In the wake of yet another mass shooting in a place where guns were banned (a UAW official told the Toledo Blade today even the security guards are disarmed at the Toledo Jeep plant!), and on the heels of a growing number of victimizations that prove gun control laws are impotent at stopping criminals, gun ban extremist Toby Hoover felt the need to make a statement.

Hoover, who fronts what often appears to be a one-woman show at the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence, sent an ambulance-chasing blast email just 45 minutes after the Jeep plant rampage, citing a list of recent Ohio shootings.

Hoover ends her email by stating that "we must change the culture of fear". Ohioans For Concealed Carry couldn't agree more.

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

In the wake of the kidnapping (and eventual murder) of a Walmart employee as she walked to her car, one Texas television station is pondering how things might have been different if the victim were capable of defending herself.

Strangely, however, even in Texas, the media just can't bring itself to mention the one self-defense option that might really have made a difference.

From the story:

Surveillance video from the Wal-Mart parking lot clearly shows an attacker running at Holden from behind.

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That video has local residents wondering if Holden could have done anything to protect herself.

A local Karate instructor says every woman, and even men, should take a self-defense class.

John Liles is a sixth-degree black belt and teaches at Lubbock Karate. As the father of two daughters, he says he feels better knowing both his daughters have learned self-defense techniques.

"The techniques are so easy to apply anybody can do it," he says. "It doesn`t matter how big you are, how small you are, your strength plays no factor in it."

Liles also advises that you should walk with your car keys in your hand. That way, you can also use them as a weapon.

What the media has also reported, but failed to investigate, is why the attacker visibly targeted at least two other victims in the Wal-Mart, but then backed off:

Police: Alleged Attacker Made 'Several Other Attempts' Before Picking Out Victim

What made Johnny Lee Williams decide these two people made unattractive targets? Did they, perhaps, appear as though they might have been armed?

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Martial Arts and the Right To Keep and Bear Arms
I'm 5'2" and after taking martial arts for 3 years (after being raped, as a way of preventing it happening again) I learned that a 5'2" female martial artist is no match for a 6'2" male martial artist, and other assorted real limitations of martial arts. So I got a gun and learned to shoot and got my concealed carry permit.

Walmart kidnapping/ murder suspect apprehended, thanks to armed citizen

NewsNet5.com is reporting that a man was coming home from work at about 2 a.m. when two men approached with guns drawn.

Police told NewsNet5 the men told the alleged victim, Jeremy Schumacher, that they wanted to go shopping. The men checked Jeremy's wallet, found his girlfriend's credit cards and forced her to come outside.

The media outlet states the men allegedly took the woman, later identified as Pamela Logan, to the bank to make a withdrawal and then drove her to a Wal-Mart where they sent her inside with a shopping list.

Although the gunmen waited outside the store with Schumacher, his girlfriend told a Wal-Mart manager that she needed police.

As officers approached, NewsNet5 reports the gunmen forced Schumacher to drive away from the store and led police on a 100 mph chase along Morse Road. The chase ended in a parking lot on Belcher Drive, where the street came to an end.

"When we got here, the guy threw the gun in my lap," Schumacher was quoted as saying. The cops were all with shotguns. (The gunman) says, 'Tell the cops it's your gun.'"

The men, later identified as Stanley Carr Jr. and Hamp Allen, were taken into custody, and charged with aggravated robbery.

Commentary:
While we cannot know where Schumacher works, or what his employer's policies on firearms are, there is a lesson here for any business that affirmatively renders its employees and customers defenseless by banning firearms on company property, even in personal vehicles. Such bans not only create victim disarmament zones at the workplace, but they also create a defacto ban on self-defense while traveling to and from the place of business.

When the Ohio House of Representatives passed Sub. House Bill 12 in 2003, a specific exemption prohibited companies from telling licensed customers and employees they could not store a firearm in their own automobile on the company parking lot. This provision was stripped from the final bill by the state Senate, rendering people defenseless (even on the drive to and from work).

Even now, in Oklahoma, a group of corporations is fighting a newly-passed state law which would return the right of self-defense to customers and employees (at least in part) by exempting parking lots from places where businesses can ban firearms. How tragic.

WHIOtv.com is reporting that police officials apprehended a Cathy Sams, 39, minutes after she had robbed the "no-guns" Fifth-Third Bank on Union Road in Englewood. The FBI announced this week it is pressing federal charges against the suspected bank robber on Tuesday.

Investigators told WHIO a witness helped authorities find Sams. Peter Gilbert said he saw the car and watched the dye pack go off. He said there was red smoke pouring out of the car. Gilbert said he started to follow the suspect.

Police reported to WHIO that Sams confessed to the robbery. The FBI said Sams is also accused of robbing The Brookville Builders and Savings in December.

Prosecutors say Sams is also suspected of firing shots outside the (no-guns) Brookville High School as a diversion for the Brookville bank robbery.

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OFCC uncovers report of Fifth Third customer being robbed on exit from bank

Fifth Third: Signs not posted to keep criminals out; They want to keep YOU out