By Janice Morse
The Cincinnati Enquirer

MIDDLETOWN - James E. Burgess was supposed to teach people to follow Ohio's new concealed-weapons law. Instead, police say, he violated it.

"Who would imagine that, on the first day of this new law, that we would arrest someone for short-changing people on their gun training - and then, when we arrest him, he's the one carrying a concealed weapon without a permit?" Col. Richard K. Jones, Butler County sheriff's chief deputy, said Thursday.

Burgess, 68, of Middletown, was charged with issuing firearms-training certificates to students who had completed less than half the required 12 hours of gun-safety training. The law, which went into effect Thursday, requires the training as the first step for getting a license to carry a concealed gun.

Burgess was arrested Thursday at The GunRunner, a Monroe gun shop he frequents, on a warrant for a misdemeanor charge of falsification. Authorities say they found a .22-caliber pistol in his pocket and added a felony charge of carrying a concealed weapon.

Sheriff's Maj. Anthony Dwyer said authorities are working to determine how many students went through Burgess' training.

Police said they believe Burgess is certified to teach the gun-safety course, which includes two hours of firing a gun. But authorities said he taught about five hours of classroom work and about 30 minutes of actual shooting. The certificates Burgess issued are invalid and students must attend another class before they can apply for a concealed-carry permit, Dwyer said.

Burgess, who was released from the Middletown jail, said of his arrest: "What happened is accidental, and when we get it straightened out, it'll be OK. It'll straighten itself out."

After receiving complaints from people who took Burgess' class but didn't think they got proper training, authorities sent an undercover officer to the class.

The officer said Burgess made comments during the class indicating he knew he was cutting corners and that students "should keep that to themselves," Dwyer said.

Kim Norris, spokeswoman for the Ohio Attorney General's Office, encouraged people to do their homework before signing up for the training: "Be a good consumer with this as you would anything.''

The Attorney General's Office, and its Web site, provides lists of certified trainers.

The undercover officer enrolled in Burgess' class, which was held in an office space next to the GunRunner, to investigate former students' complaints that they doubted they had received proper training.

"The (undercover) officer actually has had some military training, and he felt very unsafe when he was out with these people doing the shooting," Dwyer said. "They're not getting the proper instruction on how to handle it. And my biggest concern is that either they're going to shoot somebody else or themselves accidentally."

"There are a lot of other trainers who are doing a good job, but we've got to weed out people like this," said Jones. "This is a menace to the entire process."

E-mail jmorse@enquirer.com