The War on Guns

Received from correspondent AP:

Hello, David! I appreciate your article about the Summit County Fair. I was there last night and made some observations as well. I had seen the posts from the Summit Co Sheriffs department previously about the restrictions and enhanced security. So when my daughter told me that she and some friends wanted to go, I did a little research. I called the Ohio Attorney General’s office and spoke with an individual that confirmed that the county fair board is not allowed to create their own bans for fair grounds property under the state’s preemption laws. I also received an email from the Ohio Attorney General’s office with City of Cleveland v Ohio 2010 and the opinion from the AG regarding Champaign County Fair. In other words, the Ohio AG’s office is telling me that they can not provide legal advice to me but the Summit County Fair is going against the Ohio AG’s opinion and the opinion of the Ohio Supreme Court.

Now to my visit to the fair. Last night as I arrived, like you, I disarmed myself of my EDC firearm and my pocket knife. I left my POM pepper spray on my pocket as it is mostly plastic I wasn’t too worried about it. When going through the metal detector, I set it off because I did not take my wallet or pepper spray out to put in the bin. The nice lady at the metal detector asked if I had anything else and I put my wallet in the bin. I went back through and set it off again. I asked if it was maybe my belt and she looked and asked to see my waistband around my back and said to go ahead as it is probably just my belt. It was probably my pepper spray but she said I was fine to go. So I then passed through the nice building containing some exhibitors and onto the fairgrounds I went. While walking around I did notice some issues with their “security”. There were other entrances. Entrances where exhibitors, camping attendees and those who are probably members of the 4H, old school wrestle-mania actors and such can drive their cars, trucks and campers right in to the fair past a person checking parking passes. Those persons did not go through metal detectors, didn’t have their bags or cars searched like I did. They were just granted access to the fairgrounds. There was another gate for the general public on the other side of the fairgrounds that did not pass through any buildings to enter. There were no metal detectors there, just some sheriff personnel. So, from what I can see, not everyone at the fair had to be checked, disarmed or searched.. just those paying the $15 to enter through the front gate. This is a clear violation of my 2nd amendment rights and my right to self defense. It is one thing to pass through the one and only entrance where everyone is checked, but this only checked a select group of people at the fair. It only made people “feel” safe.

You know where I said I saw three ways forward and I’d carried this as far as I can on my own?

Stay tuned. This gives me an idea.

On Friday I reported on how the Summit County Fair is gaming Ohio law that forbids firearms in enclosed state/government-controlled buildings by requiring attendees to first pass through a new, enclosed structure serving as an entrance. That structure is named after the parents of Fair Director Howard Call, one of the principles behind the ban.

“I may go just to establish standing,” I tentatively suggested on social media. Not being a lawyer, I don’t know if that’s actually needed to establish standing or not, or simply being an Ohio gun owner who feels precluded from going without surrendering his rights is enough, but in any case, I was able to carve out some time this afternoon to go.

I went, not to confront but to observe.

The first thing I noticed as I approached the entrance hall from the parking lot was the big black sheriff’s bus juxtaposed against a field of waving American flags:

In order to see what I expected I’d see, I needed to pass through security, replete with putting wallet and phone in a checkpoint security bowl and walking through a scanner. Anticipating that might be the case, I was compelled to be unarmed.

Incidentally, the entrance isn’t the only way the fair is playing fast and loose with Ohio gun law. Even though it is lawful to be armed in all the outdoor areas of the fairgrounds (you just can’t get thr0ugh the entrance “thanks” to fair management’s “creative” infringement), the Fair has deliberately put out bad information to the public:

PROHIBITED ITEMS The following items are strictly prohibited from Summit County Fairgrounds property: -Weapons/firearms, except qualified law enforcement…

That means, in order to comply with their rules, you can’t just leave your gun locked in your car. You have to travel to and from the fairgrounds with the Second Amendment and Ohio law suspended. “Who would?” is not the question. It’s what fair management presumes to dictate.

Anyway, back to what I expected to see:

By having both ends open (to facilitate foot traffic and perhaps also to comply with fire codes), the structure is no longer being used as an enclosure, but seems more analogous to passing through a tunnel, or under a bridge. Like I said, I’m not a lawyer, so I don’t know if that has legal relevance or not, but I thought I’d point it out for consideration.

I didn’t buy a ticket. I also don’t know if that will affect standing or not, but I wasn’t going to give money to prohibitionist bureaucrats demanding I surrender my rights to them. Not seeing a way to go back through the scanner to my car, I was informed I had to go into the building to use the “Exit” door, so in other words, in order to leave I was compelled to first enter their semi-enclosed forbidden zone.

Now, what can be done with all this? I see three ways forward:

• Ohio legislators can pass a bill creating exemptions for buildings in public commercial venues like fairs. Gun rights groups with lobbyists and relationships with Republicans they endorse could make this known as an expectation.
• Harmeet Dhillon could do her civil rights thing. I’ve done what I can to encourage that:

It really is an issue that goes beyond MN or OH, which is why I copied @AAGDhillon so she could see how many gun owners are being discriminated against nationwide. I think of all the @NRA convention exhibition halls with around 80K attendees & no problems…

— dcodrea (@dcodrea) August 1, 2026

• A lawsuit could be filed by Ohio gun owners, but that will require more juice than I can muster. As I said on Facebook, this is best suited to gun rights groups:

They have thousands of members who have standing. They have a sizable mailing lists and resource for fundraising with requisite tax reporting. They have attorneys and lobbyists with established relationships with “pro-gun” Republican legislators they can pick up the phone and talk to, and the same with national gun rights groups that have all of the above… I’d be happy to lend my name as a plaintiff if a gun rights group wanted me to be, but if they’re taking the lead the choice of who would be the best public faces should be theirs. It’s clear if this is to go anywhere, other voices must join mine in contacting groups like BFA, NRA, SAF, FPC, GOA, etc. and asking them to get involved and use their influence to determine the best way forward.

We’ll see if any of this happens. I’ve carried it as far as I can.