Counties Must Post Concealed Carry Signs in All County Buildings by April 8, 2004
On April 8, 2004, Ohio’s concealed carry statute (HB
12) takes effect. Under the new law, ORC 2923.126 prohibits a license
holder from carrying a concealed handgun into (among other places) a
county jail, detention facility, courthouse, any structure in which a
courtroom is located, any building owned by a county, or any portion of
a privately owned building which is leased by a county.
ORC 2923.1212 requires that counties post signs in
all county owned and leased buildings, informing the public that
concealed handguns are prohibited. The Sheriff is responsible for
posting in the Sheriff’s Office, County Jail and Corrections
Facilities. The Commissioners are responsible for posting in all other
County buildings. The sign should be posted at each building entrance.
ORC 2923.1212(A) requires the signs contain 'substantially' the following statement:
"Unless otherwise authorized by law, pursuant to the
Ohio Revised Code, no person shall knowingly posses, have under the
person’s control, convey or attempt to convey a deadly weapon or
dangerous ordinance onto these premises."
Other than that, the statute does not require that
the sign contain specific text or graphics. The Commissioners and the
Sheriff have the discretion and the responsibility to select an
appropriate sign format and post county buildings.
CCAO has worked with the Buckeye State Sheriff’s’
Association to establish standard sign language to assist counties in
meeting the posting requirement. The format and graphics of the CCAO
sample sign are very similar to the sign adopted by the Governor for
state buildings and the sample sign which will appear in the Attorney
General’s materials used in the training required to obtain a concealed
carry license. It is important that signs posted in county buildings be
clear and easily recognized by licensees.
Those documents are available for download below.
To use these documents:
- Right click on the link below and select "Save target as ..."
- Select a location on your hard drive that you will remember later, like your Desktop
- Save the file to that location
- Open the file with Adobe Acrobat