By Theodore Decker
The Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The head of the local police union and a state senator from Columbus will explore changes to state law that would increase punishments for repeat gun offenders.
Sgt. Jim Gilbert, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge No. 9, said a series of stories that ran in The Dispatch last month, “Target: Gun Violence,” caused him to focus on the laws that deal with felons who habitually carry guns.
Police interviewed for the stories said they are frustrated by the inability to charge repeat gun offenders with a more serious crime.
In Ohio, carrying a concealed weapon is a fourth-degree felony if the weapon is a firearm that is loaded or if the offender had ammunition “ready at hand.” A fourth-degree felony is punishable by up to 18 months in prison.
Police noted that people who do not have a license to carry a concealed weapon and are repeatedly charged with carrying a concealed weapon still face only the fourth-degree felony because the punishment doesn’t escalate, as punishment for other crimes such as drunken driving does.
The Dispatch series showed that out of the known suspects in last year’s Columbus homicides, 44 percent had previously been arrested on gun charges.Police suggested that a concealed-weapon conviction should be included in the list of conditions that allow officers to file the more serious charge of having a weapon under disability, a third-degree felony now punishable by up to five years in prison.
A person can be charged with having a weapon under disability if he has been convicted of drug offenses or felony crimes of violence or has been declared mentally incompetent. But having a past concealed-weapon conviction doesn’t qualify.
“As an officer, it’s very frustrating,” said Gilbert. “What you hit on (in the stories) was something that we’ve started seeing in some of these officer-involved shootings.
“The legislature should be looking at that to correct the problem,” he said.
Gilbert has broached the topic with state Sen. Jim Hughes, R-Columbus, a former city and county prosecutor who called The Dispatch series “very enlightening and very troubling.”
John Murphy, executive director of the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association, said his organization would likely weigh in on such a proposal, should it reach the Statehouse.
“We haven’t discussed it as a group, (but) I think we might well support the idea of higher penalties for repeat offenders” of carrying a concealed weapon, Murphy said.
Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien said he likes the ideas of escalating penalties for repeat offenders and adding carrying a conceal weapon as an offense leading to a charge of having a weapon under disability.
“Given the current budget-driven prison and criminal-justice reform occurring at the Statehouse, I am unsure how such a proposal would be received,” he noted in an email.
A push for sentencing reform, House Bill 86, could save the state nearly $78 million a year in prison costs, in part by diverting non-violent offenders, trimming sentences for inmates who complete programs and treatment and allowing prison officials to petition for the early release of some inmates.
Hughes said he is concerned by proposed legislation that calls for a reduction in the maximum prison sentence for third-degree felonies from five years to three.
“We need to be smart on crime but not endanger the public, too,” he said.
Gilbert said the FOP also is watching the reform effort.
“I understand what the state is trying to do with the budget,” he said. At the same time, he hopes legislators remember, “It should be about justice.”
Copyright 2011 The Columbus Dispatch