Associated Press
CINCINNATI — A state judge ruled Thursday that Ohio’s decades-old ban on concealed weapons was unconstitutional.
The state immediately appealed, arguing that the law is reasonable and has been upheld by a higher court. "There is no fundamental and absolute constitutional right to carry a concealed weapon," the appeal said.
Attorneys for Ohio, the city of Cincinnati and Hamilton County also contended that Common Pleas Judge Robert Ruehlman wasn’t impartial, because he has publicly questioned the ban, and his wife and child were threatened by a gunman who tried to abduct them in 1989.
Ruehlman ordered police not to enforce the ban, which covers carrying concealed weapons or having loaded weapons in a vehicle. The state later won a delay in his order pending a hearing Jan. 22.
Ruehlman said the law effectively barred people from protecting themselves.
"The very thought a potential victim might possess a firearm deters that element of our society that cares nothing about laws or human life but rather understands only one thing — brute force," Ruehlman wrote.
Ohio allows only law enforcement officials and state and federal government officers to carry concealed weapons. Five people who said their jobs required them to carry weapons for self-defense challenged the law in 2000, saying the Ohio constitution allows citizens to bear arms, concealed or not.
Richard Ganulin, a lawyer for the city of Cincinnati, said the judge’s order contradicts Ohio Supreme Court rulings from the 1920s upholding the state’s authority to ban concealed weapons.
"There’s no question. It’s binding — unless the Supreme Court of Ohio chooses to overrule itself," Ganulin said.
Forty-three states allow concealed weapons in some form.
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