The Brookings Institution, a liberal research group based in Washington D.C., is attempting to revive interest in a flawed study on the effects of CCW on crime, entitled "Shooting Down the More Guns, Less Crime Hypothesis", by John J. Donohue III.

Donohue first issued his report in October of last year, but it received little attention. John Lott, author of More Guns, Less Crime, evaluated and responded to the Donohue report on December 9th. Click here to read the 48 page rebuttal from John Lott. This rebuttal quickly quieted what little buzz the report had generated.

So when the Brookings Institution announced this week that they were publishing a volume of various guns and crime studies entitled "Evaluating Gun Policy - Effects on Crime and Violence", we were disappointed to that the editors had decided to give a chapter to the Donohue report.

John Lott does an excellent job of explaining why the report is faulty: "Ayres and Donohue have simply misread their own results". We could presume to do no better than Lott at defending his own study, except to summarize that Donohue's research abstract provides enough proof of his bias as to damn the whole piece prior to reading it.

And thus we at OFCC PAC got to wondering: just who is John J. Donohue III?

For more insight, click on the "Read More..." link below.

About two dozen frustrated James Island business owners met with Charleston (SC) Police Chief Reuben Greenberg, several Charleston police officers and Charleston County sheriff's deputies, to discuss protection against a rash of robberies and burglaries along a stretch of Folly Road.

Greenberg told them that robberies, burglaries and rapes are a fact of life for communities across the country. "There is never going to be zero crime. We can only work to reduce those that happen," he said.

He said one particular downtown business in a high-crime area hasn't been held up in 20 years because the owner and employees, including the guy mopping the floor, are armed.

Mary Jane Keathley, meeting organizer and co-owner of a restaurant, asked Greenberg if he was joking. "Are you telling us we should arm ourselves?" she said.

"That's a decision you have to make for yourself," Greenberg said.

"I find that completely unacceptable," she said.

"I can't believe that's the only way," another man said.

"That's the kind of world you live in," Greenberg replied.

At least eight robberies and 15 break-ins have been reported along the heavily traveled 800 and 900 blocks of Folly Road in the past 12 months. Some business owners have called for more protection.

Click on the "Read More..." link below for more on the high profile career of Chief Greenberg, and for a link to the entire story.

Herein lies the problem with the creation of "victim zones" in Ohio, where persons are prohibited from exercising their right to carry:

"Two Sanford men are being held in the Lee County Jail on $100,000 bond each, accused of entering a church service Wednesday night, shooting a parishioner and robbing several others.

Witnesses said they were conducting service when two African-American males entered the church with assault rifles and demanded money.

Most of the parishioners were Hispanic and didn't speak English. Police believe that may have frustrated the suspects, who threw a 5-year-old child across the room.

Witnesses said that one of the suspects shot Starlin. The other suspect assaulted Luis Lopez, hitting him in the mouth with the barrel of his rifle.

Police say the suspects collected cash and ladies' purses, along with other property from the members of the congregation.

According to witnesses, the suspects fired four shots into the church while the congregation was still inside."

OFCC PAC Commentary:
North Carolina, a shall-issue state, does not include churches on their list of established victim zones. One wonders how this robbery would have been different had any one of the church's members been a permit holder.

Click here to read the entire story on the WRAL Channel 5 website.

OFCC supporter Ed, has been making some rather keen observations on actions Bob Taft has taken to reward the Ohio State Patrol in the weeks following its adamant opposition to HB274:

• "Col. Kenneth Morckel (Superintendent of OSP) was appointed by the governor to
be the next Director of the Dept. of Public Safety."

• The Governor's various proposed tax increases includes a proposed a 2 cent per year for three years (6 cents) tax increase on gasoline. "Guess where a large chunk of that money is going?", Ed notes. "The OSHP is getting a $150,000,000 increase in their allotment."

Ed goes on to say: "We better gear ourselves to the same resistance, from the same forces again this year and next. The marching orders come from the governor's office and those dependent on him will always do what they're told. It is not so much that the OSHP or the Chiefs of Police have great concerns, it's the phony objections they voice so Gov. 'Shaft' can say that the safety forces are not satisfied with the bill (no matter what's in it)."

"We now should realize that our demands for facts, statistics, true feelings, etc. won't do the trick. We're going to have to lean hard, very hard on our reps and senators (especially our senators) and demand that they ignore the phony concerns voiced against any CCW bill and let's get it on the governor's desk! That is what he's afraid of."