In the wake of a January 20 FOXNews report that Michael Moore's bodyguard had been arrested in at JFK airport on a gun charge, and following aggressive attempts at silencing follow-up reports on the subject from the security company, Ohioans For Concealed Carry Senate District 10 Coordinator Larry S. Moore (no relation to Michael, and we suspect he's thankful for that) decided to look into the company itself.

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What he found may give pause to suggestions in some circles that the bodyguard is deserving of pity at being caught up in NYC's complicated and rights-infringing gun control laws. And it definitely provides insight as to how a company that makes its money employing "men with guns" won a contract with Michael Moore.

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

Ohioans For Concealed Carry has learned that a Franklin Co. Deputy accused of aiming a gun at a Columbus cabbie and saying "I’ll shoot you dead" last May is finally going to face a jury.

When Columbus police stopped Brinkley’s car, they did not file any charges. Instead, they told the victim that he could pursue charges through the city prosecutor’s office.

When news of the incident became public, Sgt. Brent Mull told the Columbus Dispatch "that’s standard" when the offense is a misdemeanor and the police officers did not witness the incident.

But in the same article, the victim questioned whether Columbus police avoided charging Brinkley because she’s a Franklin County deputy sheriff.

"If I pulled a gun on someone, I’d be sitting in jail right now," he told the newspaper. "At the time this happened, I thought I was going to be shot to death."

And so, after a 9 month delay that has allowed a person with outstanding aggravated menacing charges to remain on the street with a gun, Deputy Tressa Brinkley's trial has been scheduled for March 7, 2005.

Ohio CHL-holders may be interested to know that if they were accused under similar misdemeanor charges of violence, Ohio law (Sec. 2923.128. (A)(3)) requires that their license to carry a concealed handgun be suspended until they are exonerated.

OFCC will continue to follow this case, and bring updates to you as warranted.

The Lima News has published an excellent editorial examining the expansive growth of violent crime in countries where guns are banned. It starts like this:

A Gun Lesson From Britain

All too often, government officials believe the cure for a failing policy is more of the same. That’s the case with a near-total ban in firearms in Great Britain. Gun control activists and politicians in the United States often point to Britain and Australia as models of “reasonable” gun control. We’ll follow their lead and use England as an example.

Since a ban on all handguns, most rifles and many shotguns went into effect in 1997, violent crime has risen 69 percent, with murders going up 54 percent. That bucks the trend of previous years, when the rate of violent crime was falling, according to economist John Lott of the American Enterprise Institute.

Is it a coincidence that the sudden increase in violent crime followed the ban? Perhaps; there’s no hard data yet to be able to make a causal connection. But is it also a coincidence that the same phenomenon has been noticed in Australia and New Zealand after those countries enacted strict gun control laws that left law-abiding citizens unarmed and at the mercy of armed criminals? That’s a major drawback to gun-control laws — only law-abiding citizens follow them. Criminals aren’t going to turn in their firearms just because the government says to.

Nor, or course, will criminals refrain from bringing guns into the Lima News' offices just because the company posts signs banning concealed carry.

FLASHBACK: Say it Ain't So! Lima News, longtime proponent of CCW, posts No-Guns signs

Does the phrase "what's good for the goose" mean anything to this newspaper? Or perhaps "practice what you preach"?

The person responsible for posting these signs is publisher Stephen C. Johnson. Mr. Johnson can be reached at 419-993-2073 or sjohnson@limanews.com.