Send this to your state rep and the gov

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38702538/ns/us_news-life

7 shot outside Buffalo restaurant in NY state.

This is what happens when people are not allowed to carry in restaurants. These people could have defended themselves and maybe only 1 or no lives would have been lost. I would say this is more than sufficient grounds to expedite the restaurant carry bill that is sitting in the house. These places leave customers defenseless.

more details as the story develops

The actuality is a different tragedy in NY. Although from my understanding of NY firearm law it is legal to carry in restaurants serving alcohol, you must have a valid NY permit and permits can be tough to come by depending on your locality. So in regard to having some means of carrying in places serving alcohol, NY state actually has better law than Ohio.

jmelvin said:

The actuality is a different tragedy in NY. Although from my understanding of NY firearm law it is legal to carry in restaurants serving alcohol, you must have a valid NY permit and permits can be tough to come by depending on your locality. So in regard to having some means of carrying in places serving alcohol, NY state actually has better law than Ohio.

Click to expand...

Its true that something...although the NY permit hardly qualifies as something the average joe can get......is better than nothing.

But the point of this post is not a comparison of laws. But if you want to discuss that, I will point out that Ohio is a shall issue state that issues permits to the average citizen and not just Mr. well connected and well financed.

I'm simply pointing out that people need to be able to protect themselves public places and that restaurants are not magical zones where people don't have to worry about protecting themselves and their family. This was a clear example of people that were not legally able to carry a firearm (did not have those difficult to get permits) in restaurant or openly carry (may have prevented the crime all together) and paid with their lives.

Ohio needs to get this bill passed NOW. Not in November or next year

Understood. In some portions of New York though, so I'm told, permits are no harder to get than in Ohio, but I know that is not uniform throughout the state. As Ohio is where I grew up and lived for 26 years I look forward to returning to visit family and being able to carry my handgun with me in many of the restaurants I would in most other places across the US. Hopefully Ohio will give up its perks-for-permits stupidity and allow for all forms of carry (unlicensed OC and currently licensed CC) in places serving alcohol just like most of its neighbors.

Don't hold your breath waiting for this bill to pass. Democratic House Speaker Armond Budish and Democratic Chairwoman Tracy Heard are both rated "D" by the NRA. They also both voted "no" against the last pro-gun bill (SB 184) a couple of years ago.

I'm expecting the bill to die in committee on December 31 when the legislative session ends.

If you ask me, the law banning at least the open carry of firearms in places serving alcohol and the law banning the unlicensed loaded open carry of firearms in automobiles (and any other vehicle) should be challenged in court as unconstitutional restrictions. I don't recall the case, which indicated at the time that although concealed carry was generally restricted (unless a prudent man would carry concealed) open carry of firearms in Ohio was considered a right. I do not see that the adoption of licensed concealed carry affects this in any way as licensed concealed carry is very much considered a privilege in the ORC from what I recall.

I realize that this would take time and effort, but so does ginning up support for legislation and then actually getting that legislation passsed. A win in the courts on constitutional challenges would open up a means of unlicensed open carry for both issues. Further, if lawmakers wanted to change the law as a result of the court win, the Ohio Constitution would need to be ammended to restrict the rights protected by it and that would likely be a very dangerous game for Ohio politicians.

Of course if the supposed 2A activist organizations in Ohio could get past the idea that perks for permits and filling the pockets of permit class instructors then you might have some useful headway made with this sort of action.

RT48 said:

Don't hold your breath waiting for this bill to pass. Democratic House Speaker Armond Budish and Democratic Chairwoman Tracy Heard are both rated "D" by the NRA. They also both voted "no" against the last pro-gun bill (SB 184) a couple of years ago.

I'm expecting the bill to die in committee on December 31 when the legislative session ends.

Click to expand...

I disagree. Rather than using the actual house bill, from what I understand, they simply intend to attach an amendment to another bill with the same language as passed in the Senate in order to bypass the house committee. The ONLY reason this did not work the first time was because by the time the senate passed it's bill, the house had very little time left in session to pass a similar amendment. The only reason it failed was because Armond was and Tracy were able to call the legislation to a vote before an amendment could be added in the last minutes of session.

Once the new session begins, this maneuver will not be viable, especially with democrats are already courting CCW carriers to save their own skin. whether they follow up on those promises (Republican's included) , is another matter entirely. As of now, the bill does have the support it needs to pass, they just need more time to prevent any tricks on Armond's part.