The Ohio Attorney General's office has released data on the second three months of concealed handgun license issuance (July - Sept 2004).

---->Concealed Carry Licensure Statistics Report - 3rd Qtr 2004 (.pdf)

OFCC's overall assessment:

Issuance:
In the first 180 days under the new law, 38,434 standard licenses, and 42 temporary emergency licenses were issued to Ohio residents.

No matter what the program, summer months (which encompassed this entire Q3 report) are always slower months. When released, it is highly likely the quarter four report will show the typical Fall increase. Thousands more applications are now being processed, and thousands more future applicants are now in training. Nevertheless, as they did after the first three months' numbers were released, gun ban extremists and the liberal media are expected to claim that the 38,500 licenses issued are "proof" that demand for the new law is low.

In truth, this latest round of issuances have reinforced the fact that this is one of the most successful pieces of consumer legislation in state history. Nearly 40,000 Ohioans have taken advantage of it in the first six months!

There were higher expectations for 2004 applications, based upon patterns established after other states like Michigan passed their laws. But it is important to remember that no other state passed laws with some of the egregious restrictions that Ohioans must deal with.

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As OFCC has been reporting since the day the law took effect, restrictive appointment schedules, misapplication of the law, the unlawful addition of provisions by a few sheriffs not required by the General Assembly, and blatant obstinance on the part of sheriffs in a few of Ohio's most populous counties, have significantly reduced the number of applications able to be processed in the first 90 days.

The map at right depicts areas where county sheriffs are doing their jobs extremely well, and also depicts high population centers that where few applicants (per capita) are able to be processed. It is these counties which continue to skew Ohio's totals.

A few examples from around the state will reveal the impact of problem sheriffs:

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

This wasn't supposed to happen.

Time and again, when told that publishing lists of gun owners (CHL-holders) would provide criminals lists of homes from which to steal guns, the media (led in many ways by Cleveland Plain Dealer editor Doug Clifton) responded by saying that criminals just weren't smart enough to utilize the newspaper to premeditate their crimes or select their targets.

The Akron Beacon Journal has called it a "flimsy presumption", and Gannett News Columbus Bureau Chief Jim Siegel said warnings about the dangers of publishing the list of CHL-holders "elevate these criminals to a level of sophistication they very likely do not possess..." Even Attorney General Jim Petro called such a scenario "a stretch".

Right...

On Christmas Eve, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that a man was robbed by criminals who responded to his advertisement in the newspaper.

According to the story, Kevin Lambeth ran an advertisement in The Plain Dealer and was swamped with calls. One man offered $500 if Lambeth delivered the Xbox to the East Side.

"It was more than I expected," Lambeth was quoted as saying. "I figured this was my chance to get everything my family wanted. I started feeling the Christmas spirit again."

The story continues:

Lambeth drove across town Wednesday to the Lee-Miles neighborhood to meet the buyer and another man.

The men didn't pull out money. One pulled out a 9 mm Beretta handgun.

Lambeth gave up the Xbox.

Cleveland police officers are investigating the robbery.

Perhaps it is this last line in the Plain Dealer story that is the most damning to the media's claims:

Lambeth knows the robbers read the paper because that's where they found the ad.

Editor Doug Clifton's newspaper has published the names of thousands of concealed handgun license-holders who have broken no laws, violated no other persons' rights, and who simply wish to exercise their constitutional right to self-defense.

Before it was passed, Ohioans For Concealed Carry gave legislators plenty of reasons why Bob Taft's media access loophole was dangerous.

Chiefly, we told them that criminals ARE smart enough to use the newspaper or other records placed in the public domain to pre-plan their crimes.

We told them about actress Rebecca Shaefer, who was stalked and murdered in the early 90's by Robert John Bardo because driver's license information was easily obtained for a small fee. This prompted federal legislation making the dissemination of such information illegal.

We told them that instances of criminals targeting particular locations they know to contain specific valuables (such as firearms), and staking out or casing residences to make sure no one is home, are common and well documented.

There are many other reasons why abuse of the media access loophole will NEVER become a non-issue.

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

The Akron Beacon Journal is reporting that a Family Dollar discount store was robbed Thursday night after a man posing as a customer said he had a gun and demanded cash, police said.

The holdup occurred at the Family Dollar store in the Wooster-Hawkins Shopping Plaza in West Akron. A clerk reported that a man entered shortly after 9:30 p.m. and approached the counter as if he were going to buy a soda pop.

Once the register was open, the man said he had a gun and ordered the clerk to put money in a plastic bag. Police said the robber fled with about $1,400.

Some Family Dollar stores in Ohio post "no-guns" signs at entrances.

Family Dollar can be contacted at its corporate offices as follows:

Post Office Box 1017
Charlotte, North Carolina 28201-1017
Telephone (704)847-6961

Click here to send an electronic message.

Related Story:
Despite history of violent robberies, some Family Dollars still posted

December 27, 2004
Cincinnati Enquirer

In regard to the "Your voice" column "Let's make peace one of our 'values,'" (Dec. 20):

The Brady organization is probably the most untruthful anti-gun outfit extant. According to the U.S. government and the National Safety Council (which, by the way, closely monitors such things and keeps records), the rate of accidental deaths among children under 14 is the lowest since they started keeping records - in 1934. For its numbers, Brady includes as children people up to age 24. That way gang-related killings, etc, can be used in its figures. Very deceptive.

Secondly, the assault weapons ban did virtually nothing to curb crime. Such weapons are used in less than 1 percent of violent crime.

As for a "constitutional right," if you value one right, intellectual honesty and common sense dictate that you must revere all rights equally.

David Waits
Eastgate

Other examples of how real life proves gun ban extremists wrong could also be found in the headlines this week:

From the "criminals don't bother to get licenses to CCW" file:
Traffic dispute leads to gunshots at plow
and
Akron man charged in gunfire incident

From the "when attacked in your car, just drive away" file:
23-year-old man slain in Cleveland

From the "more guns = more suicide" file":
Bridge over parkland is scene of 6 suicides in 2004

From the "guns promote violence" file:
Seven stabbed at 2 year-old's birthday party

Related Story:
New reality for nay-sayers: Their predictions will not come to pass; ours will

December 24, 2004
Columbus Dispatch

According to The Dispatch, motor vehicles kill more law-enforcement officers than guns (Dispatch article, Dec. 12).

According to recent testimony by Columbus Police Lt. Stephen Schwab at a Columbus City Council hearing, the 9 mm handgun is the preferred weapon of criminals in Columbus.

So what type of gun does Columbus City Councilman Michael Mentel want to ban? The so-called assault weapon, which already is illegal to own without federal permission and background checks. Actually, Mentel wants to ban inexpensive, semiautomatic rifles that almost anyone can afford to purchase for home defense.

Fewer than 0.01 percent of the more than 2,000 firearms in the police property room are semiautomatic rifles. The Columbus police can’t tell us if these were used in a crime or just turned in because the owner didn’t want them anymore.

Instead of putting more cops on the street, instead of raising the penalty for drunken driving and instead of stopping the drug trade and gang violence, Mentel wants to curb our freedoms by banning a type of firearm used in 0.01 percent of crime.

In his misguided zeal, Mentel should realize that gun bans by Columbus City Council have already cost our city almost $300 million in lost revenue since the first assault weapon ban passed in 1989 and forced the Ohio Gun Collectors Association to move to Cleveland.

Add another $8 million if Mentel gets his way with another ban and the National Rifle Association takes its yearly convention to another city in 2007. Besides the tax revenue generated from the $308 million, this money would have been spent at hotels, restaurants, gas stations, cabs, the City Center mall, Arena District and the Short North shopping district.

In his fervor to ban guns, Mentel is continuing to do irreparable harm to the economy, well-being and safety of Columbus.

Lyman Duncan Jr.
Columbus