Keeping guns with permit holders keeps them away from criminals

This Wednesday, two weeks after the last hearing, the Ohio Senate Judiciary Committee will hold the final hearing for Senate Bill 239, the bill that would allow concealed handgun licensees to carry their handguns into locations which serve alcoholic beverages as long as they don't drink any themselves. The bill also removed multiple restrictions on how a licensee can transport a firearm in a motor vehicle.

Many opponent are promoting this as "drunks in bars" legislation, which of course could not be further from the truth. Approximately 40 states, including every state surrounding Ohio, has similar legislation on the books and these wild-eyed prediction do not happen in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, or Michigan. Nor in any other state for that matter. Like all the other fear-mongering, these predictions will also fail to come true.

However, one very real effect will happen, and that is the fact that there will be fewer guns left vulnerable to theft.

As the law is written today, a CHL holder must leave his or her firearm at home or in the car when entering a restaurant that serves liquor of any kind. One only has to look at incidents like occurred Saturday when deputy district director for U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton Greg Holcomb had his car broken into at DeLuca’s Place in the Park. He believes the thieves thought the two bags of paperwork they stole contained laptop computers. One of those bags could just has easily contained a handgun left behind by a person disarmed by Ohio law.

Of course, the most important factor is that law abiding citizens not be left defenseless and at the mercy of criminals. But a secondary benefit to keeping the legal guns with the permit holder is that there is one less gun available for an easy smash and grab break-in.

For both these reasons, the Ohio legislature needs to pass SB 239.