Attorney General Richard Cordray has asked for the Cleveland Appellate Court to stay their order finding R.C. 9.68 unconstitutional.

A stay means that the Appellate Court's decision will not be in force while the Supreme Court considers the case and issues their decision.

AG Cordray is representing the state of Ohio in this case against the City of Cleveland. A stay, which should be granted, will protect gun owners until a final decision is reached.

It is our expectation that the OSC will reverse the Cleveland Appellate Court's decision.

Click here to download the motion. (.pdf)

By Chad D. Baus

The Cleveland Plain Dealer is reporting on a list of potential running mates for Governor Ted Strickland in his 2010 re-election bid.

While Strickland has lived up to his billing as a staunch pro-gun Democrat during his first term in office, the same could never have been said of Lt. Gov Lee Fisher, who is running for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate.

Strickland's choice of Fisher, a former Handgun Control Inc. board member who lost a bid for Attorney General in 1994 after saying "I never met a gun control bill I didn't like," caused alot of concern among pro-gun voters in 2006. Fortunately for the former Congressman, however, losses among wary gun voters weren't enough to overcome a wave of disappointment with more than a decade and a half of Republican rule in the Buckeye State.

If early polling is to be believed, however, Strickland may not be able to cede the number of votes another anti-gun pick would cost him.

According to two polls released this week by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, "the Democratic wave that swept through Ohio in 2006 and 2008 may be cresting."

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland's lead over former Congressman and Fox News show host John Kasich in the 2010 race for reelection has evaporated into a 40 - 40 percent tie, with Ohio voters seeing the possible Republican challenger as better able to handle rebuilding the state economy and handling the budget.

The latest survey marks a substantial swing in momentum since September, when the university found Strickland with a 10 point lead.

The 8th Ohio District Court of Appeals has sided with Cleveland in the city's fight to enforce its illegal local gun control ordinances.

A three judge panel has declared that Ohio R.C 9.68 - which became law in 2007 with passage of HB347 to preempt local gun control and ensure statewide uniformity of gun laws - is unconstitutional.

By Gerard Valentino

The national establishment media is getting a lot of mileage from another of New York Mayor Bloomberg's dirty tricks. In this case, the Mayor sent private investigators to gun shows in several states to prove that illegal gun trafficking is taking place, and that criminals can easily buy firearms in unregulated private transactions.

Video collected at several guns shows showed private citizens selling guns, even though the prospective buyer claimed he could not pass the background check required to buy a gun through a licensed gun dealer.

Clearly, Mayor Bloomberg set up a situation to benefit his view that guns bought at gun shows are the cause of violent crime in New York. He also needed to show New Yorkers that the guns used in crimes in his city are coming from outside of New York, and that the situation is therefore out of his control.

This issue, however, is bigger than Mayor Bloomberg's crusade to end private gun ownership and show the gun violence in New York is not his fault.

Each time someone takes part in an illegal sale at a gun show, it puts the rights of law-abiding gun owners at risk because it plays into the hands of the anti-gun movement by giving credence to the existence of a "gun show loophole."

Polls will be open across the state of Ohio and around the nation today, and once again, pro-gun voters will have a disproportionate impact on the election outcome here in the Buckeye state.

Although there are 11 million voters in Ohio, about 4 million are ineligible to vote, either by age or lack of registering. And out of the 7 million registered voters, precedent suggests that only a little over 2 million (30%) will bother to drag themselves to the polls in an off-year election.

There are somewhere north of 400,000 people in Ohio who are licensed to hunt and/ or carry a concealed handgun. When one considers that, in the 2000 Presidential election, nine of 10 Ohio sportsmen of voting age went to the polls (a full 27% of the vote!), one can begin to see how much of an influence gun voters can have on elections that swing by just a few percentage points.

Click here to access the Buckeye Firearms Association 2009 endorsements.

By Publius

Mayor Bloomberg's "investigation" of gun shows in Ohio presents an opportunity for gun owners in the Buckeye state - an opportunity that we must seize if gun shows are to survive.

The choice facing us is simple: Change how gun shows operate, or gun shows will be legislated/litigated out of business. The loss of gun shows would be a devastating blow to the First Amendment rights of gun owners. Yes, I said First Amendment.

Let's get something out of the way upfront so we can concentrate on our issues: Mayor Bloomberg is exceeding his authority, is wrong, has no business doing investigations in Ohio, his investigators are breaking the law, he released heavily edited versions of his tapes, all the conduct he complains of is already illegal and prohibited etc etc etc.

None of that matters. Now, can we concentrate on our own problems and administer some tough love?

On Election Day 2009, Ohio voters will be asked to decide on Issue 2, a ballot initiative which would amend the Ohio constitution to create a livestock board appointed by the governor that would set standards for livestock care in Ohio.

While Buckeye Firearms Association determined that this issue falls too far outside of our mission, others including the U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance, are supporting this issue out of the belief that Ohio farmers need protection from the number one anti-hunting group in the nation, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). On the other hand, some believe this board is a state power grab that could restrict the rights of Ohio farmers.

The Ohio Liberty Council, of which Buckeye Firearms Association is a member organization, believes it is important for voters to be as informed as possible about ballot issues before voting to amend the Ohio Constitution. As such, the Council, along with the Ohio Freedom Alliance, The Central Ohio 912 Project, and OSU Young Americans for Liberty, co-sponsored a town hall forum at the main campus of The Ohio State University on Monday, October 19.

By Chad D. Baus

On October 20, 2009, Buckeye Firearms Chairman Jim Irvine appeared as a guest on WCPN's (Clevland Public Radio) "The Sound of Ideas," hosted by Dan Moulthrop.

In a typical display of your tax dollars at work on the "impartial" forum of National Public Radio (NPR), the opening half of the show was given solely to one of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's cronies - John Feinblatt, the city's Criminal Justice Coordinator.

The first words out of Feinblatt's mouth during that segment were provably false:

As a part of our focus on general firearms issues, this political action committee continues to direct our attention to a variety of local races in the state of Ohio for off-year elections.

This year, there are a few contests which pique the interest of Buckeye Firearms Association, some because they are between pro-gun candidates and out-and-out liberal anti-gunners, and others because we wish to support pro-gun candidates in positions that could one day lead them to the Statehouse or Governor's mansion.

Click here to access the Buckeye Firearms Association 2009 endorsements.