Tone Deaf Kasich Prepares to Sign Law Loosening Gun Regulations

With the entire country in shock over the killing of 20 grade school children in Connecticut, Governor Kasich is preparing to sign a gun bill that will allow anyone to bring a gun into the Ohio Statehouse parking garage and will allow anyone to carry a loaded magazine or speed loader along with their gun within reach of the driver.

To be fair, there’s a case to be made for the statehouse provision – though I do think the way they made it is pretty weak.   No one really believes a legislator is going to show up to work after a long day of hunting.   But a legislator with a concealed carry permit, for example, would no longer be required to park his/her vehicle at a meter outside of the statehouse parking garage. (not that they ever really did before)

I do, however, have a problem with the other provision.

Under current law you can’t carry a loaded magazine or speed loader (which is used to quickly load a revolver) in the car with your gun unless you have a concealed carry permit.   But in the bill waiting for the governor’s signature, “unloaded” is redefined so that anyone can have a loaded magazine stored in: ”A pocket or other enclosure on the person of the person in question that closes using a snap, button, buckle, zipper, hook and loop closing mechanism, or other fastener that must be opened to access the contents”.

In other words, any yahoo with a gun can now have a semi-auto pistol in his glove box and loaded magazines the pockets of his cargo pants.

You can already carry a loaded gun in your car by taking a CCW class, passing a background check and getting your CCW license.   Do we really need every untrained, unlicensed Ohioan doing the same thing?