Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro has issued an opinion over recent questions concerning the legality of mandating that concealed handgun license applicants provide their social security numbers on the application. The opinion was posted on the AG's website without fanfare, and no press release was issued.

This opinion confirms the position OFCC has taken on this issue for years: It is a violation of federal law to mandate that applicants provide their social security number on a concealed handgun license application.

Key wording of the opinion follows (emphasis added):

"Although voluntary, disclosing a Social Security number greatly facilitates the criminal background check that must be conducted before a license can be issued. Under federal law, the county sheriff may not refuse to process an application for a license if the applicant does not provide a Social Security number."

Click here to download the opinion, entitled "Use of Personally Identifying Information".

Related Stories:
Conceal-carry may violate a privacy law

Attorney General: Cities cannot legally ban in parks/ on busses

The fight to restore Ohioans' right to self-defense was not an easy one, and passage of House Bill 12 came at a great price.

While Ohio's new concealed carry law is already saving lives, many important provisions were left out, and many more harmful provisions were inserted, in order to get a law.

Calls for making legislative improvements to this law started almost the day it was passed. But know this - efforts to "reform the reform" will only be as successful as are efforts to achieve victory in the November elections. We must protect our "veto-proof" majority in the Ohio House, and we must change the makeup of the Ohio Senate, if we are to make improvements to this law anytime before Bob Taft leaves office in 2006.

Several OFCC members formed the OFCC Political Action Committee just over two months before the 2002 elections. In spite of this short time, the PAC was credited by pro-CCW legislators in the General Assembly as having influenced the outcome of several key elections.

In 2004, we plan to take advantage of the extra time! Please review the ENDORSEMENTS listed below, keeping in mind that candidate surveys have been submitted to all House and Senate Candidates, and that other endorsements are forthcoming:

Ohio House 2004
Ohio Senate 2004

It's time to GET INVOLVED! With your financial contributions and volunteer support, we will be able to ensure that future Ohio general assemblies protect and improve upon Ohio's new concealed carry law.

Your votes are crucial to protecting and increasing the pro-CCW majority! As we all know well from the 2000 Presidential race, a small number of votes can make a BIG difference in the outcome. The deadline to be registered in order to vote in the next election is 30 days prior to Election Day. Click here to request an online Voter Registration form.

The irony would be humorous if it wasn't so deadly serious. This man's employer, the Dayton Daily News, has worked for years to prevent the restoration of his Constitutional right to defend himself, and they continue to rail against it on editorial pages today.

Shame on employers like the DDN & Pizza Hut who would send their defenseless employees to places their corporate lawyers would never go, concerned more for an incorrectly perceived liability issue than with the lives of those who work for them.

June 3, 2004
Dayton Daily News

Man, woman held in robbery case

A man and a woman were held Wednesday night for questioning, hours after police and Montgomery County sheriff's deputies located what they think was a van stolen from a Dayton Daily News newspaper carrier, WHIOTV.com reported.

The carrier told police he was robbed in the morning while filling newspaper boxes in the parking lot of the Tasty Bird store in the 900 block of West Third Street.

Police said the carrier pulled into the lot and noticed a woman sitting in a car. The carrier said a man approached moments later and asked for his money and took off with the van on Third Street. The woman in the car followed the van, police said.

The carrier gave officers a description of the man and woman. Law officers said they found the van at a motel on U.S. 35

Related Story:
74 year-old newspaper carrier shot in carjacking