07/19/03
Molly Kavanaugh
Plain Dealer Reporter

Oberlin- In a warm second-floor dance studio on the Oberlin College campus, Jen Resnick scampered across the floor, demonstrating how to use a knife for self-defense.

About 300 women from the United States, Canada and elsewhere are attending the four-day camp, which is held at a different college each summer. The students, ranging in age from 6 to their 60s, are both beginners and black-belt holders who come to improve their art and for female fellowship.

The National Women's Martial Arts Federation began in 1976 to give women a safe and supportive place to learn martial arts. The discipline, which includes karate, aikido and many other styles, has long been dominated by men, but it is growing in popularity with women seeking self-defense.

OFCC PAC Commentary:
There is obviously a great deal of interest in self-defense among Ohio women. But are the martial arts the best defense against an attacker?

Julia Cochrane, in a commentary written for A-Human-Right.com, has this to say of the martial arts and self-defense for women:

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

An excellent letter to the editor has been written by a police officer with 25 years of experience, and published in the Columbus Dispatch. Mr. Joseph Wayne wrote in response to an earlier letter from the mother of a person who was injured in the CRWU shooting.

Click here to read the full letter in the Columbus Dispatch, or click on the "Read More..." link below for an archived version.

Check your gun at the gate
07/19/03

The Minnesota legislature recently passed a law allowing most citizens to carry concealed handguns. The law made the state the latest to approve a CCW measure - a proposal which has been unsuccessfully kicked around the Ohio legislature for eight years.

Despite Minnesota's new pro-gun law, the issue appears to remain far from settled there. Last week, University of Minnesota President Robert Bruininks said he would ask the state's Board of Regents to prohibit handguns on his campus and in other venues where his school's teams are playing. Critics argue that the university can enforce its gun ban against students and employees, but not visitors to campus. They undoubtedly will test the university in court if Bruininks gets his way.

The overwhelming majority of states that have passed CCW laws have exempted universities and colleges from the places in which guns can be legally carried. That hardly seems an unreasonable limit. Universities, like day-care centers, should be able to set their own polices in regards to weapons on the premises.

OFCC PAC Commentary:
After loosing their fight against passage of a right-to-carry law in Minnesota, anti-self-defense extremists have switched to a strategy of campaigning to get as many places as possible to ban firearms from their property.

No word yet as to the willingness of the extremists to post a "gun-free" or "defenseless occupant" sign in their own front yard.

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