March 23, 2005
National Review Online

By John R. Lott Jr.

The last ten days have seen three horrific multiple-victim public shootings: the Atlanta courthouse attack that left four murdered; the Wisconsin church shooting, where seven were murdered, and Monday's high-school shooting in Minnesota, where nine were murdered. What can be learned from these attacks? Some take the attacks as confirmation that guns should be completely banned from even courthouses, let alone schools and churches.

The following are exerpts from Lott's excellent op-ed, which can be found in its entirety here.

Despite an overwhelming public vote last month approving plans to open an indoor target range, the Cincinnati Enquirer is reporting that Shooter's Supply's effort to open an indoor target range on Loveland-Madeira Road will land in a Hamilton County courtroom Thursday. This time, the issue is zoning.

From the story:

Landeira LLC, the developer that wants to turn the former site of Matthew: 25 Ministries into a range for the Shooter's Supply shop, filed suit last week after the city denied its application for a zoning permit.
The company contends that the range fits in with zoning there. But city officials say Landeira is required to seek a variance through the board of zoning appeals because the range would be 200 feet from a residential district. An apartment complex is directly across the street.

"What they are saying is that this is allowed by right. They don't have to use an appeals process," city manager Fred Enderle said Monday. "It takes all the mystery out of it in terms of having to worry about whether the (board) will grant a variance or not."

Attorney William Gustavson, who represents Landeira and Shooter's Supply co-owners Marvin Mann and Dan Lovett, said he's merely asking the city to enforce its own zoning code.

"There's no restriction they can impose on us," Gustavson said. "The Loveland zoning code says commercial recreation is a permitted use unless it's within 200 feet of an R-District. If you look at the zoning map, there's no R-District within 200 feet, just a special planning district."

According to the story, Gustavson will ask Common Pleas Judge Pat Dinkelacker Thursday to force Loveland to issue the zoning permit.

The target range became an emotional issue almost as soon as it was proposed, pitting residents who expressed concern for their safety and the city's image against gun owners and police officers who liked the idea of having a range close by for training.

Opponents of the range placed a referendum on the February ballot, and lost decisively - the referendum passed 1,267 to 824 (61%-39%).

The latest development has Mann wondering what more could happen to hold up the project.
"Every time we clear some hurdle, here comes another one," he told the newspaper.

Ever since election day, the media have been wringing their hands over failing to understand how much cultural values mattered to voters. Among the most polarizing issues--gun ownership. Media tend to stereotype sportsmen, collectors and hobbyists as raging gun nuts, and gun owners tend to see media conspiracies to repeal the Second Amendment right to bear arms. "On The Media's" John Solomon went out in the field--literally--to find some common ground.

Click here to listen to this very fair and tolerant analysis of media treatment of gun owners.

Click here to read the transcript.

March 22, 2005
Cleveland Plain Dealer

By Philip Morris

Lil' Ray, we are often warned, should be considered armed and dangerous. Dizzy, we're told, is known to shoot first and ask questions later.

Sometimes they just shoot because "they crazy like that" and the spinning rims on your late-model used car happen to catch their eye.

It's nothing personal.

They should be avoided, of course. But the question is, how? How do you avoid these thugs if they choose to live, hang out or sell crack in your neighborhood? How do you ask the local thug to lower the volume on his car stereo, because your third-grader can't sleep on a school night?

Or, perhaps most important, how do you take proactive steps to protect yourself or your family when you are suddenly and aggressively sized up as possible prey? How do you not become a passive victim?

Since the passing of Ohio's concealed-carry law, tens of thousands of Ohioans have applied for and received permits to carry concealed weapons in public. Fear of victimization undoubtedly drives many of our law-abiding neighbors to secretly carry weapons in public. They want a fighting chance, and I have no problem with that. It can be defended as rational. The following questions, however, continue to trouble me:

Exactly what is a proper response to irrational and criminal provocation if you yourself are an ex-offender? How do you protect what is important, when your past criminal conduct prevents you from possessing a firearm, even though you are rehabilitated, employed and serving as a deacon in your church?

How do you increase your odds of survival in a high-crime area without an equalizer?

Click here to read the entire op-ed in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.