Ohioans may be able to carry hidden firearms legally in a variety of public settings, but that right doesn't extend to city parks, an attorney for a small northern Ohio town told the state Supreme Court yesterday in a key test case of the state's 4-year-old concealed-carry law.

Gun-rights advocates said that if the city of Clyde's ordinance banning guns in public parks is upheld, other cities will begin shooting holes in the right to discreetly pack heat.

Clyde's attorney, John C. McDonald, said the gun-rights supporters are paranoid.

"This is not a case about the Second Amendment or an individual's right to bear arms," he said. "Nor is it about the Emperor Caligula, Armageddon or the end of the world."

Clyde, a city of 6,000 in Sandusky County, passed an ordinance banning guns in local parks shortly after the state law allowing concealed weapons took effect in early 2004. More than 100,000 concealed-carry permits have been issued since then.

Ohioans for Concealed Carry sued Clyde, arguing that cities can't make up their own gun laws that infringe on the overall right to carry hidden firearms. Exceptions, such as schools and hospitals, are defined by state law rather than local ordinances.

Jeff Garvas, president of Ohioans for Concealed Carry, said the law will be gutted if cities are allowed to carve out exceptions as they please.

"I think (the court case) is vital to the survivability of the concealed-carry law," he said

The Ohio Municipal League, Cleveland and Columbus support Clyde's position. Cleveland is fighting in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court to restore its local laws on assault weapons, possession of weapons in public places and possession of weapons by minors. Those ordinances, and similar ones in other large cities, including Columbus, were wiped out by a 2006 state law establishing uniform rules on firearms.

Columbus is not challenging the 2006 law. City Councilman Kevin Boyce, who attended the Supreme Court hearing yesterday, said Clyde's position makes sense to Columbus and other large cities.

"An urban community like Columbus may look at it differently from a rural area when it comes to guns," Boyce said. "As far as I see it, a park is a place where a gun is not welcome. Parks are for people, not guns."

Daniel T. Ellis, who represented Ohioans for Concealed Carry in court yesterday, said ordinances like Clyde's penalize only law-abiding citizens. He suggested that allowing licensed gun owners to take weapons to parks could deter crimes such as pedophilia.

"Have we forgotten that law-abiding people are in a partnership with the state and police to stop crime?" Ellis asked.

Supreme Court justices, who are all Republicans, appeared to split on some of the issues in the case.

Justice Paul E. Pfeifer said he's seen no evidence that allowing guns in parks has caused a plague of "little Rambos running around." But he also said he can't understand why someone would want to lug a gun around in a park, especially in the summer when it would be harder to conceal.

Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer pressed Ellis on whether there's any good reason to restrict cities from passing local laws intended to benefit their citizens. Justice Judith Ann Lanzinger asked Clyde attorney McDonald -- a former Democratic lawmaker from Licking County -- whether his argument would keep the legislature from enacting any statewide law on conceal/carry.

McDonald, who contended the Clyde ordinance is legal under Ohio's home-rule provisions, said he couldn't say that.

The Supreme Court's ruling is expected in several months.

jnash@dispatch.com