Trial Balloon: Taft considers raising bar for HB274 support

Gov. Bob Taft is leaning toward making legislation requiring safe storage of firearms a new condition for winning his approval of a bill that would allow Ohioans to carry concealed weapons, a well-placed Statehouse source said Monday.

The safe-storage provision would be in addition to Taft’s requirement that any concealed-weapons bill have the support of major law enforcement groups, said the source, who declined to be identified.

Commentary by Chad D. Baus:
For two years, Bob Taft has said he would only sign on to HB274 if it had the support of law enforcement, which he narrowly defined as the FOP police union.

Now that the possibility of FOP labor union support looks more and more likely, this story appears to be a trial balloon - a test to measure how much backlash, or support, Taft could garner for this eleventh hour raising of the bar.

Sen. Jacobson's office denied the issue had been raised in negotiations. But no matter how likely this possibility, the fact that it has been floated necessitates a response.

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Click here to read the whole story in the Dayton Daily News.