About 60 gun-toting men and women paraded around the Statehouse yesterday, but the object of their demonstration was missing in action.
Proponents of a law permitting Ohioans to carry concealed firearms walked the perimeter of the Statehouse several times displaying holstered weapons and ammunition — seeking to show that it’s more disconcerting to see a citizen with a gun than it would be if the firearm were hidden.
An Ohio House-Senate conference committee on House Bill 12 was to have met, but the meeting was postponed until next week.
Legislative sessions were canceled to allow members to attend funeral services for the late House Minority Leader Corwin M. Nixon of Lebanon.
The gun walk, which also has taken place in Gahanna, Cincinnati and Manchester, was peaceful.
Gerard Valentino of Pickerington, rally organizer and a representative of Ohioans for Concealed Carry, said the purpose was to show lawmakers that unless they pass House Bill 12, "the option they leave us is to carry openly."
Valentino said demonstrators came from Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dayton, Youngstown and Kentucky in addition to central Ohio. They wore name tags and obeyed their leaders who told them to refrain from blocking pedestrian traffic on High Street.
"There were no problems at all," said Officer Chip Thompson, one of six officers from the Columbus Police Department assigned to the demonstration. "It (carrying handguns openly) is perfectly legal and it always has been."
Reaction was mixed as the group circled the capitol building. Many passers-by didn’t even notice the guns. Others did double takes.
"Good luck," offered one man as he boarded a COTA bus.
"They stare at us a little bit," said Marshall Dyson of Groveport. "I haven’t seen a look of fear from anybody."
Dyson, a computer-systems administrator whose father was a police officer, carried an oldstyle Colt .45 six-shooter and a bandolier with 24 rounds of ammunition.
"They are not a panacea," Dyson said, "but they will help some of our problems. The police try their best, but they cannot be everywhere."
The demonstrators did not encounter any protesters on their walk.
Tricia Hunter, a passer-by who works at a Downtown gym, said, "It kind of caught me offguard" when she first saw the gun-carrying demonstrators. When she found out why they were there, she applauded the idea of concealed weapons.
"I think it’ll deter criminals because they won’t know who has weapons and who doesn’t," Hunter said.
Sgt. Rick Zwayer of the State Highway Patrol said the patrol is neutral on the Senate version and opposes the House version. He said the patrol’s main concern is for the safety of officers approaching a motor vehicle.
Valentino said the group wants the legislative conference committee to allow permitholders unfettered access to their guns in motor vehicles.
Under the Senate version of the proposal, which Gov. Bob Taft has indicated he would sign, a driver would have to keep the weapon in plain sight of an approaching officer or lock it away if anyone under 18 were in the vehicle.
Valentino called that restriction "the carjacker-protection provision" and said anyone getting into a vehicle could be marked for attack because he or she would not have immediate access to a firearm.
Dyson said he hopes the conference committee makes the necessary changes quickly.
"I hope they’ll start to exercise a little common sense over this and stop fighting it tooth and nail."
lleonard@dispatch.com