Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed a law Monday ditching the state’s concealed carry permit requirement for citizens carrying privately owned firearms.
Effective in approximately three months, Senate Bill 215 will allow for the concealed carry of legally owned firearms by citizens aged 21 and older without a permit, according to the Columbus Dispatch. Additionally, the bill will get rid of concealed carry training requirements as well as ditch the requirement that citizens must inform law enforcement officers when they are armed.
Under the new law, people who wish to carry a concealed weapon in Ohio will not have to go through the permit process and will not be required to ‘promptly’ inform officers they are carrying a concealed weapon during a stop.
https://t.co/DrDjr1sfdc— WCPO 9 (@WCPO) March 14, 2022
DeWine signed the bill despite complaints from law enforcement and Democrats that the law will make Ohio less safe, according to the outlet. Hamilton County Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey stated that “it’s a fantasy” to believe that the bill “is going to make us safer,” the report continued.
Ohio Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth Walters stated that DeWine “sold out Ohioans and law enforcement officers” in favor of “special interest groups and extremists in the legislature,” according to the Dispatch. Walters echoed McGuffey’s statement that the bill “will make all Ohioans less safe.” (RELATED: One Of Georgia’s Safest Cities REQUIRES Its Citizens To Own A Gun, But CNN Doesn’t Know Why Crime Is So Low)
Meanwhile, Republican State Sen. Terry Johnson stated that the bill went “a large distance in getting the Second Amendment restored,” according to the Dispatch. Ohio will join at least 21 other states in allowing residents to carry without a permit.