Letter to the Editor: Posting won't make library patrons safe
March 8, 2004
Toledo Blade
The Toledo-Lucas County Public Library's plan to post gun-ban notices may have good intentions, but is not very well thought out and could possibly work to the disadvantage of its patrons.
It is true that libraries are exempted under the new concealed-carry law. However, it is not necessary to post the information. Anyone who is issued a CCW permit will have clearly been advised of the rules before ever being issued a permit; it is part of the mandated training. The legal carriers will be well aware of the restriction.
Will the non-carrying patrons feel safer because the library ban is posted? In the words of the library director, "... the general public has no idea unless they've followed this law ..."
If they haven't followed the law, then it is pretty safe to assume that they don't care anyway. If they have followed the law, then they know that libraries are no-carry zones.
In fact, the posting only serves to remind and confirm to the criminally minded element of society that people going to and from the library will most assuredly be unarmed and therefore safer prey than the average Joe on the street!
Not only may the posting serve to give patrons a false sense of security, it may actually put them in greater jeopardy by causing them to relax their normal level of vigilance.
People who follow the law know the law. Those who don't won't pay attention to signs anyway. Even if a law-abiding, licensed carrier were to forget and carry his weapon into the library, experience in other states has shown that licensed carriers are not people who break other laws.
So what is the point of advertising the vulnerability of your patrons to the bad guys? Think it through, thoroughly.
RICHARD B. IOTT
Monclova
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