While one must have a license to carry a concealed handgun in Ohio, it is currently legal to carry the same handgun openly in most places. The Plain Dealer has an interesting story this morning about a person arrested last month, apparantly while carrying openly. The twist is that police charged him with concealed carrying without a license, this despite the fact that they had received three 911 calls reporting the presence of the weapon (suggesting that it was, indeed, being carried openly). Another interesting aspect of the story is that Cleveland apparantly still has a local prohibition against open carry on the books, and that "police are under orders by Mayor Frank Jackson to continue enforcing the local rules despite the state law, according to Lt. Thomas Stacho, a department spokesman." Hmm. Sounds like a recipe for court-ordered legal fees to me.
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
This sounds like any other Ohio city who thinks they are above the law. This is nothing new. The city of Cleveland will charge this citizen and cost him so much money to fight this he will cave in as he will go broke. You cant fight city hall. The police, law department and mayor of Cleveland should be run out of town as anti Americans. The true American is the poor citizen who is being harrassed by the city of Cleveland.
Unfortunately, Greg was charged with the state concealed handgun law, so we can't challenge it under ORC 9.68. But he was clearly not carrying concealed and the charges do not apply, so hopefully his case will be dismissed or charges dropped.
Sounds like it is time for an open carry march in Cleveland.
Why would you open carry even though it is legal in this state to do so, when we have concealed carry, pretty stupid if you ask me. He drew attention to himself,could cost him his firearm and any future concealed carry.Even though open carry is legal in this state you are going to go thru this same situation every time . Concrete doesnt do the complexion any good. GET THE CCW. Too many are trying to hide behind the constitution and are getting slammed.
The reason for doing it is because rights not used are eventually lost. I'm hope'n this guy had his ducks in a row with his lawyer waiting in the wings to jump on this injustice. If he has the backing he'll eventually win.
Wow…hiding behind the Constitution? Ha! Every scoundrel will try that loophole! You can't be serious. Deliberate actions by the state to interfere with your Constitutional rights is actionable, period. Let the LEOs defend by showing that arresting law-abiding citizens who openly carry firearms is an action that is narrowly tailored to achieve a compelling government interest, as they are required to do, or pay dearly for such a fundamental affront. Surrendering rights so many have died to establish simply to avoid a little scuff in the complexion seems cowardly to me. But the, maybe I'm not so pretty.
When is the open carry march?
Sounds like one is in order.