More Ohioans are drawing a bead on obtaining their concealed carry permit.

The latest posting from the Buckeye Firearms Association includes material supplied by out-going Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray. It points to more and more Ohioans taking the mandatory class and then applying for a permit after successfully completing the program.

This state-supplied data indicates that for the third quarter of 2010 (the latest figures available), a record 208,350 Ohioans have the required permit to legally carry a concealed handgun. Typically, too, the Association says, the third quarter is the slowest of the four reporting periods.

During the third quarter fully 2,763 concealed permits were renewed along with 18 temporary permits granted. Those figures helped fuel a third-quarter-total figure of 12,287 permits issued; or almost 200 such permits approved each working day and as awarded by Ohio's 88 county sheriff departments.

Looking at the figures another way, reports the Association, five concealed carry permits are issued in Ohio every hour, 7 days a week.

Another factoid supplied by Cordray indicates that renewal rate for concealed carry permits is 79 percent with only about 750 such documents expiring during the third quarter.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischkorn@News-Herald.com