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More proof the State of Ohio does not get it when it comes to guns. The state is asking the Supreme Court to issue a stay on this weeks appeals court decision striking down a long-standing state law that prohibits the carrying of concealed weapons according to this report:
Attorney General Montgomery asked the court late Wednesday to impose an immediate stay and served notice of the state?s intention to appeal. ?The state appellants request emergency relief because the lower court?s decision places law enforcement personnel at risk, and the citizens of Hamilton County, by allowing individuals to carry concealed firearms on their person, and loaded firearms in their motor vehicles without any knowledge regarding when or how a firearm can be used,? the state?s motion said.
?There is no right to carry concealed weapons in Ohio and this court has made that abundantly clear,? the state?s motion said. ?In creating this new right, the court of appeals ignored this court?s precedent, and every other lower court that has rejected the contention that there is a fundamental right to carry concealed firearms.?
First of all,the concept that law enforcement is at greater risk is questionable. Let’s go over this again: people who shoot law enforcement officials are criminals and therefor unlikely to obey a law against concelaed carry! I mean does the AG think suddenly a bunch of thugs who wanted to shoot police officers will feel emboldened to do so becuase of a court ruling? This is the biggest red herring on concealed weapons – law abiding citizens are not a threat to law enforcement, they simple want to protect themselves from non-law abiding citizens with guns. If a police office thinks simply because there is a law against something then he is unlikley to encounter it then naivite and simplemindedness runs amok.
Second, no right to carry a concealed weapon was “created” by the appeals court. Rather, the court simply invalidated a poorly written and largely incomprehesible law. The legislature is free to adopt a better one which regulates the crrying of concealed wweapons in an intelligent and constitutional way but so far have not done so because the Governor has threatened to veto it. I assume the AG knows this and is simply trying to defend the pathetic state law because that is her job – it is the governor who quit playing games and help correct this problem.
Whatever the Governor decides, I think it is high time the legislature did its job and passed a coherant constitutional law on conceled weapons.