BOARD POLICY
DATE REVIEWED: 09/19/2022
DATE APPROVED: 09/19/2022
EFFECTIVE DATE: 09/19/2022
REPLACING POLICY EFFECTIVE: 02/09/2017

The Pickerington Public Library is a community gathering place for lifelong learning and has children and adults of various ages in the library building during all service hours. It is a goal of the Library’s Board of Trustees to ensure the library is a safe place for everyone.

Ohio public libraries are exempt from the state’s “Concealed Carry” law as a political subdivision of the State of Ohio: Any building that is a government facility of this state or a political subdivision of this state and that is not a building that is used primarily as a shelter, restroom, parking facility for motor vehicles, or rest facility and is not a courthouse or other building or structure in which a courtroom is located.

Ohio Revised Code, Section 2923.126

Weapons of any kind, concealed or in plain view, are prohibited in any Pickerington Public Library facility. A deadly weapon is any instrument, device, or thing capable of inflicting death, and designated or specially adapted for use as a weapon, or possessed, carried, or used as a weapon, including explosives, or listed as listed in the Ohio Revised Code, Section 2923.11. A firearm is any deadly weapon capable of expelling or propelling one of more projectiles by the action of an explosion or combustible propellant. A handgun is any firearm designed to be fired by the use of a single hand.

The Library prohibits anyone from brandishing or using normal everyday items not considered a weapon by the State of Ohio or United States Government as a weapon. These items could be, but not limited to furniture, books, knives or other cutting instruments.

Active duty law enforcement personnel are permitted to carry weapons onto Library property.

The Pickerington Public Library will post the necessary notification of its status as exempt from Ohio’s Concealed Carry legislation, as required by the Ohio Revised Code 2923.1212.