First Posted: 1/30/2015
LIMA — Allen County Sheriff Sam Crish is predicting a spike this year in people obtaining their concealed carry license.
His reason: The required hours in classroom will fall from 12 to eight on March 19.
“I think people will see that and say I will go do the eight,” Crish said.
The sheriff said it usually takes an event or a presidential election to spike the numbers.
Twice in the past since Ohio began issuing concealed carry licenses in 2004 has the state recorded spikes. The biggest year was 2013 after President Obama used a deadly shooting at a Connecticut to push for strict gun control measures. While targeting concealed carry was not one, the fear it could be sent people in record numbers in Ohio to obtain their concealed carry license, 843 in Allen County, about twice an average year.
Last year, 514 people in Allen County obtained a concealed carry license for the first time. In Auglaize County, that number was 198 and in Putnam County it was 137 new licenses.
Crish said the 514 licenses issued in Allen County is what he expected.
The numbers also spiked in 2009 following the election of Barack Obama as president, who many view as an opponent of the Second Amendment.
Crish believes there are a lot of people who are considering getting their concealed carry license who haven’t gotten around to it.
“I talk to people when I’m out and they tell me they have never gotten their CCW but want to. I think there is a large percentage of people who want to get their CCW,” he said.
The concealed carry program is popular, Crish said. In Allen County, since 2004 there have been 10,346 new licenses issued, according to records. In Ohio during that time frame, more than half a million people have obtained their CCW license.
A big reason, other than politics, is personal safety, Crish said.
Crish said he does not find it a coincidence that crime has fallen in the past decade across the country while states have implemented concealed carry licensing. While he said there are many factors that crime is on the decline, he said concealed carry is part of that puzzle.
Concealed carry programs make criminals think twice, he said.
“People just don’t know who is carrying and who is not,” Crish said.
Crish pointed to the attempted robbery of a Shawnee Township jewelry store last week as an example of good people protecting themselves. In that case, two men, at least one with a gun, entered the store to rob it.
A man working at the store pulled his gun and fired at the robbers who quickly ran away. No one was injured and the robbers remain unknown and at large.
Crish said had the store employee not had a gun it easily could have been a robbery or worse, the employee could have been killed.
A decade ago when the concealed carry program began in Ohio the opponents said there would be a return to the “Wild West” with blood flowing in the streets. None of that happened and Crish said there has not been one incident locally of a concealed carrier recklessly shooting a person.
Concealed carriers must undergo an extensive criminal background check and cannot have a known significant mental health problem. Crish said those getting their licenses are among the most law abiding citizens around.
The sheriff also said carrying a concealed weapon has become a lot more socially acceptable in the past 10 years. It’s no longer a surprise or a big deal, he said.
