This is Ohio Gun Owners ACTION alert! We are asking all OGO members/supporters, regardless of where you live, to read this short article and then take five minutes to contact the offenders listed below. More on that in a minute.
Here’s the situation: the Champaign County Fair Board has placed criminal safe zone, aka “gun free zone,” signs at the entrances to the county fair.
If they are allowed to stay in place without challenge, this problem will grow and spread to other counties.
On Sunday night, St. Paris, Ohio’s city police chief, Eric Smith, was off duty and enjoying the county fair while open carrying.
He was approached, presumably by the local sheriff’s deputies, and informed that he was forbidden from carrying his firearm in the gun-free zone that the fair board had created.
Smith refused to comply with their instructions to disarm (which he was within his rights to do so).
Champaign county sheriff Matt Melvin, who recently lost his Republican Primary to an opponent that St Paris Police Chief Eric Smith had endorsed, then stepped in and directly ordered Smith to return to his vehicle and disarm.
Again, Police Chief Eric Smith refused and was subsequently arrested for open carrying a firearm while off duty.
But as longtime OGO members know well, Ohio has a “preemption” law (ORC 9.68) that prohibits cities, townships, or any “political subdivision” in the state of Ohio from enacting gun laws or ordinances that are more restrictive than state law.
It prohibits cities like Columbus, for example, from passing their current “ban” on 30round magazines (which is currently being challenged by the Buckeye Institute), and the general purpose is to make sure Ohio doesn’t have a patchwork of gun laws that vary from town to town.
The vast majority of Ohio’s fairs are NOT private entities, try as they might to act otherwise.
The fact is, most Ohio fairs – Champaign County included – are managed and operated by county agricultural societies, which are considered political subdivisions under Ohio law.
As political subdivisions, they are not considered “private property,” and thus do not have the authority to create criminal safe zones, and by doing so they are essentially notifying criminals that they’re “open for business” to violent crime.
Gun-free zones are where the some of America’s most deadly killing sprees happen because criminals know they have a statistical upper hand.
Even though they fully know this, the Champaign County Fair Board and the Champaign County Sheriff’s office are willfully participating in the violation of state law in order to enforce their anti-gun agenda that defacto empowers violent criminals.
Right now they are getting away with it, because right now they are not being forced to deal with the consequences of their actions.
That’s where you come in.
I’m personally asking you to help crank up the heat on this problem, BEFORE it becomes a wildfire that spreads across the state.
Your message is simple: PULL YOUR ILLEGAL SIGNS DOWN, stop creating safe spaces for violent killers, or get ready to be sued into oblivion if a criminal madman goes on a shooting spree!
There are several entities that need to hear from you.
➜➜ The Champaign County Fair Board: (937) 653-2640
These are the people directly responsible for making the decisions to hang or take down the signs. Please call them first.
➜➜ Champaign County Fair President Wayne Cook: (937) 477-8968
Wayne is the guy in charge and wields incredible influence over the rest of the fair board members. He needs to hear from you second.
➜➜ Champaign County Sheriff Matt Melvin: (937) 484-6091
This is the non-emergency line.
Sheriff Matt Melvin lost his Republican Primary in March to a challenger that was endorsed by St Paris Police Chief Eric Smith. This makes Melvin’s arrest of Smith appear like political retribution. Either way, call Sheriff Melvin’s office and tell him that he doesn’t have the lawful authority as a county sheriff to violate Ohio’s state preemption law in order to further his own political goals!
➜➜ Champaign County Prosecutor Kevin Talebi: (937) 484-1900
Talebi is backing the illegal actions of the Champaign County Fair board, and the reason why is simple:
Talebi is PRESIDENT of the anti-gun County Prosecuting Attorney’s Association, which is one of the biggest gun-control lobby organizations in Ohio, and a huge opponent to OGO’s Second Amendment Preservation Act (HB51)!
The OPAA’s gun-control lobbyist, Louis Tobin, testifies against every single gun-rights bill that comes before the Ohio General Assembly, and Champaign County Prosecutor Kevin Talebi is Tobin’s BOSS.
Call Talebi and tell him that his job is to UPHOLD Ohio law, not assist corrupt government in violating it.
I’ll have more on this later as this situation is changing rapidly, but please take a few moments RIGHT NOW and call through these numbers! (simply click or press them, and you’ll be sent right to your dialer)
Gun owners in Champaign County need our help!
For Freedom,
Chris Dorr, Director
Ohio Gun Owners