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Originally Posted by AB
That basically says the same thing that Arkansas's constitution says. In Ohio a judge said the legislature could regulate the mode of carry, but not entirely prohibit carry. Based on the constitutional language, it would appear that a judge in Arkansas could arrive at the same conclusion. And, in response, the legislature could turn around and say that concealed carry is okay without a permit but that you need a permit to open carry. It could go either way.
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I am reading the Arkansas code and the decision differently. The distinguishing feature of the development Spats describes is a
general prohibition on carry being converted into a general prohibition on carry
with a specific intent. In the absence of the intent, there doesn't appear to be a criminal penalty for a court to impose.
KYJim's point is interesting; if people carry, but not pursuant to a constitutional provision, they have a condition of statutory carry.
Ohio's history on this is queer. Yes there is a constitutional right. "The people have the right to bear arms for their defense and security; but standing armies, in time of peace, are dangerous to liberty, and shall not be kept up; and the military shall be in strict subordination to the civil power." Apparently this meant that the courts and legislature could do as they pleased.
Cleveland instituted an echo of the 94 AWB. A clever defendant objected that the law abridged his state RTKB. The Ohio Supreme Court upheld the ban with much the same reasoning the US Sup Ct rejected in Caetano -- not all weapons were banned, so prosecuting someone for carrying a weapon within a prohibited class was fine.
It's true that the OH Sup Ct when confronted with a
de facto ban on all weapons carry held that open carry was protected under the OH Constitution. But what was "concealed carry" in Ohio? In some jurisdictions, it was carrying a weapon a PO couldn't see. People who openly carried in holsters were successfully prosecuted if the PO testified that he could not see the holstered weapon as he approached the defendant from the defendant's weak side.
The General Assembly did pass a concealed carry law, though a common pleas judge seated in Cleveland ruled that the state licenses did not prohibit the City from prosecuting people for concealed carry. She was reversed, but it illustrates a couple of cultural problems.
A person with an OH permit can carry concealed in OH, but it doesn't appear to spring from a constitutional right within the state.