COLUMBUS, OHIO — Legislators are getting ready to rush a flurry of bills through the House and Senate in Ohio. Among these bills are measures that would seek to reduce the penalty for carrying a firearm onto a state university campus. At present, it is a felony for a concealed carrier to carry his handgun onto such a campus.
According to the Dispatch, House Bill 48 sought to open up locations for concealed carriers to go without being prosecuted. This measure was widely hailed as a way to keep otherwise law-abiding citizens on the right side of the law should they inadvertently stray onto poorly marked university campus property.
In the wake of the recent OSU attack, which left ten people injured and thankfully ended with a safety officer killing the attacker, legislators are now seeking to expand that measure and get it passed through the Senate. That attack was perpetrated by a man with a vehicle and a knife. If a law-abiding citizen had engaged him, he could have been charged with a felony according to Ohio regulations.
The label of “gun free zones” that used to be applied to places like daycare centers and college campuses are now being regarded by their true label “victim zones”. These areas are prohibited or off limits by local or state law and prohibitively punish those who otherwise would be seeking to protect themselves and others.
As we’ve seen with countless attacks ranging from Oregon to Tennessee, the perpetrators of these crimes strategically strike places where the recipients of the attack are usually unarmed.
If they’re free to attack us anywhere, why do they keep choosing the places where we are not allowed to carry a concealed handgun legally?
Quite simple, really. They can guarantee the most amount of damage for the least amount of resistance.
In the OSU case, that attacker bet wrong. Thankfully, there was a public safety officer who happened to be nearby and able to respond within minutes of the attack taking place.
If that officer had not been nearby or had been injured, that entire situation may have gone much worse.
As concealed carriers, we take our obligation to follow the law extremely seriously. It would only make sense for legislators to take our commitment to be responsibly armed seriously as well. After all, we’re living in a country where attacks on soft targets are becoming increasingly common and brutal. It would only make common sense to lift measures that only seek to prevent otherwise law-abiding citizens from protecting themselves through the use of deadly force.
