URGENT! Like your grandfather's M1 Garand or Carbine? Like carrying your favorite semi-auto shotgun into the fields on a hunt? Like admiring collector guns like the Browning Auto-5? John Kerry wants to take your guns - period.

Tell your friends who are not online. Tell your friends who only think they are members of a pro-Second Amendment group because they go to the club, or because once, years ago, they paid for a single year's dues. Time is short, and freedom hangs in the balance.

October 19, 2004
Washington Times

NRA Hopes To Counter Kerry Gun Ploy

By Brian DeBose

Sen. John Kerry has been "extremely effective" in portraying himself as a gun enthusiast and hunter in the 2004 campaign, said Kayne B. Robinson, president of the National Rifle Association, whose group is preparing a push against the Democratic candidate in the final two weeks before Election Day.

October 17, 2004
Toledo Blade

Islands of danger, safety shape map of Toledo crime statistics

The differences between Helen Weaver and Jackie Lothery are obvious.

Helen, 79, is white and lives in a mobile home in suburban Northwood. Jackie, 51, is black and resides in a 19th century, wood-frame home in Toledo's central city.

But the women do share something: the heightened prospect of being a crime victim simply because of where they live.

A Blade analysis of 2003 area crime reports shows that Mrs. Weaver's mobile home park generates one-third of Northwood's crime, forcing police to keep two cars on the road almost all the time.

Over in Mrs. Lothery's neighborhood, Toledo police are kept busy by a crime rate - 46 crimes for every 1,000 people - that is more than double the city rate of nearly 18 crimes for every 1,000 people. Break-ins, robberies, and arrests are a weekly occurrence; a few years back, Jackie had a checkbook swiped off her table when she left to visit her parents' home next door.

When she was a child, doors in the neighborhood remained unlocked most of the time. "You can't do that anymore," she said.

In Miss Lothery’s neighborhood, Lilley Baccus said she’s going to rely on something else — a gun.

“I’m at the point where the police can only do so much,” Ms. Baccus said.

When her friends, including Miss Lothery, protested that her God wouldn’t allow her to shoot someone, Ms. Baccus waved them off.

“I’ll have the Bible in one hand and a gun in the other,” Ms. Baccus said.

Click here to read the entire story in the Toledo Blade.

Commentary:
The City of Toledo has some of the most restrictive gun control laws in the state, and it shows in the headlines, and on the obituary pages.

During the years leading up to passage of House Bill 12, Mayor Jack Ford vigorously opposed concealed carry legislation. He presides over a city which bans the practice of open carry for self-defense, held up by five Supreme Court Justices as a "fundamental, individual" right". And Mayor Jack Ford cast the deciding vote for renewing a ban on inexpensive handguns, which discriminates against the less fortunate citizens of Toledo.

Mayor Ford's latest action against those who would wish to protect themselves is to dictate an illegal ban on concealed carry in city parks. Ford has not even bothered to consult with Toledo City Council. He just ordered that the signs be posted in all 144 city parks.

Despite having these rules declared "invalid" by the Ohio Attorney General, there is no doubt Chief Michael Navarre will carry out Ford's wishes and attempt to press charges on some unsuspecting individual "caught" legally carrying.

In a recent story about how carry-out owners are arming themselves after a year or more stretch of violent robberies in Toledo, "Toledo's police Chief Mike Navarre said he teaches small business owners not to have a gun."

Navarre "wants owners to comply with criminals because anytime you have more guns in a tense situation, the better the chance of people getting shot and it's just not worth it."

In a June 22 story describing Mayor Ford's "anger" after an armed robber in a local Subway store assaulted an elderly customer, and endangered her grandchild, we commented that "the next time a jogger is raped or an elderly walker mugged in a Toledo city park, we've no doubt Mayor Ford will really be 'ticked'."

We absolutely hate being right about predictions like these.

With anti-self-defense policies like Ford's, and with a police chief like Mike Navarre, words don't count for much.

Contact Toledo City Council by email, or by calling 419-245-1050.

Mayor Jack Ford can be reached by email, or by calling 419-936-2020.

Chief Mike Navarre can be reached by email, or by calling 419-245-3200.

UPDATE! OFCC Senate District 10 Coordinator Larry Moore adds the following:

"This story is about a whole lot more than just the crime map, citizens in Toledo, CCW, police response, etc.

This story just screams 'This is why we need consistent firearms and concealed carry laws across the state - just like driving laws. As an outdoorsman who travels many miles across Ohio, I sometimes end up in cities where I am as lost as a deer in the headlights. Worse yet, one wrong turn, and I just went from lost to in real trouble. Ohio CHL-holders need consistent state laws for CCW. I don't know what areas, or what parks, to avoid when I travel or if I get off my planned route. My CHL and the ability to carry across the state provide great reassurance and protection to my family."

Related Stories:
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Grandma: ''If people don't fight back, it's gonna continue''

Toledo Mayor Jack Ford will help chair DNC rules committee

Toledo bureaucrats' ''solutions'' not working to prevent terrible crimes

October 18, 2004
Albany (NY) Times Union

It was July 1998. Newspapers were full of stories about a seeming rash of shootings in schools. About 40 representatives of law enforcement, public health and other fields were summoned to Washington, D.C., to talk about ways to deal with gun violence in America.

Alan Lizotte, a University at Albany criminologist, recalls with certain satisfaction the way former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno took notes as he and his colleagues spoke.

"It was all very impressive," Lizotte said, adding that he was quickly frustrated by the discussion.

The premise of the session was not quite right, he said. Like many attempts to address the problem, it was organized after an unusual but high-profile tragedy and was the product of conventional thinking: Someone broke a law, so tougher laws are needed.

"Every time we start to do something sensible about gun control, somebody shoots John Lennon and then we legislate to that," he said.

So Lizotte and some of his colleagues offered this advice to Reno: "School shootings are not the issue. The issue is kids selling drugs on street corners in big cities."

School shootings are rare. Disarming drug dealers would save more lives than banning certain types of guns or making it harder for otherwise law-abiding people to own one, they said.

The panel identified promising strategies to reduce gun violence that appeared to be working in Buffalo, New York City and other places. The programs encourage citizens to get involved in community improvement while police step up efforts to seize illegal weapons from known criminals.

Following that strategy, Lizotte said, New York City cut homicides from 2,245 in 1990 to 598 in 2003.

"No new laws were passed," he said. "New York is the shining example that something can happen while enforcing existing laws."

Click here to read the entire story in the Times Union.

October 14, 2004
Athens News

A string of sexual assaults on campus in the last month has raised concerns over the safety of students, particularly females, on the streets after dark.

According to three separate crime reports posted in residence halls and other student areas by the Ohio University Police Department, all of the females involved in the incidents were able to flee the scenes physically unharmed. The reports recounted three incidents in which a female was accosted and fondled or harassed by one or more males.

"I don't think [the incidents] are rare or out of the ordinary," said OUPD Assistant Police Chief Mark Mathews. "When you add alcohol to a situation, these things go on." Mathews speculated that alcohol was a major factor in the crimes.

However, Mathews did note that these particular incidents were somewhat rare, because two of them occurred in high-traffic areas of campus, and all three occurred between 11 p.m. and midnight, which is relatively early for most students.

"The last couple incidents were out of the ordinary because they happened right out in the open," he said.

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On Sept. 22, a female student reported being grabbed from the side by an unknown male while walking between Ellis Hall and Alden Library on College Green. The man forced her into the loading dock of Alden Library, but she resisted and the man fled the scene.

Another incident on Sept. 28 involved a female student walking on Richland Avenue near Mulberry Street when a man approached her and put his arm around her, saying he wanted to go home with her. When she told the man to leave her alone, he reportedly fondled her breast as she struggled to walk away.

On Sept. 30, also between Ellis Hall and Alden Library, a female student reported being approached by five seemingly intoxicated males. Two of the men held her hands, while the others lifted up her skirt, shouting obscenities and cheering. She stomped one of the male's feet and was able to flee.

All of the female victims were walking alone.

Click here to read the entire story in the Athens News.

UPDATE! Click on the "Read More..." link below to read a pro-CCW letter to the editor from an OU student.

Related Story:
Ohio Democrats backing College Rapist and Carjacker Protection bills