A handgun bill passed by the Ohio legislature last month contains a provision that could unwittingly allow people to carry concealed handguns on Oberlin’s campus.

HB 12, legislation that allows citizens to carry concealed handguns under certain basic requirements including a background check and an age requirement, also allows private employers and landowners to ban concealed handguns.

Confusion arose over what seemed to be an insignificant bracketed disclaimer. Under section 2923.126(C)(1), the bill says that it in no way is intended to abridge the rights of a private employer to regulate or restrict concealed firearms on their premises.

However, colleges, universities and institutions of higher education are not considered private employers and therefore are not able to regulate concealed firearms under the provision.

The bill’s author, state Rep. Jim Aslanides, maintains that the legislation clearly bars concealed weapons from colleges, and that the disclaimer is meant to keep colleges from allowing concealed weapons.

In a different section of the legislation, colleges appear on a list of places in which concealed weapons are banned.

“Firearms have always been banned from any state-sanctioned institution of higher learning,” Aslanides said. “The bracketed statement is intended to imply that colleges have no discretion in the matter.”

Attorneys for Oberlin and other colleges don’t find the bill’s language as clear as Aslanides. Brian Maciak of Frantz Ward LLP, Oberlin College’s law firm, said that if the disclaimer is intended to mean what Aslanides says it does, there was no reason to include the statement.

“I don’t think his interpretation is a logical reading,” Maciak said. “If it just simply reiterates the B5 exception [where colleges are listed as areas concealed handguns are not allowed] then colleges cannot allow it even if they wanted to, so why do you need a whole paragraph for it?”

Maciak claims that some of the bill’s aims are questionable. He cited a section that, under certain conditions, allowed individuals to fire concealed handguns while seated in vehicles when shooting at coyotes or groundhogs out of deer season.

Larry Christman, president of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, who lobbied on behalf of Oberlin and other colleges for clearer and broader language barring weapons from private colleges and universities, opposed the bill before its passage.

Christman was able to secure college immunity from liability in the event of a campus shooting. But his efforts to get the disclaimer removed or to get legislators to grant colleges the right to ban concealed weapons from locked vehicles on campus parking lots was unsuccessful.

Before HB 12 was passed, no private employer could stop an employee from keeping a licensed firearm locked up in his or her vehicle. HB 12 grants this right to all private employers, but not to private colleges. Concerns were expressed that college employees in rural areas might like to go hunting after work, according to Christman. Christman couldn’t say why this courtesy was extended to college employees, only, however.

Christman says that getting the changes he wanted was difficult because public colleges and universities didn’t wage the battle alongside of him.

“The public colleges didn’t want to go through the hassle of posting prohibitions all over campus,” Christman said. “But I think that they may not be happy with the legislation anymore.”

Christman has met with Lorain County Representative Joseph Koziura to explore ways to clarify the legislation.

“We are going to have to work with the public colleges as well,” Christman said. “We need to be united on this.”

The legal confusion does not stop at whether or not people can bring concealed weapons onto campus. Provided that authorities actually catch an individual on campus with a concealed weapon, that person could only be prosecuted for knowingly violating the statute, according to Aslanides.

According to the Second Amendment, gun-toters who might accidentally amble onto college grounds get the benefit of the doubt. This is in spite of language in the legislation that gives preference to private property owners.

“We took great pains to make sure that nothing in the bill preempted private property rights,” Aslanides said. “Private property owners still have the right to post signs barring concealed weapons, just as they have to right to post signs barring hunting.”

For Oberlin, where the campus boundaries are not clearly defined, it is implied that signs around the edges would need to be posted to define where concealed handguns are allowed and where they are banned.

Aslanides acknowledged it was conceivable that a college might find its atmosphere and admissions adversely affected by posting signs banning concealed guns all over campus, but believes that the clarity of the bill makes such actions unnecessary.

“Because there is a blanket ban on having guns on any state-sanctioned college campus, a college could just clearly mark their property,” Aslanides suggested.

While the disclaimer is in the bill’s section about private employer rights, it is not in the section about private property owner rights. Maciak speculated that this could mean that the legislative loophole might allow employees of private colleges to keep concealed weapons in their locked vehicles, but not students. Student-employees of the college are on uncertain standing in this interpretation.

President Nancy Dye expressed concerns that the legislation could legitimize more carrying of guns and even shootings. She was confident though that the legislation still clearly banned weapons from school buildings, if not parking lots. As to the after-hours hunting concerns, Dye questioned the wisdom of hunting squirrels with handguns. Dye has written an op-ed to the Plain Dealer regarding the legislation, and is working on getting more media attention on the issue.

“I’m horrified by this legislation,” Dye said.

As far as Safety and Security is concerned, nothing has really changed.

“The College has a policy that only law enforcement officials in the line of duty can carry weapons on campus, period,” Assistant Director of Safety and Security Marjorie Burton said.

“Weapons have always been banned, and will continue to be,” Director of Safety and Security Bob Jones added. “The only change is that now our policy will be to ban all weapons, whether or not their carriers are licensed.” Safety and Security does not carry guns.

Some opponents of the bill also point out that licenses will be kept out of the public record to protect privacy and preserve the concealed weapon carrier’s element of surprise. The only people who will be allowed to access license information is the press. In a January editorial, the Plain Dealer criticized this decision, claiming the exclusion is neither fair nor rational. The Plain Dealer has pledged to obtain and publish all license information when the bill goes into effect in April. The Oberlin Review will likewise publish this information once available.