July 31, 2003
Coshocton Tribune
Coshocton man enters guilty plea in road rage case

ZANESVILLE -- A Coshocton man arrested earlier this year on allegations that he intentionally crashed his car into other motorists on Ohio 16 entered a guilty plea to amended charges.

Matthew Johnson, 20, of North Whitewoman Street, was found guilty of two counts of attempted felonious assault, two counts of aggravated menacing and a single count of leaving the scene of an accident.

Johnson's charges stemmed from a case of road rage investigated by the Coshocton County Sheriff's Office and the Zanesville Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol on Ohio 16 near the Longaberger Company in Muskingum County on March 6.

A trooper later stopped the suspect car on U.S. 36 near the Ohio 16 intersection, and sheriff's deputies located two disabled vehicles near Ohio 16.

Authorities determined both had been struck by the "road rage" vehicle that fled the scene of the original incident.

OFCC PAC Commentary:
Ohio State Highway Patrol Superintendant Paul McClellan says there is no statistical or anecdotal evidence that allowing citizens to carry firearms in their cars will reduce crime or protect the innocent. We have proven that false time and again.

On the other hand, they are all too willing to grab one anecdotal example of a road rage incident involving a permit holder in Tennessee, and use it to substantiate their opposition.

Which got us to wondering. If the OSHP wants to keep firearms off of Ohio's roadways because of one road rage incident in Tennessee, why aren't they fighting to keep CARS off the road, based on this road rage incident in Ohio, in which a car was used as a deadly weapon?

Click here to read the entire story in the Coshocton Tribune.

Thursday, July 31, 2003
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Eight Columbus Public Schools students attempted yesterday to do what Ohio lawmakers could not — decide whether Ohioans can legally carry concealed weapons.

The students were role-playing in front of real senators and representatives as part of a summer leadership program designed to teach them what it’s like to work in the field of law.

Each was assigned to research either for or against concealed weapons, the subject of a hotly contested piece of legislation this year. The bill stalled after the House, Senate and governor’s office couldn’t agree on some provisions before the legislature’s summer break.

The students read the testimony they prepared and faced tough questions from four Columbus lawmakers, just like in a real committee hearing.

Students in the Summer Leadership Intern Program, sponsored by the Columbus Bar Association and Columbus Public Schools, work for eight weeks at paid internships with law firms and government agencies around Columbus. They spend Saturdays working on their concealed-weapons testimony and researching for a mock trial, which will be the final project, said Dwight Groce, co-coordinator of the program.

OFCC PAC Commentary
Sounds like a great project, right? It might have been, and we'd know better if it was or not, had the media coverage had been the least bit impartial.

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

Thu, Jul. 31, 2003
Akron Beacon-Journal

Predators could strike again
State finds 1,000 sex offenders at risk in inmate review after Wayne girl's murder. Bill to strengthen laws

COLUMBUS - The state has identified about 1,000 additional convicted sex offenders at risk of striking again, according to a study done following the rape and slaying of a 14-year-old Wayne County girl.

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

In case you had any doubts, Ohio's anti-self-defense extremists are not resting until the General Assembly returns from summer break.

According to a recent email alert from them, they are creating yet another align="right">deceptive name for themselves, and have launched a new web-based service to spit out form letters urging citizens to encourage Governor Taft to drop his "support" for House Bill 12.

We're not sure whether to set the record straight, or pat them on the back. Because if Bob Taft's actions with HB12 equal "support" for concealed carry reform, we'd like to see a change as well. As the saying goes, "with friends like this..."

Click on the "Read More..." link below to view the text of the letter.

A new survey has been added to the OFCC PAC website, inquiring as to who is most to blame for delays on HB12.

Vote in the upper right-hand corner of the home page, or click here.

If you haven't already done so, you can still weigh in on whether or not the Gen. Assembly's failure to pass CCW in '03 effect your vote in '04, by clicking here.

July 30, 2003
Cincinnati Post

A special Kenton County sheriff's squad corralled a probation violator from Cincinnati Tuesday evening in Covington with an assist from a bystander who saw the officers chasing the man.

Rodney J. Hail, 31, of East Price Hill, was running from deputies when Patrick Burns of Cincinnati tackled him near the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, said Col. Ron Washington, chief deputy for the sheriff's department.

That enabled officers of the department's fugitive apprehension team to catch up to Hail and arrest him.

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

An excellent letter to the editor has been written and published by John A. Unruh of Brookfield, regarding the actions of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee members on HB12.

Click on the "Read More..." link below to read the letter.

NEWARK, Ohio — A Pataskala man walked out of a Licking County courtroom yesterday, his faith further shaken by a system he believes is too lenient on criminals.

Alan Abrams had monitored previous court proceedings for a band of robbers he said terrorized him and his wife during a home invasion last year.

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So far, he’s disappointed by the sentences.

Common Pleas Judge Thomas Marcelain yesterday sentenced Nathan S. Jago, 20, to six years in prison — three years for a mandatory gun penalty — for his role in the robbery.

"The police department did a great job in their investigation," Abrams said later. "They got the job done."

But the two judges who have overseen the cases, he said, have disappointed him.

In March 2002, five armed and masked robbers used duct tape to bind Abrams and his wife to chairs inside their home on Old Maid Lane.

One of them hit Abrams in the face with a gun. The men stole a $60,000 diamond ring, a $30,000 watch, a sport-utility vehicle and other items.

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

Cleveland Plain Dealer
07/29/03

Ohio's House and Senate spent the summer stalling like a teenager avoiding as signed reading, but they finally seem to have succumbed to reality.

Both chambers are to act next month on a measure that missed resolution before lawmakers scattered last month at the end of their regular session...

OFCC PAC Commentary:
Just when you thought they were going to do their duty to send HB12 to the governor...

The story is referring to the General Assembly's plans to return to finalize school accountability legislation that, if delayed, would result in the loss of $400 million in federal money.

Some are apparently less concerned with the loss of life which continues to mount due to delayed action on HB12.

Both houses have scheduled their meeting dates (Aug. 7 for the Senate; Aug. 12 for the House). Since we know they'll be in the office, perhaps a few reminders are in order that they left other business unfinished when they left for the summer.

OFCC PAC Chairman Jim Irvine, who is a major airline pilot, was quoted for a story concerning New York Mayor Bloomberg's comments that the NY City Hall shooter slipped past security the same way pilots and "stewardesses" do at airports.

The only disappointment in this very short story is how much of Irvine's comments were not printed. In the interview, he explained that these types of shootings are much more prevalent in areas where firearms are banned. The Post also recently printed an op-ed from John Lott, who addressed the same issue.

Once again we see that victim zones exclusions exacerbate the problem.

Aviators fuming over Bloomberg's remarks about security
New York Post
Jul 25, 2003
pg. 005

Mayor Bloomberg's off-the-cuff remark in defense of a hole in City Hall security - saying officials were allowed to bypass metal detectors just like airline pilots and flight crews do - had aviators fuming.

"He's 100 percent wrong," said Jim Irvine, a pilot flying out of La Guardia Airport yesterday. "He has no idea what he's talking about . . . He's ignorant!"

Pilots and flight attendants go through the same security as passengers, said Capt. Sam Mayer, chairman of the New York Allied Pilots Association.