They say it's about Party solidarity. It looks more like they're tying lines to a sinking ship.

According to the latest Ohio Poll, released Wednesday by the University of Cincinnati’s Institute for Policy Research, there are more Ohioans unhappy with the job Taft is doing than there are those who approve.

According to the poll, the governor’s disapproval rating is at 46 percent. Only 44 percent of Ohioans approve of his job performance.

The General Assembly polled at 54% approval. So why does Senate Republican leadership continue do Taft's bidding on HB12 by obstructing a conference committee? Why are a few Republican Senators saying that despite their pro-CCW position, they are reluctant to override Taft if he vetoes HB12?

Sen. Jim Carnes, R-St. Clairsville, recently told the media it's all because of "solidarity among Republicans".

In view of Bob Taft's huge disapproval numbers, this sounds about as sound a political position as was the "No Recall" campaign run by Democrats in California.

CLick here to read the entire story from the Ohio News Network.

Girl admits trying to shoot caseworker, deputy sheriff
October 08, 2003
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

In the hallway that opened into the crowded lobby of Franklin County Children Services, a 13-year-old girl and a deputy sheriff scrapped until the deputy was on her knees and the girl held her gun.

Hafsa Aboi Hassan pointed the 9 mm handgun at the back of Deputy Betty Ashley’s head and pulled the trigger. Nothing.

She pointed the gun at Children Services caseworker Malcolm Tanksley, who had tried to intervene. Hassan again pulled the trigger. Again, the gun didn’t fire.

Tanksley wrestled Hassan to the ground, and Ashley pulled the gun from her.

Hassan admitted she was guilty of two delinquency counts of felonious assault and one delinquency count of aggravated robbery in the Sept. 23 incident at the agency’s office, 525 E. Mound St.

Investigators said the handgun’s safety might have been on, or no bullet was in the firing chamber, or the magazine holding the bullets was dislodged during the struggle.

Click here to read the letter in the Columbus Dispatch (subscription site - paid access only).

Concealed-carry ban offends good citizens
Cincy Enquirer
October 6, 2003

I'm offended, and every law-abiding citizen in Ohio should be too. Why? There were 45 states with some kind of concealed-carry law and the crime has gone down in most of those states.

Either our lawmakers don't want crime to go down or they think the citizens of Ohio are more dangerous than people of the other 45 states.

Jim Ferrell, Mason

Concealed carry ruling is myopic
Toledo Blade
October 7, 2003

I wasn’t surprised to see a Blade editorial crowing about an Ohio Supreme Court ruling that the regulation of concealed firearms is not unconstitutional. The lawsuit brought by the Hamilton County plaintiffs was poorly conceived and executed.

No one - other than a few radicals - has ever claimed that some type of firearm regulation is unconstitutional. What the majority of Ohioans are saying is the current outright prohibition against carrying concealed weapons, rather than the regulation of it by reasonable standards, is myopic - even idiotic. It is even more pathetic in view of the experience in 44 other states where CCW rules have been relaxed so as to be within reach of the average citizen: Crime rates have plummeted and there has been no wave of "Dodge City shootouts" as the anti-gun lobby had predicted.

The Blade’s statement that there is a grass-roots effort to pressure legislators "to broaden the constitutional right to bear arms to include a new right to bear concealed weapons anywhere without governmental interference" is just plain nonsense. The pro-gun lobby agrees that firearm regulation is important; there are many people such as felons, juveniles, and the mentally incompetent who should be denied access to firearms. But that regulation should not extend to honest, law-abiding citizens who can meet reasonable standards of competency with a firearm.

The court did note that the state constitution says: "The people have the right to bear arms for their defense and security." But if we can’t carry them, then we can’t very well protect ourselves with them, can we? Ohio does not need an absence of gun legislation; it needs the same reasonable gun legislation found in [45]other states.

RICH IOTT
Monclova

October 4, 2003

Re "Court upholds ban on concealed guns," Sept. 25: How does Justice Paul E. Pfeifer believe prohibiting "the carrying of concealed weapons helps maintain an orderly and safe society?"

I guess if I lived in the same neighborhood Pfeifer lives in, I would feel as safe as he does. Or perhaps, if I had armed bodyguards watching out for me at home, work and at play, I would feel safe and believed we live in an orderly and safe society.

Maybe if Pfeifer were an average Joe, he would not be so fast to make such a statement.

There are drug houses, gang shootings, rapes and armed robberies. There are criminals who will shoot you for your car or truck. Are you thinking of going out for the night with your wife and kids? Where can you go without worrying about your safety and that of your family?

It is certain the orderly and safe society Pfeifer lives in will come about only after law-abiding citizens, with the proper attitude and training in the safe handling of firearms, are allowed to defend themselves against a not-so-safe society.

Gary L. Cooper
Piqua

Click here to read the letter in the Dayton Daily News.

On September 25, an attack letter, specifically targeted against Ohioans For Concealed Carry, began appearing in newspapers across the state. The letter written by the President of the Cleveland Chapter of the 'Million' Mom March, put false words in the mouths of more than 50,000 Ohioans for Concealed Carry supporters.

To their credit, the newspapers are now printing OFCC's official reponse to these shameless, provably false statements.

Click here to read our response in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Click here to read our response in the Athens News.

If you have seen the attack letter in your own newspaper, please notify us at info@ohioccw.org, so that we can get the truth printed in your local area as well!