OHIO LEGISLATIVE SERVICE COMMISSION
Office of Research Legislative Budget
www.lsc.ohio.gov and Drafting Office
S.B. 209 Bill Analysis
135th General Assembly
Click here for S.B. 209’s Fiscal Note
Version: As Introduced
Primary Sponsors: Sens. Hicks-Hudson and Ingram
Effective date:
Ashley F. Dean, Attorney
Isabella Carone, LSC Intern
SUMMARY
 Increases the penalty for unlawful transactions in weapons when the offense involves
the failure to report any lost or stolen firearm or dangerous ordnance from a fourth
degree misdemeanor to a first degree misdemeanor.
 Decreases the culpable mental state required to commit that offense from “knowingly”
to “recklessly.”
DETAILED ANALYSIS
Unlawful transactions in weapons
Failure to report a lost or stolen firearm
Under continuing law, the offense of unlawful transactions in weapons prohibits, in part,
a person from knowingly failing to report the loss or theft of any firearm or dangerous
ordnance in a person’s possession or under a person’s control to law enforcement authorities.
The penalty is a fourth degree misdemeanor. The bill increases the penalty to a first degree
misdemeanor.1
The bill also changes the culpable mental state required to commit the offense from
“knowingly” to “recklessly.” Under continuing law, a person acts “knowingly” when the person
is aware that the person’s conduct will probably cause a certain result or will probably be of a
certain nature. A person acts “recklessly” when, with heedless indifference to the
1 R.C. 2923.20(C).
May 22, 2024
Office of Research and Drafting LSC Legislative Budget Office
consequences, the person disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the person’s
conduct is likely to cause a certain result or is likely to be of a certain nature.2
HISTORY
Action Date
Introduced 12-27-23
ANSB0209IN-135/ts
2 R.C. 2923.20(A)(7) and R.C. 2901.22, not in the bill.
P a g e |2 S.B. 209
As Introduced


Statutes affected:
As Introduced: 2923.20