CLEVELAND — Legal analysis: Senate Bill 215, unofficially known as a constitutional carry law, goes into effect today, on the same day that Governor Mike DeWine signed a bill into law making it easier for teachers to be armed.
With SB 215 becoming law, Ohio joins 24 other states where people can carry concealed handguns without a permit.
Legally speaking, this is a big change, and the impact is impossible to know.
Under the new law, to carry a hidden firearm in Ohio, you still have to be at least 21 years old, and you can’t be a convicted felon, or banned from carrying a gun for any other reason.
Before today, you would have also had to pass a background check, complete eight hours of training, and get a permit from your county sheriff.
There were just over 804,000 of these new permits and renewals issued in the last five years, according to the Statistics on Concealed Handgun Licenses in Ohio report for 2021 from the office of Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost.
With these permits no longer required, we simply cannot know how many people will be carrying concealed handguns now.
That’s because there’s no requirement to register as a gun owner in Ohio, and it’s actually illegal for local governments to require their own registries.
Another change under SB 215 means that if you’re stopped by police while carrying a concealed handgun, you don’t have to tell them you have one on you, unless they directly ask.
This is a controversial law, that’s been criticized by bi-partisan groups like the Ohio Mayors Alliance, who said this: “With gun violence on the rise and with tragic recent history of mass shootings in our cities, it is inconceivable that state leaders would allow this bill to become law.”
Despite that, it passed both the Ohio House and Senate on March 2 without any support from Democrats, and was signed into law by DeWine on March 14.
When that happened, the National Rifle Association called SB 215 an “important piece of legislation that protects the Second Amendment rights of all law-abiding Buckeyes.”
The Second Amendment has its limits, though.
For example, private owners can still ban weapons in their own buildings, on their property. And people still can’t carry guns, secretly or openly, in certain places. Those places include courthouses, school safety zones and Ohio’s legislature, where the people who passed this law work.
Stephanie Haney is licensed to practice law in both Ohio and California.
The information in this article is provided for general informational purposes only. None of the information in this article is offered, nor should it be construed, as legal advice on any matter.
