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Media continues writhing in agony over proposal to close loophole

Submitted by cbaus on Tue, 03/08/2005 - 14:37.

As reported last week, Rep. Bill Seitz (R-Cincinnati) has proposed that House Bill 9, a piece of legislation which addresses public access to government records and which is endorsed by the Ohio Newspaper Association (ONA), be amended to close the Media Access Loophole, a provision which allows the media to access lists of concealed handgun license (CHL)-holders.

Hearings are now being held in a House Committee chaired by Seitz, and to hear the screams from Ohio's media, you'd think water has been poured on the Wicked Witch.

  • Akron Beacon Journal: Conceal carriers?

  • Chillicothe Gazette: Amendments inappropriate for records bill
  • Columbus Dispatch: No concealment
  • Lancaster Eagle Gazette: Records law falling prey to politics
  • Warren Tribune Chronicle: Gun lists should be open to all
  • Willoughby News-Herald: Public needs access to gun permit list

    The main theme for these and other recent editorials (which are no doubt being directed by the ONA), is that a bill dealing with public records isn't the proper vehicle to deal with whether CHL records should be public.

    We didn't think Ohio House Bill 12, which is now our concealed handgun license law, was the vehicle for an 11th-hour debate on privacy-invasion either, but that didn't stop the ONA.

    Following are exerpts from several letters to these editors by OFCC's Ken Hanson.

      -----> [Your newspaper] is either willfully misleading their readership, or so
      hopelessly uninformed on the issues that they have no business editorializing on the subject. What vehicle would be more appropriate than a "compliance bill" to put a
      stop to the rampant abuses inflicted upon Ohio citizens by the press. What you are really saying is "How dare someone other than the media express an opinion on what should, and should not be, a public record?"

      -----> ...There have been repeated documented abuses by the media...blindly abusing this access by republishing lists of license holders in a thinly-veiled intimidation tactic, including one felonious act by an Ohio paper, wherein the home addresses of license holders were printed. Where was your call for accountability when one of your brethren violated felony law and victimized all of those people? What does the media claim anytime someone tries to take them to Court for some of that accountability they are talking about? "Freedom of the press."

    Hanson then turns his attention to the citizens of our state, and issues a call to action:

      -----> Keep in mind that Ohio media have fought mandamus actions to obtain access to names and addresses of minor children who attended public pools. Ladies and Gentlemen, it is time to stand up against the illusory "right" of the press to gain access to each and every piece of
      paper that crosses a government desk, and tell the media that you do not
      need them doing a criminal's work for them.

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

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    ''No-guns'' Sparkle Market employee beaten, robbed of night deposit

    Submitted by cbaus on Tue, 03/08/2005 - 12:37.

    Several OFCC supporters have contacted us about an assault and robbery that occurred last evening as an employee of a "no-guns" grocery walked across the street to make a deposit at a nearby bank*.

    From one OhioCCW.org news submission:

      A Sparkle Market worker in Cornersburg (Youngstown), has become the victim of his own employer's policy. At approx. 9:30 pm on Monday, March 7, a Sparkle worker was taking the day's deposit 100 yards across the store parking lot to the Farmers National* bank next door, when, from a wooded area, a masked robber attacked and beat the worker taking more than 15,000 dollars.

      Sparkle Supermarkets... [is a criminal protection zone]. It does not take a degree in criminology to deduct that the robber knew the person's routine, and cased his victim. And that he knew with very little doubt that his mark would not be armed.

    The only mention of this incident from news media online thus far is a short transcript from Youngstown's WKBN.com 11 o'clock report.

    Another OhioCCW.org news submission read as follows, and in part:

      This is the only "no guns" grocery store in my area. They are unwaivering in their position. There are two of them and I am right between them. It USED to be my default store, but not since posting. They are in a very low crime area of the city. There has been notice in the community, even discussion at our block watch meetings, of the rise in crime at both stores. This one is the most surprising as it is in arguably the lowest crime area of the city.

    Contact information for the many "no-guns" Sparkle Market locations, and other dangerous locations is available in OFCC's Do Not Patronize While Armed database.

    *NOTE: While reports have come in that certain branches of Farmers Bank are posted, multiple sources have now verified that the one originally described in this story apparently is not.

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