By Jim Irvine

At the Strongsville Republican’s club pig roast, on August 13, I talked with gubernatorial candidate Betty Montgomery about concealed carry. Though she maintained that she never made any disparaging comments about CHL holders, we did "agree" on several other areas.

Betty stated that she thought HB12 was a terribly drafted bill. With regard to the Senate's amendments, I could not agree more. So it is confusing that her recent campaign material states, “As Governor I will not seek to change the rights of Ohioans to carry concealed weapons under Ohio law.”

She admitted that she was wrong about the adverse effects concealed carry license holders would have, and that she did not know of a single problem. While she is happy about the positive effects of the law, she is not eager to give license holders the additional freedoms we need.

Betty does not like the provision where information about license holders is available only to the media. She did not say if she thinks all CHL info should be private (as we think it should be) or if all should be public, as (the recently convicted) Governor Taft thinks it should be, and as she has stated in the past.

I explained how difficult it is to properly carry on a motorcycle. Betty was not familiar with the ridiculous car carry provisions in current law, so could not comment on a fix.