In January, we reported on the plight of drivers for Quality Cab Co., Mansfield's only cab company. After two armed robberies in one week, the cab company considered halting services in part of the city.

Quality Cab office manager Brad Walker, 44, says "we need to protect our drivers, and it's the civic responsibility for all of us to do the right thing," Walker said.

"I don't want to go to the morgue to identify one of my drivers," he said.

Obviously, no business enjoys being forced to deny service to a segment of it's customer base, and this move would have reduced revenues for the company.

Fast-forward six months:

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Word is obviously getting out about Taft's "Car-jacker Protection" provision. This Celina parent is concerned with the potential for criminals to profile cars when children are on board.

Lima News
July 3, 2003

Is anyone else concerned that the Ohio State Highway Patrol and the Ohio Fraternal Order of Police are effectively dictating the fate of concealed-carry legislation in Ohio? This is legislation that is in effect in 44 states in one form or another, and is supported by the Buckeye State Sheriff's Association. It would allow law-abiding citizens to exercise their Second Amendment right to defend themselves and their family from the criminal elements among us.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol leadership tells us that, statistically speaking, weapons in cars makes their job more dangerous, but are unable to produce even one instance of an officer being assaulted by a permit-holder with a weapon in any of those 44 states. The FOP wants the affirmative defense clause removed from current law, which protects law-abiding citizens from being prosecuted for carrying a concealed weapon while breaking no law.

The House of Representatives passed a fairly good piece of legislation on concealed-carry reform to the Senate, but, by the time the Senate got through changing it to appease the highway patrol and FOP, it was no longer reform.

If the highway patrol and FOP get their ways, we may as well paint a target on our cars when we are transporting our children. When will these people begin to realize that it isn't the law-abiding citizen they have to worry about, it's the criminal that already breaks every law in their way? If these people are afraid of law-abiding citizens being able to defend themselves, what is their goal?

TERRY JEFFRIES
Celina

Click here to read the letter in the Lima News.

The following was submitted by an OFCC supporter:

WBNS in Columbus today is running an article about a flasher they haven't yet caught who is increasingly outgoing:

Police warn women about flasher
Members of the Columbus Police sex abuse squad are warning women about a flasher striking around town. They say the extent of his attacks and the degree of violating his victims is escalating, and women should worry about protecting themselves.

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The Columbus Police have an interesting record recently when it comes to sex offenders. For example, residents were told that the police could protect them from "The Campus Area Rapist" - and 2 more women were raped before he was apprehended.

Now they're telling women to be alert and keep their hands free.

If we had CCW, that free hand might be put to better use than what this flasher has in mind.

This article illustrates why having guns on our front car seats, as required by amended substitute H.B. 12, is a bad idea.

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More for the "What Bob Taft refuses to understand" file - this mom doesn't like the idea of having a bulls-eye painted on her car to appease the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

Columbus Dispatch
July 3, 2003

I completely concur with Dispatch Senior Editor Joe Hallett's stance on the concealed-carry issue, as stated in his June 22 column. Hallett is correct that substitute House Bill 12, as written, should die, and if it doesn't, "more Ohioans will."

However, these Ohioans will not die as a result of the permissiveness of the concealed-carry bill, but the restrictions — specifically those related to the concealing of a firearm in a vehicle.

The bill does not allow those of us with children under 18 to use a firearm for self-defense while traveling with them in our cars. How long does Hallett think it will take Ohio’s criminals to figure out that people with children in their vehicles are easy targets? After all, because most permit-holders will be law-abiding citizens, those of us traveling in cars with our children will be unarmed. This law effectively invites the criminals to prey upon us.

I hope those readers with children will get active and involved with this issue. Force Ohio’s legislators and governor to pass a bill that allows us to protect our loved ones no matter where we are. I, for one, refuse to sit back and allow a bull's eye target to be put on my car and my life and that of my children to be put in harm’s way.

ELLEN WICKHAM
Columbus

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

YOUNGSTOWN - Greg White looks at the bar graph and just shakes his head.

He is appalled at what he sees: the number of homicides in Mahoning County that involve guns, mostly in Youngstown, is staggering. That's why White, the new U.S. attorney for Ohio's Northern district, today announced a concerted effort to get guns and their users off the street.

"I have every confidence we can change this graph," he said.

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