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.