We tried to tell them...

May 25, 2004
Cincinnati Post

The Ohio Attorney General's Office is looking into whether it's legal for sheriff's departments to require Social Security numbers from applicants of concealed-weapon permits.

The state was prompted by William J. Miller Sr., an architect from Mount Lookout, who questioned whether it violates a 1974 privacy law.

Ohio's concealed-carry law took effect April 8.

For the government to continue to request Social Security numbers creates "an element of the intentional and the flagrant" disregard for the law on the part of the government, Miller argues.

Miller notes that the privacy law makes illegally seeking a Social Security number a felony.

"But because it's being done by the attorney general and the government, it's being given some kind of pass. I have a little trouble with two-tiered justice -- It's pretty blatant here."

Miller earlier this year wrote to Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro and state Rep. Bill Seitz about the issue. When he got no response, he wrote U.S. Attorney Greg Lockhart, reasoning it was a federal law being violated.

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"FBI stats say Akron fairly safe - Violent crime less than in other cities"

To read the headline, you'd never guess that violent crime jumped 7% in Akron in 2003, fueled by a 23% increase in rape, and 22% increase in aggravated assault (bucking a state-wide and national trend of falling rates).

Upon passage of Ohio House Bill 12, Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic whined, "We took guns away from the Wild, Wild West more than 100 years ago,'' he said, "and we're revisiting it. I really think it's a sad day.

"It's a real indication of the wrong direction that the state of Ohio has gone with these right-wing folks down there driving the issues. I cannot believe... the typical soccer moms in suburbia who have helped put these people in office are going to feel good when they go to the nearest Wendy's... and find a bunch of people with guns strapped to their hips.''

One wonders how Plusquellic explains that his city bucked state and nationwide trends and posted drastically higher violent crime rates, all without a concealed carry law he claims would be the culprit of such increases.

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