Cleveland
Plain Dealer...
Gun-toting
foolishness: editorial
Monday, May 16, 2011
No need to ask an Ohio House Republican why his or her forehead is
brush-burned: It’s from kowtowing, yet again, to the insatiable handgun
lobby, which wants to allow guns in bars.
In a 56-40 vote, mostly cast on party lines, the Republican-led House
last week agreed that concealed-carry permits entitle holders to carry
their weapons into “any premises . . . that have been issued a D liquor
permit.”
That, the Legislative Service Commission helpfully explains, can
include, besides bars, “carryouts, restaurants, nightclubs, clubs,
hotels, shopping malls, marinas, museums and other establishments.”
That is, if you’d like a side of lead with your steak, you’re all set.
(To their credit, four House Republicans from Greater Cleveland opposed
the guns-in-bars bill -- Reps. Nan Baker of Westlake, Richard
Hollington of Hunting Valley, Todd McKenney of suburban Akron and Kirk
Schuring of Canton.)
True, the bill -- sponsored by downstate Republican Rep. Danny Bubp of
Adams County’s West Union (population: 3,241) -- forbids anyone
carrying a concealed weapon in liquor-permit premises to drink or be
under the influence of booze or drugs. How, exactly, barkeeps and
restaurateurs can determine who’s under what influence (at least,
before gunfire erupts) is difficult to fathom.
Equally difficult to imagine: how the House can earn any respect when
-- in the face of Ohio’s 8.9 percent unemployment rate, and with 1.7
million Ohioans living in poverty -- it wastes its time considering,
let alone passing, a bill as lunatic as this one.
Read it at the Cleveland Plain Dealer
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