Rep. Patmon's HB 79: Retread legislation aimed at the wrong target

Last year WKYC (NBC Cleveland) reporter Tom Meyer issued a very shoddy piece of investigative reporting. His headline blasted that felons are getting hunting licenses that allow them to use guns. The story was long on hype and even longer on misinformation. The most significant piece of bad information was the false assumption that purchasing a hunting license gives someone permission to use a gun. WRONG! A hunting license only gives someone the ability to legally hunt or trap in Ohio.

Rather than investigating the facts, Rep. Bill Patmon (D) of Cleveland, who seems addicted to getting his name in the press with any legislation targeting firearm owners, jumped on the bandwagon. He quickly introduced legislation that sought to require the ODNR Division of Wildlife to ask a question and, if answered in the affirmative, require the hunting license to indicate it is firearms restricted. That legislation went no place in the last General Assembly. It's a new General Assembly this year, but Rep. Patmon, who clearly doesn't understand the issue, has simply re-introduced the same legislation, now known as HB 79. I suppose that plays well to the gun control advocates of his party, and back home with the power brokers of Cleveland. It is quite a bit more tiresome for gun owners who are at the other end of Patmon's legislative shotgun.

Last year's story reported that nearly 1,200 felons are getting hunting licenses. I have no idea where they got the number, or even if it is accurate. For the sake of argument, I'll use their number. While 1,200 may seem large, it pales when compared to the number of deer hunters (the ODNR Division of Wildlife estimates there are approximately 420,000 deer hunters!) So, doing the math, that means felons comprise .00285 of the deer hunters. Not quite so alarming now.

Let's get something straight - the purchase of a hunting license DOES NOT give anyone a license to use a gun. I have confirmed this with the ODNR Division of Wildlife law section. Apparently the WKYC "investigative reporter" and Rep. Patmon never thought about contacting the ODNR for information.

There are any number of reasons, having nothing to do with firearms, that a felon might purchasing a hunting license. These include:

  • A hunting license is required to trap in Ohio.
  • A hunting license is required to hunt deer. Many deer hunters only hunt with archery equipment.

This is but another piece of liberal legislation that sounds good in the liberal media and plays well to the ignorant. Some common sense analysis may reach a different conclusion:

  • The felon under firearms disability knows they are not allowed to own a firearm. Do they need a question on a computer screen or a piece of paper to remind them?
  • Even with a license in their pocket that says firearms restricted, will that stop them from breaking the law and hunting with a gun? If you really believe that is the case, just stop reading now because I'm not able to reason with you. The odds of a hunter getting stopped and checked by an Ohio Wildlife Officer are pretty slim. There are only 88 Ohio Wildlife Officers and 420,000 deer hunters. Even with supervisors and other staff working during the deer gun season, not many hunters will encounter an officer. So the odds are the felon who chooses to hunt with a gun will not get caught.
  • But what if he does get caught? Will the hunting license that says firearms restricted help? Maybe. It depends on the circumstances and whether the Wildlife Officer has any probable cause to verify the hunter through a system check. If they do, the person will show up as a felon - regardless of what the hunting license indicates. Since Rep. Patmon's bill carries no penalty it appears to be no harm/no foul for not having the proper hunting license.

Here's the real kicker in the process. The felon, who isn't allowed to own a firearm but is hunting with one, had to get the gun someplace. Illegally! Someone knows that the felon is out there with a gun. Someone is aiding the felon in breaking the law. Is it really worth the risk to a felon to kill a deer with gun? Perhaps since poachers take that risk also. All the "someone who knows" has to do is call the TIP poacher hotline (1-800-POACHER) to anonymously report the illegal activity. They can help the ODNR bust the illegal hunter. Someone has to step up to stop felons under firearms disability from obtaining guns.

Finally, there is no mention of who will pay to alter the Division of Wildlife customer service computer system software. Currently Rep. Patmon's legislation doesn't include funding from the General Assembly, or the general revenue fund, for the cost of these modifications. As a retired computer systems engineer from a major defense contractor, I understand that the specifications, design, review, coding, testing and implementation of software is costly. Even if there is only one question and one line of print involved. And I've not yet taken into consideration the overhead of state contracting. Who is going to pay for the system modifications? The same people that always pay the bills the law abiding. In this case, since the Division of Wildlife is largely supported by hunters/trappers/fishermen, it is the law abiding sportsman that will pay the bill.

How will this work? Is the felon going to honestly answer the question "Are you under firearms disability?" in the process? Apparently Rep. Patmon thinks the felon will answer truthfully. Really? Rep. Patmon apparently thinks that the felon who will illegally get a gun to hunt will suddenly be honest when completing a form to make an online purchase. That's a mind boggling concept to me. This is not about felons with a hunting license but about felons with guns - something that is already illegal.

Outdoor writer and hunter education instructor Larry S. Moore is a long-time volunteer leader for Buckeye Firearms Foundation and winner of the 2005 USSA Patriot Award, the 2007 League of Ohio Sportsmen/Ohio Wildlife Federation Hunter Educator of the Year, the 2010 National Wild Turkey Federation/ Women in the Outdoors Hunter Education Instructor of the Year and the 2014 Ohio NWTF Outdoor Writer of the Year.

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