I nearly spit out my coffee.
The Dispatch was against concealed carry from the get-go. Are readers really to believe the paper would support a city’s home rule as a matter of law if such laws were to restrict the First Amendment (free speech) instead of the Second Amendment (right to keep and bear arms), or if a city tried to ban abortion? Or gay rights?

Try to keep the liberal hypocrisy a little less transparent.

Brad Hennebert
New Albany

Related Story:
Editorial boards' collective howl over recent Clyde developments earns reply

Gun ban extremist Toby Hoover has voiced her support for making CHL-records public by insisting she needs to know if anyone she hires might be carrying a firearm. This story fairly screams what most reasonable Ohioans think – when hiring, be concerned about the criminals amongst us - not the background checked law-abiding citizen. There is no media list of criminals, so perhaps Toby can explain to us where to get a list of those home handy-men that have criminal records, drug abuse, or child abuse history?

Dayton: Trotwood home raided by thugs

Three men kicked in the door of a Trotwood home and held its residents — including a man in a wheelchair — at gunpoint in the early Tuesday morning, according to Trotwood police.

"I'm not going to let this keep me down," said Harold Dillard, the paraplegic man whose family was held at gunpoint. "I'm more concerned with my son than anything."

Police said the home invasion occurred around 3 a.m. on Scottsdale Road off Hoover Road.

Dillard said they heard a loud banging and then the men were inside the house pointing guns at the family.
None of the residents were harmed but flat screen televisions and cash were stolen and the house was ransacked. Police were questioning one man as of Tuesday afternoon, said Trotwood Detective Archie Swanson.

Detectives suspect the home was targeted by contractors who had done work in the past for the family and knew the homeowner was disabled.

Details in the following tragic home invasion are still extremely sketchy.

Cincinnati: Chimney sweep shot dead while sleeping
Note:Although it occurred suburban Cincinnati, this shooting actually took place across the border in Kentucky.

Crime-scene investigators were scouring a log cabin Tuesday after a well-known Campbell County chimney sweep was gunned down in his bedroom as his children slept.

The shooting happened at 5 a.m. in the 11000 block of Alexandria Pike, just south of A.J. Jolly Golf Course, and police were awaiting autopsy results on the victim, Robert Bosley, 42.

His wife and children, a 6-year-old boy and 9-year-old girl, were whisked away to a relative's home, where no one would speak with a reporter.

The children were in their bedroom in the second-floor loft when someone smashed through a double-pane window of the back door, entered the parents' bedroom and fired repeatedly at Bosley.

His wife, Amy Bosley, was in bed and called 911 from a bedside phone but was unable to give police a detailed description of the male attacker.

Investigators were still at Bosley's business on Tuesday night, combing through records looking for anyone who might have had a motive, Hill said.

They also examining were Bosley's gun collection, which he kept at the business, he said.

How many accounts of domestic violence turned homicide must Ohioans read before people in such situations take precautions to protect themselves?

Cleveland: Man killed, estranged husband arrested

Even with two locks and a chain on the door, Laurie Sales didn't feel safe, and for good reason. The Cleveland woman lived in fear of her husband, Willie Sales Jr., after they split up about a year ago, she said. He showed up at her apartment on South Moreland Boulevard early Monday and fought with an old friend of hers who was visiting, she said. The friend, Sterling F. McNair, was shot dead and Willie Sales Jr., 34, is being held by police on suspicion of murder.

Laurie Sales, 34, said she and McNair, 40, of Cleveland, were in her living room about 12 a.m. Monday talking. "He was telling me about his new job," Laurie Sales said. "He had his own desk." She heard a key hit the lock. She thought of her estranged husband but she would never give him a key, she said. The door opened, but the security chain caught it. Then it was kicked open. Laurie Sales saw her husband with a gun in his hand, she said. Willie Sales Jr. and McNair tussled. Laurie Sales heard gunshots. The brawl spilled into the hallway and she heard more shots, she said. McNair was taken to Huron Hospital with a gunshot wound to his head and died at 12:46 a.m., said Cuyahoga County Coroner Elizabeth Balraj. A few hours later, Willie Sales Jr. turned himself in to police, said Lt. Thomas Stacho.

"I'm hoping they don't let him out on bail," Laurie Sales said. "I'm in fear for my life."

Three more examples of how police cannot be expected to arrive in time to help, and three more reasons why you should remember that only you can protect you.