The state of Texas just recently signed into law allowing Constitutional Carry in their state joining around 28 other states to do so. Ohio has had similar proposition on the table for many years, but as of yet, it has not passed. As a 31 year veteran law enforcement officer and a certified NRA instructor, I‘m not for Constitutional Carry in the State of Ohio. After all, we already have Open Carry here in Ohio and there’s a lot of problems with that. See my blog “Open Carry. WARNING!!!”
Now hear me out before you start picketing the place. I am 110% for Americans to have, own and protect themselves with firearms but we need to be responsible with those firearms and all too often I see way too many people abusing those rights and its just a matter of time and we could loose our rights because of that abuse.
Constitutional Carry is defined as the ability to possess a firearm on, your person without any training, background check with little or no restrictions.
As a firearm instructor, I see all levels of shooting ability, most of which are not very good. Even in the law enforcement realm, there are officers who have a difficult time hitting their target at the range on qualification day. That's a shocker since our firearm is our main tool for survival and defense. Police are required by law to qualify yearly with their duty weapon, which is basically showing proof through documentation that they are proficient with their firearm. Let me tell you for a fact, our first time out of the range in the spring is less than par when it comes to shooting for some of us. We lose some of our skills over the winter (I don't know about you, but shooting outside in the winter time is not a fun thing to do). Since most departments do not own an indoor range they don't shoot in the winter time.
Shooting is a learned skill. So the question is, if people don't train, how can they keep their skills fresh. It’s not automatically going to show up in a gun fight. Little know fact, most CCW permit holders don't shoot much after they take their basic CCW class. Sad but true. Therefore, if you are not required to requalify or even train with your CCW permit handgun, most people simply don't.
Here is my hesitation on simply allowing Constitutional Carry in Ohio. Anyone can just carry a weapon whenever they want, wherever the want and however they want with no training AND no background check. This opens the doors wide open for personal legal liability and even will allow criminals to “legally” carry guns with little or no punishment.
Our state government has already given us the ability to carry, with some training and a background check, by taking a certified CCW class AND going through a background check. What’s wrong with that?
The old saying goes, “Give them enough rope, they’ll hang themselves with it”. Could the anti-gun lobbyist say the same thing? Let them have their guns for now, sooner or later they’ll shoot themselves in the foot then we’ll have to take their guns for their safety”?
Some people are not responsible enough to have firearms, I don’t want them to rune it for the rest of us.
G.Kiener