The owner of Video Reply on Robinhood Drive in Willoughby, Ohio says being made a victim by an armed robber Monday, September 27 has given him a whole new outlook on self-defense in the workplace.

Adam, a former U.S. Marine, told OFCC that although he is a long-time gun owner, he and his business partners Brian and Pam had "never felt the need to exercise our right to carry."

"That has changed now," he added.

Already this week, Adam and Brian (a reservist who will be departing to serve his country in Iraq in January) have signed up for Concealed Handgun License training, and contacted OFCC to inquire about obtaining signs stating that patronage from CHL-holders is encouraged.

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"I can't even communicate how pissed I am...at myself," Adam continued. "I'm just glad I was working that night, as Brian and Pam usually have their baby in the store with them in a crib.

"I'm sick of [seeing] those 'anti' stickers," said Adam. "We would like to be added to
any list of establishments who welcome responsible licensed concealed carry."

Let would-be criminals in Willoughby take note - there's a new sign in the window of "Video Replay"...and inside you will find any number of employees and customers who refuse to be victims.

Download the Safe Alternative sign (.pdf) and Thank You letter to share with the vast number of businesses who have refused pressure from anti-gunners to ban guns.

View the complete list of Safe Alternative Vendors, who refuse to turn their stores into criminal protection zones.

Click on the "Read More..." link below to learn about yet another robbery at a "no-guns" business.

NOTE: This op-ed was published in the National Review Online just hours before the U.S. House of Representatives voted 250-171 to overturn the gun ban in Washington, D.C.

September 29, 2004
by John R. Lott Jr.

Citizens go unarmed in D.C. while pols are free to protect themselves

It is one of the benefits of being a politician. While handguns are banned for citizens in Washington, D.C., congressmen are allowed to have a gun for self-protection on the Capitol grounds. Well-known liberal politicians such as Senators Chuck Schumer and Ted Kennedy have armed bodyguards. The wives of politicians, such as Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle's wife, Linda, also have bodyguards. Undoubtedly, these politicians and their families have extremely good reasons for this protection, but many other Americans, especially those living with the high crime rates in D.C., also feel the same way.

Later today, the U.S. House of Representatives will finally vote on whether to overturn D.C.'s handgun ban.

While these politicians have protection both in their homes and as they travel around in public, since September 24, 1976, other D.C. residents have lived under the nation's most restrictive gun laws. Police enforce a citywide handgun ban, and local statutes require residents to keep long guns disassembled, unloaded, and locked up. Yet, with a murder rate of 46 per 100,000 people in 2002, the District easily holds the title of the U.S. murder capital among cities with over 500,000 people. This was not even close to being the case prior to the ban.

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

---- Original Message -----
From: Julie S.
Sent: September 26, 2004
Subject: Woodlawn police

Late Friday (9/24/04) a Woodlawn police officer arrived at my job with a sign to ban concealed carry weapons. I walked out into the lobby as he was asking the operations manager for permission to place it on our door.

I immediately told the boss that he did not have to put the sign up. The police officer stated that "You do not want some citizen shooting 4 or 5 innocent people before shooting the bad guy." I love the assumption that a "private citizen" can''t handle a handgun, and I wonder if he believes the bad guy is just as bad of a shot?

Unfortunately after a small debate the police officer was allowed to put up his sign. After the police officer left I asked my boss why did he cave in. He told me that he wanted the police to patrol the lot a couple of times on the weekend and didn''t want a slow response time if anything did happen here. I was absolutely furious!! It is true that people believe that the police will not do their job if you do not go along with them. The police officer wasn't too bright anyway, he put the sign on the front window without finding out that we have 3 other doors and the one by the shipping department is the one that is used the most.

I came in today to find the sign taken down, but I wonder how many other businesses succumbed to Woodlawn police's scare tactics?

Julie S.
Cincinnati

This isn't the first evidence of Woodlawn officers fearing the wrong people:
Woodlawn sued for $6M
A 66-year-old man claimed in a lawsuit Wednesday that Woodlawn police beat him, sprayed him with chemical irritant and arrested him last year for parking in a fire lane.

The Associated Press is reporting that a man opened fire at an in-home day-care center Tuesday, critically wounding two people, and killing a 3-year-old.

Police are searching for the shooter, described as a black man in his 20s, about 6 feet tall, between 200 and 230 pounds, wearing dark clothing, and carrying a blue, steel semiautomatic weapon. Ploice say the man came to the door of the house on the city's northwest side, exchanged words with someone, entered and opened fire.

In addition to the shooting victims, a 7-month-old child reportedly suffered injuries after being dropped from the arms of an adult. The infant was listed in serious condition, according to Detroit's NBC4.

"It appears as though this was not random," Chief Ella Bully-Cummings told the AP.

According to the news account, the Family Independence Agency, which oversees day-care facilities in Michigan, listed the address where the shooting took place as a licensed facility serving up to 12 infants, toddlers or school-aged children.

Apparently the shooter wasn't aware that under Michigan law (MCL 28.425o(b)), firearms are prohibited at public and private day-care centers...

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

Ohioans For Concealed Carry has been contacted by multiple sources who are concerned about the actions of a northeast Ohio attorney at the Stonewall Ltd. range in Cleveland.

According to recent visitors to Stonewall, attorney Stephen Miller is distributing a "bulletin" (see image) warning Concealed align="right">Handgun License (CHL)-holders that "the law, as codified in the Ohio Revised Code, does not reflect the Act, known as HB12, that the Governor signed into law. If you carry, especially in a motor vehicle, in accordance with the law as printed in the pamphlet provided by the Attorney General, you will in all probability be comitting a felony in the fourth degree."

Miller's "bulletin" goes on to advertise a "seminar updating you on the problems you face", at a cost of $75 per person.

One Stonewall visitor and graduate of Miller's CCW course told OFCC Miller presented the "bulletin" to him after recognizing him as a former student. When Miller was pressed for details about the bulletin's contents, our source says Miller specifically referred to the existence of a provision making carrying in a motor vehicle in the presence of a minor illegal!

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

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported Saturday that long before she entered political life, the new mayor of East Cleveland, Saratha Goggins, stabbed a boyfriend to death.

Saratha Goggins told the newspaper on Thursday that she stabbed O’Neal Price, 48, to death in 1982.

Her disclosure came after the paper obtained a certified copy of a coroner’s report that says she admitted stabbing Price during a fight in the kitchen of his home on Sept. 30, 1982.

According to the Plain Dealer, Goggins would not discuss specifics but said she acted in self-defense.

Court records available for public inspection contain no mention of Goggins being prosecuted.

Goggins said in interviews she petitioned a judge to seal the records in September 1991. She recalled being convicted but said she could not remember the charge. She declined to say whether she was jailed or otherwise punished.

"It was an unfortunate incident that occurred in a time of my life," she said. "There is nothing I can do to change it."

It wasn't Kerry's fault when he fell on the ski slopes while snow boarding (he blamed the Secret Service, telling reporters "I don't fall down").

And of course now it's not Kerry's fault he led gun owners to believe he owns a (presumably fully automatic) "Communist Chinese assault rifle" as a "reminder of his service" in Vietnam.

September 27, 2004
United Press International

New York, NY, Sep. 27 (UPI) -- Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry has denied a report he owns a Chinese assault rifle, the New York Times reported Monday.

The issue came to light in October's "Outdoor Life" magazine, which features questions and answers with Kerry and President George Bush. Asked what his favorite gun was, Kerry's published response was: "My favorite gun is the M-16 that saved my life and that of my crew in Vietnam.

"I don't own one of those now, but one of my reminders of my service is a Communist Chinese assault rifle."

However, Kerry campaign spokesman Michael Meehan told the Times Kerry actually owns two guns, a double-barreled 12-gauge shotgun and the rifle, which Meehan said Kerry "keeps as a relic" and had never fired.

While the magazine claimed it had done an "exclusive interview with the two presidential candidates," Meehan said many of the remarks attributed to Kerry had in fact been written by campaign staff, who filled out the magazine's questionnaire.

----------
Newsmax.com is reporting that NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam told the Times "If Kerry brought the gun home from the war as a souvenir he could be subject to court-martial."

Related Story:
Op-Ed: John Kerry and assault weapons: Takes one to own one?

If you have not voted in the past four years, if you have moved, or if you need to register to vote for some other qualifying reason, please act quickly as you must register no later than 30 days prior to the election. From the Secretary of State's office website:

Where may I register to vote?

You may register to vote at the following locations.

September 26, 2004
Dayton Daily News

Re "Bush gun pledge just weasel words," Sept. 10: The sunset clause on the assault weapons ban was put into the legislation for the simple reason that many rightly believed there was no need for it. Now that the 10 years has elapsed, I challenge the Dayton Daily News to provide evidence that there is a need to renew it.

The editorial's hyperbole about "preventing a flood of high-powered guns into American communities" speaks to the DDN's ignorance. The ban isn't about caliber or kinetic energy, it is about cosmetics. Your typical deer or elk hunting rifle is more powerful than the class of firearms addressed in the legislation.

The DDN betrays its partisanship when it claims that there is "broad public support for the legislation." I challenge the DDN to provide evidence that there is such support. Most people don't even know the law exists unless they have been impacted by it.

Lastly, the editorial demonstrated a lack of familiarity with the law (or disingenuousness) when it claimed that the law only affects 19 specific firearms; the law also defined the prohibited class based on a combination of features, so that the true number of affected firearms is more like 10 times the number cited.

If the DDN wants to engage in Bush-bashing, it should at least get its facts right instead of parroting gun-control propaganda.

Clyde H. Spencer
Fairborn

The Cleveland Plain Dealer is reporting that a 'patient' robber has quietly been robbing banks in northeast Ohio.

The robber has hit the same Fifth-Third bank, inside a Tops supermarket, on two separate occasions within four weeks, advising tellers he has a gun.

In an August 23 robbery, the 24-year-old female teller at the Fifth Third Bank was handed a note and the robber "stared at her as if he was crazy and meant business," a police report said. According to the newspaper, the teller told police she was scared for her life.

Police say the robber is unusual because he apparently has robbed the same bank twice, does not try to hide his appearance and is cool and patient, qualities that have helped him slip in and out unnoticed.

Since posting the signs, Ohio-based Fifth-Third, which posts signs banning concealed handguns from its branches, has been robbed time and again by armed criminals. Should be any surprise that an armed robber would be at ease in a disarmed victim zone such as the people at Fifth Third have created?