Veto Overridden; HB347 to Become Law!
Written by Mike Kinsey
Tuesday, 12 December 2006
Thanks to the grassroots efforts of our great state's firearm owners, Ohioans For Concealed Carry is pleased to announce that the Ohio Senate has voted to override Governor Taft's veto of HB347, the first override of an Ohio governor's veto since 1977. The final tally yielded twenty-one (21) votes to override and twelve (12) to sustain. This exceeded the three-fifths majority that was needed by one vote.
The new law will take effect after 90 days, unless held up by court action, which has been threatened, in particular, by Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory.
Thankfully, with everyone's support, we have won this hard-fought battle and brought Ohio a little closer to other states that have enjoyed exercising their rights to keep and bear arms for self defense without having to worry about contradictory phrases like "Concealed Carry in Plain Sight" and "Municipal Restrictions on State Law".
While we can (and should) enjoy today's successes, we must be ever vigilant as we have not won the war. Those that wish to strip of us of our innate and Constitutionally protected rights never rest. We must continue to contact our fellow citizens, esteemed legislators, and media outlets in order to further our cause.
OFCC would like to issue a hearfelt "Thank You" to everyone that worked so hard for this day. It could not have been done without you!
Click here for the Senate Journal showing vote tally.
Summary of important changes to Ohio law this bill will make:
- Requires courts to award costs and reasonable attorney fees to any person, group, or entity that prevails in a challenge to an ordinance, rule, or regulation as being in conflict with Ohio law
- Raises the license fee to $55 and makes the license valid for five years (not retroactive to currently held licenses)
- Requires a person carrying a concealed firearm to keep their hands in plain sight during any stop for a "law enforcement purpose" and specifies a penalty of a first degree misdemeanor
- Raises the penalty for failure to inform an LEO you are carrying a concealed firearm from a fourth degree to a first degree misdemeanor, and requiring a suspension of the person's CHL
- Specifies that the penalty for grasping or attempting to grasp your firearm during a lw enforcement stop, without specific direction from an LEO, is a fifth degree felony
- Requires a CHL applicant to be legally living in the United States
- Allows for a CHL renewal period of 90 days prior to expiration and 30 days after expiration
- Requires sheriffs to accept applications at least 15 hours per week and to post those hours
- Requires sheriffs to accept applications for temporary emergency licenses during all regular business hours and without an appointment
- You are not permitted to exit your vehicle during a traffic stop unless instructed to by an LEO
- Removes the plain sight requirement for carrying in a motor vehicle, but still requires use of a holster
- A loaded firearm in a locked case does not need to be in plain sight, but an unlocked case must be in plain sight and have a lid, a cover, or a closing mechanism with a zipper, snap, or buckle, which lid, cover, or closing mechanism must be opened for a person to gain access to the handgun
- Violations of most provisions in a motor vehicle are now increased, many to felonies
- Statewide preemption of firearms law was enacted as follows:
The individual right to keep and bear arms, being a fundamental individual right that predates the United States Constitution and Ohio Constitution, and being a constitutionally protected right in every part of Ohio, the general assembly finds the need to provide uniform laws throughout the state regulating the ownership, possession, purchase, other acquisition, transport, storage, carrying, sale, or other transfer of firearms, their components, and their ammunition. Except as specifically provided by the United States Constitution, Ohio Constitution, state law, or federal law, a person, without further license, permission, restriction, delay, or process, may own, possess, purchase, sell, transfer, transport, store, or keep any firearm, part of a firearm, its components, and its ammunition.
Local laws that Statewide preemption will NOT invalidate:
- A zoning ordinance that regulates or prohibits the commercial sale of firearms, firearm components, or ammunition for firearms in areas zoned for residential or agricultural uses.
- A zoning ordinance that specifies the hours of operation or the geographic areas where the commercial sale of firearms, firearm components, or ammunition for firearms may occur, provided that the zoning ordinance is consistent with zoning ordinances for other retail establishments in the same geographic area and does not result in a de facto prohibition of the commercial sale of firearms, firearm components, or ammunition for firearms in areas zoned for commercial, retail, or industrial uses.
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