James D. Ramm

James D. Ramm of Reynolds-burg, Ohio, a retired Reynoldsburg Police Department Sergeant, is the CCRKBA Gun Rights Defender of the Month Awardee for October.
Dennis Walker, President of the Ohio Constitution Defense Council and Secretary of the Peoples Rights Organization, nominated Ramm for the Award. Walker stated that “Ramm has worked tirelessly and ceaselessly to defend the Bill of Rights and in particular the Second Amendment for the past 20 years. His dedication to the Second Amendment brought him into con-flict with his Reynoldsburg police chief, forcing him to take early re-tirement.”
Walker told Point Blank that he first met Ramm in the early 90s when the two were at one of many hearings at the Statehouse in Co-lumbus, Ohio. Ramm was at the Statehouse to testify against restric-tive gun control legislation and Walker invited Ramm to attend a meeting of the Peoples Rights Or-ganization (PRO).
Over the next 10 years, Ramm became the group‟s Police Liaison Board Member, wrote Walker. “We convinced him that he should run for the NRA Board of Direc-tors. He served two terms..”
Ramm served several years as Vice-Chairman of PRO and two terms as Chairman. Ramm ap-peared on many TV and radio pro-grams on behalf of PRO. He also made several other appearances in support of the Second Amendment and the Bill of Rights.
During this time, Ramm became involved with the Ohio Constitu-tion Defense Council. He became
Chairman of the group‟s political action committee (PAC), Ohio Citizens Advancing Personal Safety. In this capacity, according to Walker, “Ramm has helped write or written several concealed carry bills that have been brought forth onto the Ohio legislative floor. These bills have received many committee hearings but died due to undue influence from two state governors.”
Ramm also is active in E Pluri-bus Unum, a grass roots constitu-tional study group. He is an in-structor for the Personal Protec-tion with Pistol classes.
Walker told Point Blank that “Ramm is the embodiment of what our Founding Fathers envi-sioned for our citizens when they created our Republic and is very deserving of national recognition for his efforts on our behalf.”
Ramm was born in Ohio on Au-gust 9, 1957. He attended Ohio State. While at OSU, Jim partici-pated in The Best Damn Band in the Land, the OSU Marching Band. He also was in the Marine ROTC program.
Jim graduated from the Ohio State Highway Patrol Academy in July of 1980. He went to work for the Reynoldsburg Police Depart-ment for 16 years, reaching the rank of Sergeant before retiring in 1996.
Jim has received the PRO‟s highest award, the PRO‟s Found-ing Fathers Second Amendment Award, two years in a row for his outstanding commitment to the Second Amendment for the years 1998 and 1999.
Walker says that, “after being
elected to the NRA Board, Ramm took his fiancée to the 1995 meet-ing in Phoenix, Arizona. During the weekend, Jim made Gail his wife.
Jim has become a leading spokes-man in Ohio for a liberalized CCW bill, that is, a bill that would permit law-abiding citizens to carry con-cealed handguns in the state.
During the ongoing discussions and debates in the Buckeye State over the various legislative ap-proaches to the issue, Jim has spo-ken out against what he and many of his grass roots supporters con-sider restrictive legislative propos-als, such as those contained in HB 274. This would require digitized fingerprints, background checks, social security numbers, “may is-sue” and many free-fire kill zones where one would be unable to take a concealed firearm.
During his Ohio Statehouse testi-mony against the measure, Jim stated that “Ohio grass roots groups have a number of problems with this highly intrusive registra-tion legislation that is being sold in the thinly veiled wrapper of com-promise.”
He went on to say that “these digitized prints are a violation of all Ohioans‟ right to privacy and (the bill) treats good, honest people, who only want to protect their families, as criminals.”
In speaking about those politi-cians who favor HB 274, Ramm said, “They just need to take a class in the difference between a right and a privilege.”
Ramm supports HB 225, which is described as “a Vermont-style carry bill.”