Los Angeles Times: Concealed-Weapons Ban Ruled Illegal

[url]http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-ohio-concealed-weapons0110jan10.story?coll=sns%2Dap%2Dnation%2Dheadlines[/url]

Concealed-Weapons Ban Ruled Illegal
By JOHN NOLAN
Associated Press Writer

January 10 2002, 7:58 AM PST

CINCINNATI -- A state judge on Thursday blocked police from enforcing Ohio's
decades-old ban on concealed weapons, ruling the law violated the state
constitution.

Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Robert Ruehlman said the law effectively
barred people from protecting themselves.

"The very thought a potential victim might possess a firearm deters that element
of our society that cares nothing about laws or human life but rather
understands only one thing -- brute force," Ruehlman wrote.

Lawyers for the city of Cincinnati, the county and state said they would appeal
the order.

A Cincinnati private investigator and four others who said their jobs required
them to carry weapons for self-defense, sued in July 2000, saying the Ohio
Constitution allows citizens to bear arms, concealed or not.

Ohio now lets only law enforcement officials and state and federal government
officers carry concealed weapons.

Richard Ganulin, a lawyer for the city of Cincinnati, said the judge's order
contradicts Ohio Supreme Court rulings from the 1920s upholding the state's
authority to ban concealed weapons.

"There's no question. It's binding -- unless the Supreme Court of Ohio chooses
to overrule itself," Ganulin said.

Gun-rights supporters hope the lawsuit will prompt state laws allowing concealed
weapons for the public.

Forty-three states allow concealed weapons in some form.

Copyright 2002 Associated Press

[beer] it is about time!