The state of Ohio now has constitutional carry on the books and ready to go into full effect. It’s a good thing for Ohioans, to be sure, but there will always remain a contingent of people who will oppose the measure.
There will also be those who made a part of their living training people for an Ohio permit that are desperate to hold onto their livelihoods.
Now, some of those people are speaking out about the importance of training.
“Constitutional carry makes sense,” said David Becker, owner of the Miami Armory in Dayton. “It’s pretty simple. We believe it’s a right to carry a gun. We also believe it’s responsible to get a concealed carry license, because it means you’re going to go through some level of training.”
Local gun shop owners and CCW trainers said many responsible gun owners will take the training and get a permit anyway.
“If you’re going to carry a concealed firearm, the instruction you will get at a CCW class will make the difference between a good decision and bad decision, and hopefully you don’t have to make a decision at all,” said Doug Hague, owner of Vandalia Range and Armory.
Ron Rathdun, an employee of Buck Creek Carry Out in Springfield, said he supports permitless carry.
“Basically, anybody that wanted to carry a firearm legally went ahead and got the license,” he said. “I don’t think you are going to see a whole lot more people start carrying firearms just because they can.”
Additionally, training provided by CCW courses, proponents say, is the best way to learn how to handle, care for and wield firearms responsibly.
“I am very glad that it passed, but I absolutely believe training is essential,” said Scott Cronin of Gunset Training Group. “Everybody, even people that have concealed carry permits, I don’t believe are trained enough, and should continue to seek out quality training. I train all the time, and I think I still need more training. So, if I think that about myself, I definitely believe that about the average civilian.”
The truth of the matter is that no one is going to say training is unessential. You can never get too much training in how to properly use your firearm.
Where I’ll always have an issue is when you start talking about mandatory training, like what Ohio had. At that point, you’re praying that the state doesn’t decide to make the requirements so onerous that only a handful would ever be able to meet them.
Luckily, that’s not a concern in Ohio anymore.
It’s easy to look at trainers stressing the importance of training and think that they’re just trying to keep the money train rolling or whatever, especially since these guys seem to be preoccupied with their flavor of training.
However, if you’re a new gun owner, go and get training of some kind. Start with something basic and introductory, like the NRA’s training classes. Then continue to learn as much as you can.
But the idea of training for a permit will never sit well with me, even in a state with constitutional carry. No one should be required to go through any training in order to exercise a constitutionally protected right. After all, we don’t require training before logging onto Twitter, before picking a church, or before we allow someone to start a blog. Why should this be any different?
But like all of those other things, any responsible person will educate themselves before exercising their rights, as they should. Any responsible gun owner will get trained and will learn the law. It’s just that simple,
