Ohio sports venues won’t allow concealed weapons

KANTELE FRANKO

Asso­ci­ated Press

COLUMBUS — The largest sta­di­ums and other sports venues in Ohio don’t plan to let fans bring con­cealed weapons with them, even if state law­mak­ers and the gov­er­nor approve a pro­posal that would allow it in facil­i­ties that serve alcohol.

The facil­i­ties they plan to con­tinue ban­ning guns for safety rea­sons, tak­ing advan­tage of exist­ing law that lets pri­vately owned or leased venues pro­hibit weapons.

The Republican-led Ohio House and Sen­ate have passed sep­a­rate bills that would let a per­son with a concealed-carry per­mit have a firearm in many facil­i­ties that serve alco­hol as long as the per­son was not drink­ing before­hand and does not drink at the venue. Vio­lat­ing those restric­tions would be a felony offense.

Oppo­nents say the pro­posal would lead to a dan­ger­ous mix of booze and weapons, but sup­port­ers say it would put Ohio on par with other states where peo­ple can legally have firearms in some venues that serve alcohol.

GOP law­mak­ers say pass­ing the pro­posed change is among their pri­or­i­ties, but it’s not clear whether Gov. John Kasich, a gun owner, would approve it. Kasich has expressed sup­port for the idea in the past, but spokesman Rob Nichols said the first-term Repub­li­can wants to review the details of the leg­is­la­tion before decid­ing whether he would sign it.

It would apply to facil­i­ties with a Class D liquor license, which allows for on-premise alco­hol con­sump­tion. Con­cealed hand­guns cur­rently are ille­gal in such facil­i­ties, which can include night­clubs, shop­ping malls and museums.

About 17,000 loca­tions in Ohio had Class D per­mits as of April 1, the most recent count avail­able, said Matt Mullins, a spokesman for the Divi­sion of Liquor Con­trol. Those include venues such as Great Amer­i­can Ball Park in Cincin­nati, Nation­wide Arena in Colum­bus and Cleve­land Browns Stadium.

Facil­i­ties that are home to Ohio’s major pro­fes­sional sports teams pro­hibit weapons, includ­ing guns and knives, and don’t antic­i­pate their poli­cies would shift, even if the law does.

“We don’t think it’s going to change any­thing that we do,” said spokesman Bob DiB­i­aso of the Cleve­land Indians.

Uni­ver­sity sports venues appar­ently would not be affected because prop­er­ties owned or leased by col­leges are among the places where state law gen­er­ally bans con­cealed weapons. They’re also pro­hib­ited at many gov­ern­ment facil­i­ties, school areas and places of worship.

Ohio is among nine states that gen­er­ally pro­hibit firearms where alco­hol is served and con­sumed, accord­ing to the Legal Com­mu­nity Against Vio­lence, a national pub­lic inter­est law cen­ter aimed at pre­vent­ing gun vio­lence. Guns are allowed in bars and restau­rants in eight states, includ­ing Mis­sis­sippi, which enacted a law this spring that allows firearms in pro­fes­sional and col­lege ath­letic sta­di­ums, LCAV attor­ney Laura Cutil­letta said.

A dozen states pro­hibit gun in bars but allow them in at least lim­ited parts of restau­rants. The remain­ing 21 states don’t have laws about firearms in venues that serve alco­hol. In some, the issue is left up to local gov­ern­ments or is less of a con­cern because there are tougher reg­u­la­tions on get­ting a per­mit for a con­cealed weapon, Cutil­letta said.

Pro­po­nents say the pro­posal is about allow­ing peo­ple who legally have con­cealed weapons in their vehi­cles to carry the firearms into restau­rants that hap­pen to serve alco­hol. They say it’s not aimed at mix­ing booze and weapons or hav­ing guns in bars and stadiums.

“This leg­is­la­tion sim­ply was never about being able to carry a gun into a bar — it’s about being able to retain your gun at a Max & Erma’s instead of leav­ing it in the car as an invi­ta­tion to thieves and thugs,” Jeff Gar­vas, pres­i­dent of Ohioans for Con­cealed Carry, wrote in an edi­to­r­ial sent to news­pa­pers around the state.

Ohio would remain in the minor­ity of states that ban peo­ple from hav­ing firearms if they’re con­sum­ing alco­hol, said Ken Han­son, leg­isla­tive chair­man for the Buck­eye Firearms Association.

“We’re still tak­ing the baby-step restric­tive approach on this,” he said.

Oppo­nents of the leg­is­la­tion con­tend allow­ing alco­hol and weapons — and poten­tially rau­cous sports fans — in the same space would be dangerous.

They include the Ohio Restau­rant Asso­ci­a­tion, which rep­re­sents 2,400 mem­bers with 5,000 loca­tions. It has sent the gov­er­nor a let­ter ask­ing him to veto the pro­posal if it reaches his desk, asso­ci­a­tion spokesman Jar­rod Clabaugh said.

“The board didn’t feel that the law in place now is bro­ken,” he said.

Posted by AP News on Jun 8 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.