The U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance (USSA) is inviting gun owners from across the state to its biennial Ohio Legislative Reception. Second Amendment advocates are encouraged to come to meet with state lawmakers, discuss self-defense and conservation issues and more.

From the press release:

The reception will be February 22 from 6:00-8:00 p.m. at the Athletic Club of Columbus, 136 E. Broad Street. Guests should come to the second floor lounge.

Guests of honor will be Senate President Bill Harris, R-Ashland, and Speaker of the House of Representatives Jon Husted, R-Kettering. They and other Ohio legislators will be on hand to field questions and listen to opinions from their sportsmen constituents in an informal atmosphere.

The Legislative Reception is one of the most effective ways for Ohio gun owners, sportsmen and self-defense advocates to maintain their positive working relationship with elected officials. Those planning to attend should contact their legislators in advance. Let them know that you will be at the reception and you would like to meet with them to discuss issues that concern you about OhioCCW, conservation, hunting, etc.

The 2005 Legislative Reception comes at an opportune time. During the forum, pro-CCW Ohioans can discuss their concerns about a range of issues including the the vehicle carry restrictions requiring a CHL holder to carry a gun holstered in plain sight or stored in a lockable container. The law also needs to be fixed so a handgun can be carried without similar difficulties while on a bicycle, motor scooter, or motorcycle.

Another issue that has many CHL-holders concerned is how a last minute compromise allowed the release to reporters of the names and counties of residence of license holders. Several newspapers have abused this Media Access Loophole by publishing the names of all license holders’ in their region.

Creating gun-free zones at any location give criminals the information they need
to pick victims that lack the means to fight back - stacking the deck in favor
of criminals at the expense of the law-abiding. Businesses that chose to ban
concealed carry should have to shoulder the full burden of protection and
accept full liability for any attacks which occur to their employers and
customers. “No-guns” businesses should have their immunity from civil
liability removed.

In addition, businesses should not be allowed to ban concealed firearms from personal vehicles in areas designed for parking. This creates a de facto ban on self-defense for employees and customers traveling to and from these places of business.

Please take advantage of this excellent opportunity to discuss firearms-related issues that are important to you.

If you can't make it, click here to write a letter asking legislators to make OhioCCW user-friendly.

by J. Neil Schulman

The following article appeared in the January 1, 1992 Los Angeles Times.

This is the story you saw on the evening news:
At lunch hour on Wednesday, Oct. 16, George Jo Hennard of Belton, Tex. smashed his Ford pickup through the plate glass doors of Luby's cafeteria in Killeen, injuring some patrons immediately. While other patrons rushed toward the truck believing the driver was a heart-attack victim, Hennard calmly climbed out of his pickup, took out two 9-millimeter semi-automatic pistols, and started shooting people in the cafeteria's serving line.

Hennard continued shooting for 10 minutes, reloading five times. One of his pistols jammed repeatedly, causing him to discard it. There would have been plenty of opportunity for any of the cafeteria's customers or employees to return fire. None did because none of them were armed. Texas law forbids private citizens from carrying firearms out of their home or business. Luby's employee's manual forbids employees from carrying firearms.

Police officers were inside Luby's within minutes. But before they were able to corner Hennard in the cafeteria's restroom, where he turned his gun fatally on himself, Hennard had killed 15 women and 8 men, wounded 19 and caused at least five more to be injured attempting to flee.

The Killeen massacre was ready-made excitement for the media: a madman with a gun, lots of gruesome pictures. CBS News devoted an entire "48 Hours" Dan Rather report to it. Sarah Brady of Handgun Control Inc. capitalized on it in a nationally published column to call Congress cowardly for voting down more stringent gun laws the next day.

Now here's a story you probably didn't see:

Late at night on Tuesday, December 17, two men armed with recently-stolen pistols herded 20 customers and employees of a Shoney's restaurant in Anniston, Ala., into the walk-in refrigerator, and locked it. Continuing to hold the manager at gunpoint, the men began robbing the restaurant.

Then one of the robbers found a customer who had hidden under a table and pulled a gun on him. The customer, Thomas Glenn Terry, legally armed with a .45 semi-automatic pistol, fired five shots into that robber's chest and abdomen, killing him instantly.

The other robber, who was holding the manager at gunpoint, opened fire on Terry and grazed him. Terry returned fire, hitting the second robber several times and wounding him critically.

The robbery attempt was over. The Shoney's customers and employees were freed. No one else was hurt.

Because Terry was armed, and used his gun to stop two armed robbers who had taken a restaurant full of people hostage, there was no drawn-out crisis, no massacre, no victims' families for Dan Rather to interview. Consequently, the story hasn't received much coverage.

Click here to read the entire article at KeepAndBearArms.com.

According to a story in The Courier Mail of Queensland, a United Nations-sponsored survey found that "Australia has the worst prevalence of crime among 17 industrialised countries."

From the story:

Federal Government statistics show increases in crimes against people, rather than property.

"That's the basic picture in Australia at the moment – we're getting more violent," said Dr Tim Prenzler, head of the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Griffith University. "It's not a pretty picture."

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He said that, within Australia, Queensland was better than the Northern Territory but worse than Victoria.

The 2000 International Crime Victims Survey used a telephone survey to assess the prevalence and incidence of crime in industrialised countries.

About 30 per cent of Australians told researchers they had been victimised one or more times in 1999, compared with 26 per cent in England and Wales, 21 per cent in the US and 15 per cent in Japan.

England and Wales had the highest incidence of crime, the survey showed.

Property crimes such as breaking and entering and vehicle theft traditionally accounted for much of Australian crime, but that is changing.

There were 145,420 violent crimes in 1996. By 2002, the figure had grown to 198,722 – and 80 per cent were assaults.

Related Stories:
Tale of Two Countries: "Batterings more likely for Britons"; Crime falls in US

Op-Ed: Add Gun Control To Litany Of Misbegotten Gov't Plans

National Post (Canada) - More gun control isn't the answer

Gun Control Failure: British Residents Trained to Treat Gunshot Wounds

Op-Ed: Whither Gun Control?

Gun control in the postwar South

by Dave Kopel

If you believe everything that Michael Moore says in Bowling for Columbine and his books, then you would think that "pro-gun" people are white racists, and that "gun control" would be a wonderful way to help minorities. But a look at America's past reveals what historian Clayton Cramer has accurately called "The Racist Roots of Gun Control."

After the Civil War, the defeated Southern states aimed to preserve slavery in fact if not in law. The states enacted Black Codes which barred the black freedmen from exercising basic civil rights, including the right to bear arms. Mississippi's provision was typical: No freedman "shall keep or carry fire-arms of any kind, or any ammunition."

Click here to read the entire op-ed from Reason.com.