Records Request Seeks Details on Summit County Fair Visitor Disarmament Mandate

A public records request was filed Monday with the Summit County Agricultural Society and the Summit County Executive’s Office / Law Department to determine if citizen disarmament protocols mandated for Summit County Fair attendees were also followed for vendors and their set-up crews and vehicles allowed fairgrounds access through gates without passing through the public entrance enclosure.

Do they get scanned? Do their vehicles and equipment that enter the grounds for set-up, maintenance, and tear-down get searched?

As AmmoLand reported in August, because Ohio State law allows armed citizens on fairgrounds but prohibits firearms in their buildings and enclosures, the Summit County Fair took it a step further and constructed an entrance building that attendees are required to pass through, effectively banning guns in the entire property except for parking lots. The intent of the records request is to determine if the same rules are imposed on all visitors — that is, are we all treated the same way?  — and if requiring disarmament of personnel who are not admitted through the main entrance is compliant with Ohio law.

Records were requested for:

• The reasons the decision was made to route fair visitors through an enclosure that would ensure they were disarmed, including the data used and communicated among Fair decision-makers showing the legal possession of firearms endangers the public and creates a compelling official interest to prohibit admission of lawfully armed attendees.
• Any official handbooks, policy packets, instruction sheets, or informational guidelines distributed to vendors, suppliers, contractors, maintenance personnel, and agricultural workers regarding the rules, logistics, and entry procedures for bringing vehicles or heavy equipment onto the fairgrounds.
• Any written protocols or instructions provided to gate personnel or event staff regarding the routing and processing of vehicles or equipment that—by nature of their size or contents—cannot utilize the standard visitor entrance security scanners or bag checks.

To ensure legal exemptions were not used to deny the request, the following caveat was included:

I am not requesting tactical law enforcement response plans, security vulnerabilities, or confidential emergency layouts that would trigger an exemption under the “Security Record” provision of R.C. 149.433.

The longtime solution, of course, is for Ohio’s Republican majority legislature to earn their “A” ratings and put a stop to this nonsense. As Buckeye Firearms Association Executive Director Dean Reick remarked about Ohio law when asked about the Fairground enclosure ban:

 “We’ll continue working on it because it’s ridiculous to allow someone to legally carry while they walk past the Ferris wheel but ban it in the barn with the butter cow.”

Summit County, with its enclosed entrance, allows neither.

Note that since my longtime attorney filing Freedom of Information Act requests on my behalf has left private practice and is no longer available to represent me, I am filing this records request on my own, albeit, full disclosure, I did use Google’s AI to help formulate the language. It’s not the first time I’ve gone solo on such requests and have had some successes without a lawyer in the past, albeit I am currently in discussions with another Second Amendment-savvy lawyer about future representation for federal requests.

The complete public records request is available here. Responses will be shared when available.

About David Codrea:

David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.