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Review Finds Mentally Incompetent Ohioans Have Current Gun Licenses

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — Ohioans who have been deemed by a court to be mentally incompetent are not allowed to possess firearms or have concealed carry licenses. Yet a recent cross-check of databases by the state’s Attorney General showed more than three dozen mentally ill Ohioans still had active concealed carry permits.

Handguns in a display case
[Dan Konik | Statehouse News Bureau]
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost says this was the first time the state has cross-referenced the list of mentally incompetent Ohioans with concealed carry licensees.

“If a court of law, after due process, determines you are not competent to handle your own affairs, you shouldn’t have a gun,” Yost says.

Yet Yost found 41 people did have CCW licenses. He says local law enforcement authorities were alerted so they could strip guns and licenses away. Yost says a permanent, automated cross-checking is now in place to ensure local sheriff’s offices are notified when people are declared mentally incompetent so officers can confiscate their licenses and guns.