No less than three excellent commentaries have been published in as many days on various topics surrounding the topic of concealed carry reform and gun control. Each one pertains heavily to the struggle Ohioans have been forced to endure as we fight for the right to defend ourselves amidst rising crime.

• Cybercast News Service: Concealed Carry Permits Fire up Debate Over Workplace Shootings
Concealed-carry at work saves lives

• Kentucky Post: Americans and guns
Debate pits the rights of individuals against controlling the use of arms

• MichNews.com: POWER to the People Empowered by the People
"So why is it the cops can come in guns a-blazin' for a bunch of 14-year-olds, but when it's an 80-year-old in an elevator, he's supposed to just lay down and die?"

While all the circumstances of this shooting are not known, what IS known is that the "fundamental nature of a motor vehicle" does not provide a person an adequate means of self-defense, no matter what the Ohio State Highway Patrol bureaucrats say.

Toledo police seek clues in shooting death
Toledo Blade
November 19, 2003

Kenneth Allen Young was shot to death in the neighborhood where he grew up.

Now, his family and Toledo police want to know who shot the 23-year-old as he sat in a car in central Toledo.

Young, 23, of 1915 Walnut St., suffered two gunshot wounds: one to his head, the other to his lower right chest, said Dr. Diane Barnett, a Lucas County deputy coroner, after an autopsy yesterday.

The bullets went through his body and were not recovered during the autopsy. Both wounds were sustained at very close range, Dr. Barnett said in a statement. She ruled his death a homicide.

Click on the "Read More..." link below for more.

It seems they've tried very hard at the Akron Beacon-Journal not to cover the statewide news story that is the 'Defense' Walk movement. Leave it to one of their own - another gun-grabbing open carry advocate - to "out" the subject in a letter to the editor:

Holstered guns act as deterrent

One wonders if Beacon Journal readers have the slightest idea what Mr. Harrison was talking about, given the Beacon Journal's refusal to cover these Walks as they occurred.

The editors may intentionally be avoiding coverage of the 'Defense' Walks, but the issue of their city's crime problem is all over their paper:

Nov. 15: Police seek 2 men in robbery of couple

Nov. 15: Barberton holdup caught on tape

Nov. 19: Canton man sought in McDonald's heist

HISTORY: Click here for a complete list of past 'Defense' Walks.

Related Story:
Is no 'Defense' Walk news good news for these Ohio media outlets?

The following commentary was submitted anonymously to www.ohioccw.org, and is being reprinted here.

Below is a story about the legislative fight to make the smallmouth bass the official Ohio state fish.

Associated Press: Legislature to name official Ohio fish, and it's not walleye

I find it interesting that Senate President Doug White says he will push for this type of honorary designation in the Senate while he has stalled real serious reform legislation like concealed carry for so long now. While people continue to be victims of crime, carjackings and Ohioans remain at risk of being killed by such criminal activity, the Ohio Senate President would rather be "fishing" than "leading". A sad statement for the State of Ohio and the state of the Republican party.

Click on the "Read More..." link below for more.

The following letter was written by OFCC Mahoning County Coordinator and Youngstown 'Defense' Walk Organizer Rick Kaleda.

Youngstown Vindicator
November 17, 2003

Oh what a difference two blocks and 4 hours can make!

That is the approximate distance and amount of time that separate the 75+ participants of the Youngstown 'Defense' walk and Joseph Wilhelm, the YSU ROTC cadet who faced the drawn weapons of YPD for being suspected of doing the very same thing - breaking no law at all!

The Ohio Supreme Court recently (September 24th 2003) upheld that Ohio’s law banning Concealed Carry was perfectly constitutional as citizens could LEGALLY carry firearms as long as they were not concealed. The ban on concealed carry is not a prohibition on bearing arms but simply a restriction on how that may be done.

The participants in the “Defense walk” intended to “educate” the population in a display of just this fact. This was done with law enforcement’s knowledge, presence and even the signature of the police chief himself on the required “Parade Permit” I myself obtained to hold the event. This was not a permit granting the right for the presence of firearms, but instead the fact that we would be an assemblage.

A short time and distance later Wilhelm was certainly not an assemblage. He would not have been breaking the law if he were guilty of what he was suspected of. Yet the same police department confronted Wilhelm, weapons drawn because they suspected that the stick he carried was a shotgun.

It is often said that ignorance of the law is no excuse for breaking it” but what if those ignorant of the law are the police?

Click on the "Read More..." link below for more.