We had a number of friends at this march in the State House and in the Attorney General's office. All of them are aware of what took place, or will know very soon, and the political red tape that took place here will be used to instigate changes.
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In July of 2009 Dan White obtained a permit from the State of Ohio to hold an event on the Capitol Square. This agency that controls the property is the Capitol Square Review & Advisory Board, or CSRAB from here on out. When the permit was obtained we agreed to abide by their rules. At the time the CSRAB made no indication that they required anything from OFCC to hold the event (other than the fact that we agreed to abide by their rules)
Fast forward eight months later and OFCC's received a call from the Ohio Highway Patrol which began with chit chat and lead into a question along the lines of "you don't expect to have guns at the event, do you?" to which we indicated we were neither encouraging nor discouraging anyone from carrying a firearm - we were in fact telling people who asked to simply comply with Ohio law. Everyone here knows what that means - if you want to carry concealed and you can lawfully in Ohio, great. If you want to carry openly, be our guest. It was, by the way, a Second Amendment rally.
During that phone call Dan was told that we couldn't do that because a "rule" was either being considered, or already existed. Dan replied "they can't do that" and the Highway Patrol contact said he'd be in touch, only to later contact our attorney and advise that Dan was correct, and to accept his apologies. Within a few hours the CSRAB contacted us and again insisted that "a rule" prohibited firearms on the Capitol Square, and that we needed to submit a letter indicating what the organization intended to do at this event. We looked here: Special Event Rules and couldn't find anything - but they kept insisting we agreed to follow their rules within our application, so we kept looking.
Then we realized that the CSRAB was probably referring to this administrative code: Chapter 128-4 Use of Capitol Buildings or Grounds (Administrative code is similiar to Ohio Revised Code, but its not language enacted by the legislature) This is the specific section we believed they were concerned with:
128-4-02 (G)10:
...which is odd because these rules were reviewed and/or adopted in 2008 - after the legislature enacted ORC 9.68 prohibiting "rules" that ban guns not otherwise done in State Law.(G) Any individual or group present in or on the capitol buildings or grounds, whether or not a permit holder, must abide by the following regulations for use. In addition to the following regulations for use, the board reserves the right to regulate any conduct or activity not appropriate or consistent with the use of the capitol buildings or grounds as described in this regulation, or that may cause damage to state property or pose a hazard to any member of the public or state employee.
(10) Firearms or other weapons, concealed or otherwise, are prohibited within the capitol buildings and grounds without the express written permission of the board.
But wait - we found this:
On March 30th - less than two weeks before the event but more than eight months after we were already granted a permit, we used this section of their own rules and submitted the following letter in response to the CSRAB's request that we describe our event: Re: Ohio Second Amendment March – Ohio Statehouse - we sought a waiver because their rule is unenforceable due to ORC 9.68 and that we had no reasonable means of communicating to the entire potential audience that such a rule would be enforced. At this point, the negotiations became an "our attorney and their attorney" affair and the event began to cost quite a bit of money.(I) These rules may be waived by the board for good cause shown. Any person wishing to obtain a waiver of board rules must contact the board, in writing, within a reasonable time in advance of the event.
The day before the 2010 Fun 'n Gun negotiations suggested that, if OFCC obtained event insurance to indemnify the State of Ohio and cover damages, and if we would hire law enforcement at a quantity greater that what was eventually agreed to, the CSRAB would waive the firearms prohibition limited to the area where the permit was granted. Unfortunately, it was Good Friday, and there wasn't an insurance agent in the State of Ohio we could get a hold of until Monday. Further, it was relayed to us that there was going to be a capacity limit of 200 people that could trigger an event shut down -- we found this pill incredibly hard to swallow since we really had no reasonable means to estimate the actual turn out, but we felt that exceeding 200 people was entirely possible. Since when does the peaceable right to assemble have a size limit?
That term remained in the agreement, but we were successful in getting them to stipulate that the quantity of people alone and of itself was not means to shut down the event. Other terms initially extended suggested to us that someone (CSRAB, OHP, or someone unknown to us) wanted participants to be subject to mandatory identification requirements and/or 4th amendment violations that exceeded the Ohio obligation to "notify" to law enforcement. Through negotiation, our concerns were alleviated, and in the end the Highway Patrol was absolutely professional and accommodating. (see below for detailed story)
It quickly became apparent that obtaining insurance in less than five days was going to be impractical or cost prohibitive. We began to discuss among ourselves to back out of the original event and turn it into a "protest" on the sidewalk, where the CSRAB wouldn't necessarily be able to require us to obtain a permit or comply with their administrative code. The Attorney General's office, which represents agencies like the CSRAB, continually worked with us to try to help us find a way to meet these requests.
It was hinted to us that, if we had left all of the guns at home, the liability and law enforcement requirements would go away -- what?! That simply wasn't an option.
On Wednesday we indicated that OFCC was going to make a major announcement here, on our website, in a press release, and to the Ohio Gun Owner alerts mailing list. Hours before that scheduled release we indicated via negotiations that we felt we were not going to be able to make the State of Ohio's demands, and that it was our intent to announce to the public that our event was moving to the sidewalk and becoming a protest.
As noon approached our attorney advised us to delay the announcement, and within hours a deal was struck that is outlined in this official communication from the CSRAB. - this is why we canceled our announcement and proceeded with the event based on the agreement made. By this time, our attorney had billed us for quite a few hours less than what was truly invested in these negotiations, but the amount was still something we hadn't budgeted for this march.
It is important to realize that we made a commitment to The Second Amendment March in Washington, D.C. as well as all of the speakers. We felt an obligation to pull this event off despite the fact that we were conceding to restrictions that, to this day, I believe violated or implied potential violations of the first, second, and fourth amendments to the United States constitution. Sometimes you need to pick your battles.
We knew that a few hundred people showing up at an event advertised for almost a eight months was more than likely -- so fitting everyone on the sidewalk in a protest was truly a "last resort" nuclear option.
Ohio Highway Patrol: Although I wasn't able to make it to the event today I don't believe the OHP was "out to get us" at this event. A police officer within the organization is in a unique position to approach others in his profession and have frank discussions. OHP implied that if they saw something that they didn't like they'd simply approach someone and ask them to modify their behavior in a non-confrontational way. Someone was spotted carrying a shotgun pointed at the ground and a trooper approached us and said "see? I need to go advise him to point that up" to which we indicated that we believed the agreement required the muzzle to be pointed "up or down", but that if that trooper felt upwards would be safer by all means have the discussion. Instead, he pulled out his copy of the agreement, read it, and agreed with our interpretation. Despite having well over 200 people, the OHP never even suggested they wanted to shut down the event -- that whole issue seemed to be based on if "something" of a disturbance occurred.
Despite the CSRAB letter indicating that Columbus PD was their "backup" solution we never contacted them, nor do I really believe we had an obligation to do so. Our event was on state property with a legitimate permit and an understanding between the CSRAB and OFCC. What showed up, including four officers on horses, was clearly a preparatory effort to control the crowd if necessary. (If you've never seen four horses clear a crowd of people I don't recommend being IN that crowd).
We can not stress how professional and accommodating the Attorney General's (Cordray) office and staff were in this matter, especially in light of the fact that their obligations were to the state agency that they served in this case. When we kept saying we couldn't find insurance, they kept advising our attorney of possible resolutions and/or sources of insurance.
The good news is, in the end, this event was absolutely successful. The bad news is, we need your help making this effort worth the HOURS and DOLLARS that were invested.
DISGUSTED?
Please consider a donation to Ohioans For Concealed Carry and become a member if you're not already.
If you had fun at today's event, help us sell out the OFCC buses going to Washington D.C. before the end of the week.
A few days ago OFCC decided to guarantee both buses will travel from Cincinnati, Datyon, Columbus (south bus), as well as a Cleveland, Youngstown, Pittsburgh PA route despite the fact that we have not sold ALL of the seats. Since the per-seat cost is based on the total cost of the bus divided by the number of seats we are operating these buses at a loss -- but we are entirely capable of selling every seat before Friday if you go buy one right now and get some friends to join you on a historic trip to Washington D.C. MOVE THAT BUS!
The buses are going regardless of what happens, but help us break even! Buy a seat even if you need to give it away to someone who will go.
I wish I didn't have to work on most Saturdays.
