Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
So, Ohio’s “constitutional carry” law, which kicked in around mid-2022, stirred up quite a debate. You know, that’s the law allowing Ohioans to carry concealed firearms without a permit.
Critics and some anti-gun city mayors were very concerned. They were shouting from the proverbial rooftops that this would lead to a giant spike in gun-related violence. Turns out, they were wrong.
A study, cooked up by the Ohio Attorney General’s Office and Bowling Green State University, decided to take a closer look at the impact of this law.
They sifted through data from June 2021 to June 2023 – a neat before-and-after snapshot. And guess what?
In six out of Ohio’s eight big cities, gun crimes actually took a dive. We’re talking places like Parma, where gun crimes plummeted by a whopping 22%. Akron and Toledo weren’t far behind, with an 18% drop. Even Columbus saw a decent 12% reduction.
Cleveland and Canton had more modest decreases, but hey, a drop is a drop.
The only odd ones out were Cincinnati and Dayton, where there was a slight uptick. You can dive into the nitty-gritty of these findings on the Ohio Attorney General’s website.
They didn’t just stop at crime rates, though. The study also used gunshot-detection tech to back up their findings, showing similar downward trends in Toledo and Columbus.
SEE ALSO: Alabama, Ohio Become 22nd & 23rd State to Enact Constitutional Carry!
As for the impact on cops? They found no big difference in gun-related injuries or deaths among officers before and after the law was in play.
Dave Yost, the Ohio Attorney General, shared his two cents in an op-ed for the National Review. His main point?
We should be focusing on the bad guys using guns for crime, not the law-abiding folks who are just exercising their Second Amendment rights.
Guns don’t cause shootings any more than electricity causes electrocutions. It’s all about human agency
— Attorney General Dave Yost (@DaveYostOH) January 10, 2024
Our study last week demonstrates that progressive big-city mayors got it wrong blaming the legislature
The piece I wrote for the National Review: https://t.co/LFbOcKGVnN
Yost is all for proactive policing and tougher sentencing for gun-related crimes. This study, he believes, is a game-changer in how we talk about gun laws and crime.
“This is not to downplay the very real problem of crime in many neighborhoods in our cities – you don’t need a research team to see that gun violence destroys lives, families and opportunity,” Yost said in a press release obtained by GunsAmerica.
“The key takeaway from this study is that we have to keep the pressure on the criminals who shoot people, rather than Ohioans who responsibly exercise their Second Amendment rights,” he added.
You can catch more details and some direct quotes from Yost in articles from Meigs Independent Press, SCNR, and WTOL.
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More dumb anti-gun non-facts. The more people carry, the less crime you have and not an increase in crime. Crooks don’t want to get shot if they know you are armed and will look for an easier target.
and yet the new kleveland mayor took all the credit for his innovative methods to reduce crime………..doing nothing and supporting criminals endeavors
Democrats are known for stealing/taking credit for somebody else’s work. They really are scum bags