Editorial: ''Don't expect a groundswell of opinion from the business side''

The Columbus Business Journal has printed a revealing editorial on the strangeness of anti-self-defense forces dragging business into the concealed carry reform debate.

"In the argument against a concealed-carry law, some opponents have warned that business has yet to weigh in heavily on the proposal. That's true – but don't expect a groundswell of opinion from the business side.

This proposal simply doesn't resonate with the corporate sector other than how it might influence businesses' ability to manage and control their workplaces and whether it raises an undue threat of liability.

Those concerns were answered to businesses' satisfaction last year before a similar measure died, and the issues appear adequately addressed this time around. As a result, expect that business in Ohio will largely sit out this debate over concealed carry."

Given this reasoned analysis, it becomes all the more difficult to understand why the Ohio Chamber of Commerce has joined the Million Mom March in the fight to weaken this bill.

After successfully lobbying to give businesses immunity from legal consequence if they ban firearms, and a defenseless person gets hurt,
the Ohio Chamber of Commerce is now fighting to modify HB12 to make even more people defenseless, by giving businesses the right to ban firearms from private vehicles in parking lots.

But according to Chamber lobbyist Tony Fiore, the organization has members on both sides of this issue.

So why is the Ohio Chamber towing a Million Mom March line by inferring that CCW at work would create an OSHA* (the Occupational Safety and Health Administration) concern? Especially when Jeff Lewis, Safety and Occupational Health Manager, of Region 6 of OSHA, has told Ohioans For Concealed Carry that OSHA has no policy or the authority to regulate firearms in the workplace. Should an employer choose to allow firearms in the workplace, Lewis says, he would be under no violation of any OSHA regulation or guideline.

Kentucky explicitly denies employers from banning firearms in cars, and has had no problems. To read it for yourself, check page 6 paragraph 14 of this .pdf doc.

Click here to read the entire editorial in the Columbus Business Journal.