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Letter to the Editor: ''Wrong direction'' or misconception?
Submitted by cbaus on Fri, 11/26/2004 - 08:30.November 26, 2004
target="_blank">Dayton Daily News
I am really concerned about the direction the citizens of this great country of ours are going.
Consider the new Ohio law that legalizes concealed weapons. Just exactly what good has it done for the Dayton area? We read about murders and shootings nearly every day of the week. I thought this law was meant to protect people...
(Letter edited to topic)
Robert Comer
Dayton
Commentary:
Note to Mr. Comer: It is important to note that the shooters in these stories are not CHL-holders, and neither, apparently, are the victims.
Nevertheless, there is plenty of evidence from states which have had these laws for years that proves some criminals ARE deterred by a fear that their target may be armed. The question is, are you safer banking on criminals' fear that you may be armed, or on the reality that you are?
These Dayton victims chose poorly.
AGAIN: Will Cleveland Plain Dealer's third abuse be the charm?
Submitted by cbaus on Fri, 11/26/2004 - 07:57.When the CHL-records "media access loophole" was created, Bob Taft's office joined the Ohio Newspaper Association in suggesting it was necessary to ensure that licenses were not being given out to the "wrong people", thus promoting the false idea that allowing law-abiding citizens the right to bear arms for self-defense was a disaster waiting to happen.
But as OFCC pointed out at the time, the idea that we will be unable to know about crimes committed by license-holders is ludicrous.
Sec. 109.731. (D) states that "...Not later than the first day of March in each year, the commission shall submit a statistical report to the governor, the president of the senate, and the speaker of the house of representatives indicating the number of those licenses that were issued, renewed, suspended, revoked, and denied in the previous calendar year and the number of applications for those licenses for which processing was suspended...in the previous calendar year. ...The statistics and the statistical report are public records for the purpose of section 149.43 of the Revised Code."
In fact, the implementation of Ohio's concealed carry law has gone even better. Attorney General Petro's office released statistics after the first 90 days.
Other states have been providing similar statistics about their concealed carry laws for years. In nearly all states, less than 1% of licenses have to be revoked (and the vast majority of those are for reasons completely unrelated to misuse of a firearm). Certainly in the rest of the country and already in Ohio, the overwhelming evidence shows that law-abiding citizens can be trusted with carrying firearms for self-defense.
So just how long will these anti-gun forces be allowed to continue to promote a lack of trust in the ability of Ohio sheriffs to do their jobs in weeding out prohibited applicants as an excuse to violate the privacy of thousands of CHL-holders?
And why then, do Cleveland Plain Dealer editors, led by Doug Clifton, continue to operate on the premise that CHL-holders are dangerous individuals worthy of suspicion? Why have they acted, for a third time, to publish the names of law-abiding citizens?
Click on the "Read More..." link below for more.
ATM robberies show need for self-protection in Ohio
Submitted by cbaus on Fri, 11/26/2004 - 06:38.
target="_blank">Dayton man charged with robbery at ATM - Nov. 24, 2004
A Dayton man is in the Montgomery County Jail charged with aggravated robbery
stemming from his arrest Monday night by Dayton police, who said he robbed a
Miamisburg man at a National City Bank ATM at 1501 Troy St. William B. Morris,
Jr., 33, was held Tuesday in lieu of $10,000 bail. Police said an armed robber
shattered the passenger-side window of the victim&aposs green Toyota and
demanded the $40 the victim was retrieving from the ATM. The victim told
police the robber ordered him to leave the area. As the victim circled the
parking lot in his car, he saw a man get into a minivan parked nearby. The van
headed north on Troy and the victim called police, who caught up with
Morris.
target="_blank">Ashland (OH) ATM patron robbed at knifepoint - Nov. 23, 2004
A city man charged with robbing a patron at a local bank automatic teller
machine pleaded innocent Monday in Common Pleas Court to aggravated robbery. Omar K. Coleman, 27, of 1039 Arch St. waived a preliminary hearing and had his case bound over to a Dec. 14 grand jury. Coleman is accused of robbing a man
at knifepoint at the Huntington Bank branch on East Main Street and Eastern
Avenue and taking the victim's paycheck and a credit card Oct. 3. Police say
Coleman was wearing face paint at the time of the robbery.
target="_blank">Bedford (OH) man escapes car trunk unharmed after robbery at ATM - Nov. 18, 2004
A 42-year-old Bedford man was robbed of at least $1,000 near an automatic
teller machine in Maple Heights and driven about in the trunk of his car before
escaping unharmed in Shaker Heights. According to police, the robbery of the
Bedford man occurred between 12:58 a.m. and 1:38 a.m. Nov. 4 at an Ohio Savings
Bank ATM at Southgate. The man was depositing money and talking on the phone
when three people approached him and demanded money, bearing weapons. One of
the robbers snatched money from the victim's hand and ordered him to empty his
pockets of money, too. The victim complied. According to police, two men and a girl got in the car, a Nissan Maxima, and ordered the victim to drive near a
Dumpster by a bingo hall at Southgate U.S.A. When they ordered him to give up
more money, he said he had none. So they put him in the trunk and began
driving. Maple Heights police had a bead on the robbers even before the man at
the ATM was put in the trunk. As he was being robbed he was talking with a
girlfriend on a cell phone call to Florida. Police caught the robbers and two
other accomplices in Bedford. At least four of the five people also tried to
rob a Shell station on Warrensville Center Road in Maple Heights about two
hours after dropping off the man's car in Shaker Heights.
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