By Ken Hanson, Esq.

This November, Buckeyes will head to the poll to elect a new Attorney General. This election is being held without the customary year-long primary campaigns, due to the nature and timing of the resignation of Marc Dann. As a result, a small group of men and women hold the future of your gun rights in their hands. Chances are very good that you do not know any of these men and women, and you certainly did not vote for them.

One day after the Ohio House passed amended SB184 with a strong bipartisan majority, the Ohio Senate has concurred to the improvements with an equally strong and bi-partisan 25-7 vote. A video archive of the floor debate is available here.
(Click here to see how they voted.)

The bill's sponsor, State Senator Steve Buehrer (R-Delta), noted that "while SB184 has undergone several changes over the last few months, the bill that was sent to the Governor today meets the goal of allowing people to feel safe in their homes and communities. I would like to thank all those who worked on the bill, and I urge the Governor’s support for this very important measure."

“We thank Senator Buehrer for his hard work in leading the effort to reform and modernize Ohio’s firearm and use of force laws,” said Jim Irvine, Chair of the Buckeye Firearms Association. “Ohio’s Castle Doctrine is about helping crime victims, by shifting the focus of our police and prosecutors back on the criminal where it belongs. Law-abiding Ohioans no longer have to fear getting trapped up in the legal system for having lawfully defended themselves in their home."

The bill now awaits a signature from Governor Ted Strickland (D).

"I am proud to support this important legislation that protects gun owners throughout the state of Ohio," Strickland stated. "I look forward to signing these common sense protections into law."

Buckeye Firearms Association applauds the Ohio House of Representatives' 73-23 vote to pass the amended SB184.

SB184 passed the Ohio Senate in April with a 31-0 vote and has now passed the Ohio House in an amended form to include technical corrections and improve laws for law-abiding gun owners in Ohio.

No one rose to speak against the bill. A video archive of the floor debate is available here. (Click here to see how they voted.)

SB184 is now headed back to the Ohio Senate where final approval is expected before summer recess. Once the amended bill is approved in the Senate, it will then go to Governor Strickland for his signature.

"I am proud to support this important legislation that protects gun owners throughout the state of Ohio," Strickland stated. "I look forward to signing these common sense protections into law."

By Chad D. Baus

With pending legislation that reinforces the popular concept that a person's home is their castle, and a pro-gun Democrat governor who fully supports it, the anti-gun media has had a tough time sustaining the type of barrage against SB184 that was typical of their past assaults against HB12 (Ohio's Concealed Handgun Licensure Law) and HB367 (Ohio's Statewide Gun Control Preemption Law).

Their opportunity came last week, however, when the leadership of the Ohio Fraternal Order of Police labor union realized that someone has taken their veto stamp away from them. These elitists are having trouble adjusting to the fact that they are subject to citizen control and the citizens have reasserted control over their objections, and the anti-gun media are only happy to give union leaders' dog and pony show plenty of coverage.

But as an Associated Press story that is being run in newspapers, radio and television across the state shows, more media coverage isn't necessarily a good thing, either for the police unions OR the journalists who cover them.

Buckeye Firearms Association applauds the Ohio House Criminal Justice Committee’s 9-3 vote to pass the amended SB184, Ohio's Castle Doctrine legislation.

SB184 passed the Ohio Senate in April with a 31-0 vote. Before being voted out of committee in the House, it was amended to include technical corrections and improve laws for law-abiding gun owners in Ohio.

The amendment provides a legal way for a person who does not have a concealed handgun license to transport an unloaded firearm in a motor vehicle. It allows a concealed handgun licensee to pick up a child from school, to carry a concealed firearm in one's own home without a license, to carry concealed in places such as grocery stores that sell alcohol for off-site consumption, to carry concealed in publicly-owned facilities such as park shelters, parking garages, and highway rest stop buildings, and to carry in an unlocked, closed glove compartment or center console.

The amendment also eliminates the written test to re-qualify for a Concealed Handgun License (CHL), defines a "loaded" firearm more clearly, provides for mandatory attorney's fees when police fail to return a firearm to its rightful owner, lessens the penalty for failure to inform a police officer of one's status as a CHL-holder if the officer had actual notice of the CHL, and prevents a landlord from evicting a tenant because they lawfully own and/or carry a firearm.

According to comments made to the press by House Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John White (R-38), the hundreds if not thousands of calls and letters that have poured into the Statehouse over the weekend have been heard.

White told the Dayton Daily News Saturday that a vote would be taken in committee on Tuesday, followed by a floor vote by the House on Wednesday, and a Senate concurrence vote "soon after".

What White has not yet indicated is the final form Buckeye Firearms Association- and NRA-backed amendments will take.

BELLEVUE, WA – Chicago Alderman Richard Mell ought to be prosecuted like any other negligent gun owner for failing to re-register his firearms under an ordinance he helped pass, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said recently.

“I don’t care if anti-gun Mayor Richard Daley supports giving Mell a break, and it doesn’t matter that Mell is the father-in-law of Gov. Rod Blagojevich,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “For years, the draconian ordinance supported by Mell and enforced by Daley has terrorized Chicago gun owners. It’s time for Mell to face his own music, and it’s time for Daley to just shut up.”

Mell has proposed an amendment to the existing law that would allow gun registration to re-open for a month, giving him amnesty.

By Jim Irvine

We are often thanked for all we do to secure firearms rights in Ohio, but this Memorial Day, it's important to remember all those who have come before us, and won all of the big battles. It is only through their sacrifice and perseverance that we are able to fight today's battles.

While it's easy to get caught up in the moment of your own struggles, our lives as we know them would not be possible without the many victories of our veterans. Again and again they have paid the ultimate sacrifice to secure our freedom.

House Criminal Justice committee Chairman John White (R-38) has rescheduled SB184 for a fourth hearing next week. Once again, the Chairman has indicated that an amendment may be offered before a possible vote.

The meeting is scheduled for for Tuesday, May 27 at 1:00 p.m. in Statehouse Room 121.

PLEASE use our Write to Legislators website feature NOW to contact your legislators and ask them not to give in to the Ohio Fraternal Order of Police union leaders' full assault aimed at derailing this bill.

Tell your representatives that the issues in this bill and the amendment, which is backed by Governor Strickland, Buckeye Firearms Association and the NRA, needs to be addressed by this General Assembly, and please encourage your friends and family to support the Constitutional right to bear arms for self-defense to do the same.

Background information:

• Information on Castle Doctrine Bill
• Summary of the Pro-Gun amendments proposed
• Letter from the Ohio FOP Legislative Chairman Mark Drum attempting to derail amendments

One of the important aspects of the pending amendment to Ohio's Castle Doctrine bill now on hold in the House Criminal Justice Committee is a change that would amend O.R.C. 2923.126(B) in the governmental building category to exempt shelters, restrooms and parking garages from the definition.

As yet another news media story this week proves, this change can come none too soon.