The Cincinnati Enquirer reported Saturday that residents will decide Tuesday about the fate of a proposed indoor shooting range on Loveland-Madeira Road.

The owners of Shooters Supply, a 16-year Loveland business, are proposing a new retail store and indoor shooting range on Loveland-Madeira.

The newspaper reports that Loveland council last year passed an amended gun law that allows the range, but opponents, who say the proposed range is too close to residences, successfully forced the issue to the Feb. 8 ballot.

Proponents have informed the Enquirer the proposed range will be built well beyond current safety standards, and will benefit the community because local police officers will practice there.

"There's definitely a market for this," Dan Lovett, a partner in Shooters Supply, was quoted as saying. "We want to stay here because we've been here for 16 years. It's going to be good for us and it's going to good for the community.''

City officials say the community will benefit because the range will provide a place for local officers to practice.

"A training facility in Loveland is a benefit for our police department," Loveland Mayor Brad Greenberg told the newspaper. "It's a legitimate business. It will attract customers who will spend money in Loveland.''

Lovitt told the Enquirer he's encouraged by the large number of people supporting the business.

"The interest crosses party lines," Lovitt said. "The people who are coming in here are more pro-business and pro-local economy than they are pro-gun. It's a pro-business decision that the whole city now has an opportunity to make."

The newspaper quotes Lovitt as saying the business likely will move from Loveland if voters overturn the amended law.

Related Story:
Plans for shooting range move ahead despite noisy minority

The Fremont News Messenger is reporting that a Columbus man was arrested Saturday night after he was accused of trying to steal merchandise and threatening store employees with a knife when they tried to stop him.

According to a report from the Fremont police which as refernece by the newspaper, about 7 p.m. Saturday, Ian Wilson, 24, of Columbus, attempted to steal two pairs of scissors, a box cutter and computer accessories from Wal-Mart, 2052 N. Ohio 53.

When employees tried to stop him, he brandished the knife, the report said. He was subdued by a patron of the store until police arrived. It was found that Wilson also had an active warrant for his arrest from Licking County.

The criminal was arrested for aggravated robbery and also on the outstanding warrant, and transported to the Sandusky County Jail.

The story does not say how a Walmart customer happened to have been able to subdue a wanted man armed with an edged weapon. What OFCC can report is that Wal-Mart stores do NOT disarm their patrons who chose to bear arms for self-defense.

Was this an example of an armed citizen preventing a crime and potentially saving lives in a business place without having to fire a shot? If the newspaper had been doing its job, we would know the answer.

February 7, 2005
Toledo Blade

I was born on a Wednesday, but not last Wednesday. I may be a little naive, but not that naive.

After reading the account of Justice Alice Resnick's run-in with the law, I cannot believe the back-tracking of Bowling Green city prosecutor Matt Reger. I ask all law-abiding citizens of Ohio: What if it had been you approached at the BP gas station and you gave your license and registration to two officers standing next to your vehicle, who happen to be explaining to you that other citizens had called in your plate number for erratic driving, and you "decided" that you'd just drive off? Do you believe they would just casually follow you down the highway?

So if I'm stopped and the officer doesn't actually say "you are under arrest," and he only "suggests" that I don't leave while he checks my driver's license and registration, and his lights and sirens are not activated as I drive off, then I'm not doing anything wrong?

I'm glad Justice Resnick didn't cause an accident or hurt someone else. What would the prosecutor offer as an excuse then?

This whole thing would make for a great skit on Saturday Night Live if it wasn't such a serious matter.

Linda James
Oregon

Justice should do the honorable thing

Ohio Supreme Court Justice Alice Robie Resnick will soon stand on the other side of the bar of justice and be punished for driving under the influence. She will lose her driving privileges, be fined, and told to go and sin no more. Case closed? Not on her life! Just ask Ray Kest if his DUI punishment was the end of his problems.

The voters and citizens of Ohio, and the rest of the world for that matter, demand that public officials - like Lot's wife, be without sin. Even more so their judges.

As a former Toledoan, I believe that Justice Resnick should do the honorable thing and resign. This act would restore a modicum of respect for her, and by extension for the judiciary. To do less would be an insult to Ohioans, who expect better of their judges.

Larry Hawkins
Seaside, Calif.

NEW: Justice Resnick pleads guilty to drunken driving
SENTENCE:
• $1,000 fine, with $500 suspended.
• Thirty-three days in jail, with 30 suspended and the option to do the three days in a certified treatment facility.
• A six-month license suspension and two years of inactive probation.
• $100 fine on a charge of failure to drive within marked lines.

Related Stories:
New video proves Resnick lied to police officers in initial stops

Resnick avoids charges of ''fleeing''; will change not-guilty plea Monday

Time and again, when told that publishing lists of gun owners (CHL-holders) would provide criminals lists of homes from which to steal guns, or would let potential attackers know who isn't able to defend themselves, the media 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".

The Fremont News Messenger (a Gannett-owned newspaper) is reporting that at least 21 homes have been burglarized since the beginning of January, by a team or teams of burglars who police say appear to be watching victims' homes, and waiting until people leave before they enter the residences.

"We're surmising there's a bit of surveillance by the burglars," Fremont Police Capt. Sam Derr said.

Derr also told the News Messenger he believes "there are probably two, maybe three groups that are working together."

Sounds like a pretty "sophisticated" bunch, doesn't it?

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