Ohio Senate committee passes bill allowing guns in Statehouse parking garage

concealed carry.jpg A bill approved by an Ohio Senate Committee would allow owners to bring guns into the Statehouse parking garage.But the guns would have to be left in the vehicles.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Johnny Cash once sang, "Don't bring your guns to town." But bringing your guns to the parking lots under the state Capitol would be OK under a bill passed Wednesday by a Senate committee.

House Bill 495 was amended by the Senate Judiciary Committee so that it would no longer be a crime to bring guns to the Statehouse and Riffe Center parking areas running beneath the Capitol. However, the guns would have to be left in the owners' vehicles.

Senate President Tom Niehaus said he supports the provision.

"We have many members who participate in shooting events or are maybe coming from hunting or going hunting after session," Niehaus said. "So the difficulty becomes if you are coming in from a shooting event and you have a weapon in your car, there is no way right now for you to be able to come into the Statehouse parking garage."

However, the New Richmond Republican said he hasn't decided yet whether to bring the bill for a vote on the Senate floor today, the final day of session this year.

The gun bill also changes the definition of an unloaded gun so that gun owners can have loaded clips in their vehicles as long as they are in a separate compartment from the gun. And it makes it easier for Ohio to enter into reciprocity agreements with other states allowing concealed weapon permit holders to legally carry. The legislation also lifts training requirements on concealed carry permit holders renewing their permits.

"If you have a concealed carry license from another state, we'll recognize it here in Ohio -- similar to driver's licenses," said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Mark Wagoner, a Toledo-area Republican. He said that change would make it "much more likely" for other states to allow Ohio's concealed carry permit holders to carry guns there.

The gun bill is backed by a gallery of gun enthusiasts including the National Rifle Association and the Buckeye Firearms Association and opposed by most law enforcement groups, including the Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio and Buckeye Sheriffs Association.

Mike Dittoe, a spokesman for House Speaker William G. Batchelder, a Medina Republican, said House lawmakers would likely concur if state senators passed the bill, which would send it to the desk of Republican Gov. John Kasich for his signature.

Supporters said the gun-toting provision for beneath the Statehouse was needed because current law allows guns to be brought into garages that are "primarily" parking facilities. The Capitol Square Review Advisory Board, the group that runs the capitol complex, had argued that the underground parking decks abutting the basement of the state Capitol building were not "primarily" parking garages.

Pulled from the bill was broader language that higher education officials complained would have prevented them from banning students from bringing guns onto campus property, according to John Gilchrist, legislative counsel for the Ohio Association of Police Chiefs.

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