Among the things that happen when you are away from your desk for an extended period of time is that there is a lot of mail and e-mail that needs to be sorted out.

There were several interesting items delivered to the office during the last couple of months, including some annual reports. Like every similar submission, they offer a lot of information about things that are happening around us.

Among those was the annual report on Ohio’s concealed-handgun licenses, which offers some insight into our region.

State Attorney General David Yost’s report on the gun licenses showed that county sheriffs across the state issued 14,400 new licenses and 59, 112 renewals in 2024. That’s a total of 73,552 permits.

That’s a large number, but it marks a significant drop from the numbers recorded in 2020 and 2021, which were the two years before the state’s permit-less carry law went into effect on June 13, 2022.

In 2020, for instance, sheriffs in each of the state’s 88 counties issued 96,892 new permits and processed 72,340 renewals. In 2021, new licenses totaled 94,298 and renewals hit 108,662.

Those numbers have gotten smaller in the years since. In 2022, new permits totaled 27,031 and renewals were at 62,751, and in 2023, new permits totaled15,581 and renewals hit 75,001.

During the last five years, Yost’s report shows the number of license suspensions and revocation has remained steady. There were 1,618 licenses suspended in 2020, 1,880 licenses suspended in 2021, 1,768 licenses suspended in 2022, 1,846 licenses suspended in 2023 and 1,439 licenses suspended in 2024.

Revoked licenses totaled 429 in 2020, 420 in 2021, 454 in 2022, 405 in 2023 and 339 in 2024.

The number of applications that have been denied across the state hit 1,777 in 2020 and 2,668 in 2021 before falling to 825 in 2022, 435 in 2023 and 377 in 2024.

In our region for 2024, Jefferson County issued 42 licenses and 461 renewals and had four licenses suspended, Yost’s report shows. In Harrison County, there were 127 licenses issued, 264 renewals, three suspensions and four denials. Belmont County, meanwhile, saw 71 licenses issued, 490 renewals, three suspensions, one revocation and five denials.

There were 22 licenses issued in Carroll County to go along with 226 renewals, five suspensions and one denial. And in Columbiana County, there were 148 licenses issued, 778 licenses renewed, 27 licenses suspended and one license denied.

It should come as little surprise that the counties with larger populations issued more licenses, processed more renewals, had the most suspensions, recorded the most evocations and had the most denials.

Franklin County (the Columbus area) issued the most new licenses at 1,154, followed by Lake County (the Mentor area) at 890, Hamilton County (the Cincinnati area) at 700, Montgomery County (the Dayton area) at 467 and Summit County (the Akron area) at 461. Franklin also had the most renewals (3,489), followed by Lake County (3,008), Clermont County (adjacent to Hamilton County, 2,177), Montgomery County (2,020) and Butler County (adjacent to Hamilton County, 1,947.

Lake County had the most suspension 9125), followed by Franklin County (123), Clermont County (113), Montgomery County (71) and Hamilton County (65.) The most license revocations happened in Franklin County (77), Clermont County (46), Lake County (34), Mahoning County (29) and Montgomery County.

Lucas County (the Toledo area) had the most applications denied (44), followed by Franklin County (39), Mahoning County (38), Cuyahoga County (31) and Hamilton County (23.)

According to the United States Concealed Carry Association, as of 2023, there were 22.9 million permit holders in the United States. With constitutional carry (no permit required) in 29 states, the number of armed citizens is likely to the higher than reported, the association explained.

According to th USCCA, Alabama has the highest percentage of residents who hold concealed carry permits –27.8 percent. Indiana is second at 23.4 percent, Colorado third at 16.55 percent and Pennsylvania fourth at 15.44 percent.

While you don’t need a permit to carry a gun in Ohio, Yost said going through the process offers important benefits.

One is the mandatory eight hours of education needed to get the license. It covers state laws about self-defense and deadly force, he explained, handgun safety and shooting range practice with certified instructors.

A trained citizen is a safe citizen, Yost said in a release that accompanied the report.

Another advantage to obtaining a license is that it allows Ohioans to take advantage of reciprocity agreements.

While Ohio has recognized the concealed-carry licenses of every nonresident who has a license from every other state, there remain 10 states — California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon and Rhode Island — that do not offer reciprocity to Ohio residents.

And, while Minnesota does not enter reciprocity deals, that state has granted Ohioans the right to carry concealed handguns since August.

The issue of guns in the United States remains a hot topic, and the Second Amendment — like many other parts of the Constitution — seems to be under constant attack. While keeping guns and other weapons out the hands of criminals should be a top focus of legislators and law enforcement at every level, those who choose to be responsible should be able to continue to enjoy gun ownership.

(Gallabrese, a resident of Steubenville, is executive editor of the Herald-Star and The Weirton Daily Times)