And yet Senators Voinovich and DeWine voted with these dishonest, misleading gun ban extremists to renew the 1992 Clinton Gun Ban...

Foxnews.com
March 3, 2004

Last week’s release of police documents and evidence on the April, 1999, Columbine school shootings has sparked many questions — not only on the specifics of Columbine but also on the general issue of guns.

The answers are unsatisfying on all counts.

Take, for example, the issue of how many children die each year in gun-related incidents. That question has been prompted not just by the new Columbine evidence, but by the impending Million Mom March on Washington, D.C., planned for Mother’s Day.

The first anti-gun MMM in 2000 attempted to redirect the focus of Mother’s Day from flowers and card giving to the gun deaths of children. The 2004 event continues this focus as its press release reminds us, "[W]ith memories of the horrible events at Columbine High School … people gathered [in 2000] on the Mall in Washington, D.C., to demand saner gun policies." The release quotes Mary Leigh Blek, the "president emeritus" of MMM, as saying that almost 14,000 children "have died from gun violence" since "our last march."

Where does that figure come from?

To begin with, Blek is probably referring to the 2000 MMM event. (In 2001, only about 100 people participated and the event is now virtually ignored.) This means she is stating that almost 14,000 children died from gun violence between 2000 and 2004. The figure is almost certainly an extrapolation from prior data.

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

So how again are Ohio's draconian gun control laws, which serve only to limit the rights of law-abiding citizens, supposed to be helping take guns off the streets? And what did the 1992 Clinton assault weapons ban (which received renewal 'yes' votes from Senators Voinovich and DeWine this week) do to stop this 80 round magazine from being sold in Cincinnati? NOTHING. Absolutely nothing.

February 28, 2004
Cincinnati Enquirer

Undercover team tracks gun sales

WEST END - Undercover Cincinnati police officers bought 10 guns from a man over the last several months in their newest attempt to get weapons off the city's streets.

For years, officers have posed as drug buyers to arrest drug dealers. But going undercover to buy weapons from street-level gun dealers is a new approach for Cincinnati police, officials said Friday.

Officers said Michael Wright, 28, of Morrow, would walk up to almost anyone in the Avondale White Castle parking lot and ask if they wanted to buy a gun. Sometimes, officers said, he traded a gun for marijuana.

Officers with Cincinnati's Project Disarm arrested Wright on Thursday night. He faces federal charges including selling weapons without a license. He remains jailed in Hamilton County.

In four months, officers said they bought 10 guns from Wright, including three Russian SKS assault rifles, one with an 80-round magazine; a 12-gauge shotgun and six pistols. The investigation started with a tip.

"I can say with confidence that he was very active,'' Sgt. Jeff Hunt said.

Some officers didn't think Chief Tom Streicher would let them work undercover to buy guns because of the potential risk involved.

But Streicher said using the undercover approach is important.

"There's a risk in operating this way, with these reverse purchases,'' Streicher said. "But sometimes we need to use unconventional methods - trading drugs for weapons is unconventional. It's worth the risk to us.''

Gun confiscations jumped 30 percent in 2003 compared with 2002. And officers arrested 471 people on gun charges, a 13 percent increase over 2002.

Pity the poor woman in Bucyrus who attempts to ward off a violent attacker with a rolled-up newspaper or shoe instead of a .38 or .45. But that's the advice they got at this so-called self-defense seminar...

March 1, 2004
Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum

Classes on women's issues conducted

Dee Marquart wasn't afraid to fight with a Bucyrus police officer, and neither was a police officer's wife, Joan Wolfe.

Both women were eager to take on officer Tom Walker, but in self-defense.

A self-defense class for women was one of the breakout sessions held as part of the Affair of The Heart, a Ladies' Life and Leisure Retreat, held Saturday at Holy Trinity Catholic School.

Marquart, who works at First School in Richland County, and Wolfe, who works for the county and is married to one of Walker's bosses, Capt. Dale Wolfe, were only a few of the women glad to show off their self-defense skills.

"I have to know this in my job," Marquart said. This was Marquart's third year at the event and said she learns something new every year. "I've learned a lot about my own health and how to deal with people close to you with problems."

The course was conducted by Doug Benavides, owner of Tiger Paw, a marital arts school with locations in Lexington and Shelby.

Benavides, a drug and alcohol counselor at Abraxas in Shelby, provided the women with several techniques, some untraditional, to warding off a would-be attacker.

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A little over one year ago, several OFCC members formed the OFCC Political Action Committee (www.buckeyefirearms.org). Time was critical - there were only 60 days before the November 2002 elections. We told potential supporters that the time was ripe to make a difference, and to reinforce the General Assembly and Supreme Court with candidates who supported your right to self-defense.

In the weeks that followed, we were attacked by another Ohio "pro-gun" political action committee. We were accused of sending a "sleazy attack" letter about them months before we even existed. We were called "anti-gun" because we supported passage of HB274. We were ridiculed for our endorsement of Lt. Gov. Maureen O'Connor for Ohio Supreme Court. They said we were "total amateurs who have no idea what they are doing".

We stood firm on our endorsement, and with your support, Maureen O'Connor was elected as a Justice. The OFCC PAC was soon proven to have been 100% correct. In 2003, Justice O'Connor authored the blistering dissent to the Ohio Supreme Court's majority opinion, which found Ohio's ban on concealed carry to be constitutional. Our other 2002 endorsee, Justice Evelyn Stratton, joined in the dissent. On the legislative side, Senator Lynn Wachtmann has credited the OFCC PAC with being the key difference in the narrow victory of another Senator that year, who provided several crucial pro-concealed carry votes for HB12 in preparation for its passage.

In the 2004 Ohio primaries, and thanks to your votes and support, the OFCC PAC can once again be credited with making the difference in a KEY Ohio Senate race, one which we believe will improve the face of the Ohio Senate for some time to come, with regard to your self-defense rights.

Rep. Jean Schmidt won the Republican nomination for Senator in District 14 (replacing term-limited Sen. Pres. Doug White) on Tuesday by 62 votes, out of 33,760 votes cast!

UPDATED FINAL COUNT: Rep. Niehaus nips Rep. Schmidt by 22 votes for White’s Senate seat

As we indicated in our endorsement of Rep. Schmidt on December 22, this was a race in which the conventional wisdom would have suggested an issue-based advocacy group should have chosen not to get involved. We did not follow conventional wisdom, and thanks to your votes, the candidate who we believe has proven herself most ready to be a true fighter for our self-defense-rights in the Ohio Senate, has won an extremely close primary race in this conservative Republican district, and will face a Democrat challenger in this fall's elections.

Click on the "Read More..." link below for more on the 2004 primary elections.