More states accepting Ohio-issued concealed carry licenses

With Texas and four other states aboard, Ohio now has concealed carry reciprocity with a total of 28 other states.

Thus, while Ohio still isn’t Number One in terms of concealed carry weapons permit reciprocity its license recognition is among the best in the country.

Credit for the swelling number of other states that accept Ohio’s issued concealed carry license is due largely to changes in the law. These changes were prompted by a recently enacted law that strengthens background check procedures, says Mike DeWine, Ohio’s attorney general and who officiates over the myriad of matters related to Ohio’s concealed carry law.

Ohio’s revamping of the state’s concealed carry law earlier this year includes mandating county sheriffs to contact the federal government’s National Instant Background Check System in order to verify that a CCW applicant “is lawfully eligible to possess a firearm in the United States,” DeWine said.

“This change allowed us to execute a concealed carry reciprocity agreement with Texas, a state which already had such standards,” DeWine said.

Besides Texas, other states recently merging with Ohio regarding concealed carry reciprocity are Colorado, Georgia, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin.

The enabling reciprocity with these four other states came into play because Ohio accepts their respective CCW license holders under the premise they are not Ohio residents and are in the state on a temporary-only basis, also said DeWine.

Currently the states which have reciprocity agreements with Ohio include the fore-mentioned five states along with Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

Concealed carry laws are complex with a labyrinth of can-do’s and cannot-do’s. Thus a number of other states allow Ohio residents to carry concealed and even though no formal reciprocity agreement exists between the two states.

Among the states that allow non-residents to carry concealed but without an official reciprocity agreement secured are Nevada, Minnesota, and Montana.

Also, just where and when a CCW holder may carry varies so greatly from state to state that travelers are urged to first contact any state’s issuing authority.

To that end an excellent resource is the annually updated 68-page “Traveler’s Guide to the Firearm Laws of the Fifty States” and authored by Kentucky attorney J. Scott Kappas.

“Traveler’s Guide” is a thoroughly researched and comprehensively laid out  document that strives to analytically understand and then describe in layman’s terms the ever-evolving CCW permitting landscape.

This publication costs $15 and is updated each year. The 2015 edition alone contains some 75 changes and updates. For details, visit the book’s website at www.gunlawguide.com or call 859-491-6400.

 

Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischk@Ameritech.net


Jeff is the retired News-Herald reporter who  covered the earth sciences, the area's three county park systems and the outdoors for the newspaper. During his 30 years with The News-Herald Jeff was the recipient of more than 100 state, regional and national journalism awards. He also is a columnist and features writer for the Ohio Outdoor News, which is published every other week and details the outdoors happenings in the state.