'Problematic' police biggest roadblock to law-abider's permitless concealing rights| Opinion

Ohio’s Back the Blue movement is suffering right now. And, surprisingly enough, it’s because of gun rights.

Prominent Republicans — everyone from U.S. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to Senate candidate Josh Mandel — clearly find clout with their base by championing law enforcement.

But this rallying cry deserves a second look, as conservative commitments to limited government and individual freedom conflict all too often with the political interests of powerful police organizations.

Case in point, Sen. Terry Johnson has received police pushback for a bill he sponsored, which was just passed by the Ohio legislature, that would scrap mandatory permits to concealed carry a firearm in Ohio — thereby uniting state law with a nation-wide movement demanding stronger gun rights protections.

More: Our view: Hellbent lawmakers are doing 'something' about gun violence – making it worse

Johnson’s proposed amendment is only a minor alteration to the current law.

As Johnson himself notes, Ohio already allows civilians to openly carry firearms without going through the licensure process.

And even in a post-license world, permits would still remain an option for reciprocity between states.

The clear path to permitless carry in Ohio is a resounding victory for constitutional conservatives and civil libertarians.

If Governor Mike DeWine does his job, law-abiding Ohioans will no longer suffer an arbitrary roadblock to exercising basic freedoms; an expansive reading of the Bill of Rights lives on.

And yet, Ohio Republicans must contend with the fact that their state’s Fraternal Order of Police doesn’t view permitless carry through such a rosy lens.

FOP president Gary Wolske insists that the impending change violates a “[carefully] negotiated” status quo representing collaboration between gun rights advocates and cops.

More: FOP president: Ohio lawmakers ignoring 'concerns of the men and women who keep your family safe'

Such opposition implicitly asks a foundational question about individual rights: What level of compromise is unreasonable when our rights are, at least in theory, inalienable?

Certainly, a healthy value for the freedom to employ self-defense suggests that there is nothing extreme about empowering legal firearm owners to simply bring their guns outside the home, and to keep a handgun concealed on their person, without begging law enforcement for permission.

It’s likewise true that civil liberties discussions sometimes involve cops with more problematic opinions than Wolske— who still appeals to the Second Amendment despite embracing a narrow reading relative to the Ohio GOP.

More: Guns right group director: 'Alarmists' are wrong. 'Permitless' concealed carry a right in Ohio

Some police spokesmen across the nation aren’t even this generous.

Take the infamous example of Alabama Sheriffs Association director Robert Timmons, who was so perturbed by his state’s ongoing permitless carry movement that earlier this year he endorsed rewriting the Second Amendment to ban concealed carry altogether.

Further complicating the messaging from law enforcement, some cops defy both the Wolske and Timmons schools of thought and enthusiastically endorse permitless carry. For instance, Hamilton County, Indiana’s Dennis Quakenbush was recently willing to testify against firearm permitting before his state legislators.

But such diverse opinions (including those broadly pro-gun) merely expose another fundamental error in the Back the Blue mantra — cops are people just like the rest of us, and they often disagree with one another.

This means that “Backing the Blue” can really only go so far, and should always come with a massive asterisk slapped on the end. When police officers advocate for an abrogation of constitutional rights, or when they water down those rights, they shouldn’t get support from the GOP.

More: Attorney: Bill would let unqualified 'sneak up on others with a concealed handgun'

After all, cops aren’t always correct and they certainly aren’t constitutional scholars. And while they’re essential for maintaining law and order — as every looter in San Francisco and New York City knows — we still need strong checks and balances to stop these same authorities from becoming abusive.

With the passage of Senate Bill 215, Ohio Republicans just took one commendable step toward prioritizing civil liberties over pithy but untenable talking points.

Adam Shepardson is a Young Voices contributor and an undergraduate student studying history and economics at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Twitter: @realadamshep

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: What roles do police have in stopping permitless carry?