A story in the Mansfield News Journal is no doubt bringing a smile to Eddie Eagle’s face today…

Hedges Elementary School fourth-graders Jackie Williams, James Wilson and Trevon Brown said they felt like "heroes of the day" Friday.

The boys were honored at school by the Mansfield Police Department and Mayor Lydia Reid for doing the right thing after finding a loaded gun in an alley while walking to school in February.

"They left it lay," Mansfield police DARE officer Jack Shay said.

The boys told Principal Andrea Moyer, then she and the boys returned together to the alley. Moyer called police.

Shay commended the boys for acting correctly when they saw the gun.

"They did all the right things," he said.

On Friday, the boys each received a certificate honoring them for their actions from Mansfield Police Chief Phil Messer. He was accompanied at the school assembly by Reid, Shay, Assistant Chief Jim Boyer and Dan Martincin, a Mansfield community policing officer.

According to the story, Williams and Wilson both said they knew not to touch the gun because they could get hurt and get in trouble.

The Eddie Eagle GunSafe® Program, created in consultation with child psychologists, teachers and law enforcement personnel, is designed for kids in pre-K through third grade and teaches four simple reactions to a gun: Stop. Don't touch. Leave the area. Tell an adult.

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The Fremont News Messenger is reporting that a Columbus man was arrested for his alleged involvement in a robbery Friday morning in which three men held up the “no-guns” Croghan Colonial Bank at gunpoint. The other two suspects are still on the loose.

From the story:

Michael Kevin Gainous, 37, was arrested after he tried to elude police in a vehicle during a pursuit just outside Fostoria. Troopers from the Fremont Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol chased two vehicles on Ohio 12 shortly after the robbery, and one of the vehicles entered Fostoria's city limits before it crashed. According to the report, Gainous then fled on foot but was quickly captured. He is being held in Lucas County.

According to a press release from the Cleveland Disivion of the FBI, three black males entered the bank at 1315 E. State St., at about 10:30 a.m. Two of the suspects were armed with pistols, but no shots were fired and no one was injured. The men left the scene in a blue Chevrolet Caprice with an undisclosed amount of cash.

Fremont police were unable to locate the remaining suspects and notified the Toledo and Sandusky offices of the FBI. The investigation was turned over to the Sandusky Branch of the FBI.

According to the story, the last bank robbery in the immediate area occurred in Old Fort at the Old Fort Banking Company in March of 2002.

Contact information for Croghan Colonial Bank and other dangerous locations is available on OFCC's Do Not Patronize While Armed database.

By Chad D. Baus

These days, there seems to be little else for the gun ban lobby to do than to attempt to create an irrational fear of law-abiding citizens who chose to bear arms for self-defense.

The latest example, by Toby Hoover, who often appears to be a one-woman show at the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence, comes in the form of a press release shouting “OHIO’S KIDS AT RISK OF BEING SHOT”! Hoover’s hope is that a single negligent discharge during a history demonstration at a school (in which no one was hurt), and an unconfirmed report of a criminal bringing a gun into a Toledo school (no criminal nor gun, nor evidence of his presence were ever found) will somehow prompt Ohioans to want to “turn them all in”, as Sen. Diane Feinstein once put it of her gun ban plans for America. As the rhetoric grows wilder, and the desperation shows through all the more clearly…

From: Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence (ocagv@yahoo.com)
Subject: rsvp and press release
Date: Thu, 26 May 2005

Press Release
May 26, 2005

OHIO’S KIDS AT RISK OF BEING SHOT

Last week, after JoinTogether.org announced that it would soon cease its practice of publishing gun violence news (without explanation), OFCC offered a few tongue-in-cheek guesses as to what the reasons could have been:

“Did JTO decide to stop publishing gun violence news because they:
A) Finally realized publishing story after story about how criminals with guns were hurting people was actually promoting gun ownership among law-abiding citizens?

B) Realized far more people die as a result of accidents by doctors in hospitals than from accidents with firearms, and needed the space on their website to start publishing “doctor safety” advice?”

C) Lost their big money grants from subversive anti-gun foundations?

The answer came in the final gun control email from “Charlie Rosenberg for Join Together”. In a May 26 email, Rosenberg stated that “late last year, the funding for our gun violence publishing ended”, and said they continued with emails “until a replacement service was available.”

After a plug for the new service, Rosenberg continued:

“Over the eight years that we have worked on this issue, gun homicide deaths have declined significantly. Join Together is proud to have been a part of this important work. We look forward to renewing our focus on alcohol and other drug problems as we continue in our efforts.”

Aside from the humorous claim that this organization, which suffered legislative losses at nearly every turn over the past 8 years, had something to do with the decline in homicide rates, it is striking to note that while they’re proud of their anti-gun work, they’re only willing to keep doing it if they get paid.

OFCC raised the ire of news editors when we published the home address of Cleveland Plain Dealer editor and open records extremist Doug Clifton on our website. If BJ Ostergren had been running the show, Clifton’s social security number would likely have also been part of the equation…

May 24, 2005
Washington Post

Betty (but call her BJ) Ostergren, a feisty 56-year-old from just north of Richmond, is driven to make important people angry. She puts their Social Security numbers on her Web site, or links to where they can be found.

It's not that she wants CIA Director Porter J. Goss, former secretary of state Colin L. Powell, or Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to be victims of identity theft, as were millions of Americans in the past year. Ostergren is on a crusade to scare and shame public officials into doing something about how easy it is to get sensitive personal data.

Data brokers such as ChoicePoint Inc. and LexisNexis Group have been attractive targets for identity thieves because they are giant buyers and sellers of personal data on millions of people.

But as federal and state lawmakers try to keep sensitive information from falling into criminal hands, they face a difficult dilemma:

The information typically originates from records gathered and stored by public agencies, available for anyone to see in courthouses and government buildings around the country.

What's more, local governments have in recent years rushed to put these records online.

A wealth of documents -- including marriage and divorce records, property deeds, and military discharge papers -- containing Social Security numbers, dates of birth and other sensitive information is accessible from any computer anywhere. Many of the online records are images of original documents, which also display people's signatures.

Ostergren began organizing citizens and complaining to officials on the issue in 2002, when a title examiner called to warn her that her county was about to put a slew of documents online, including pages with her signature.

A longtime activist in local politics, Ostergren swung into action, bringing enough pressure on Hanover County officials that they halted their plans. Then she broadened her attack, targeting other counties in Virginia and elsewhere.

Today, she is eager to guide reporters to her favorite example: the Social Security number of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), which is viewable via the Internet on a tax lien filed against him in 1980.

"Don't you think if I can get Tom DeLay's Social Security number . . . that some guy in an Internet cafe in Pakistan can, too?" she asks, her voice rising with indignation. "It's just ridiculous what we're doing in this country."

"Public records laws were designed to shed the light on government activities, not our personal information," said Kerry Smith, an attorney with Public Interest Research Groups, a coalition of state consumer advocacy organizations.

Click here to read the entire story from the Washington Post.

Click on the “Read More…” link below to read a letter sent to the Cleveland Plain Dealer in protest of the latest round of publishing of CHL-holders’ personal and private information on their website.

Comments below provided by OFCC Senate District 14 Coordinator Larry S. Moore:

May 27, 2005
New York Times

Warning: Long, pointy knives may be hazardous to your health.

The authors of an editorial in the latest issue of the British Medical Journal have called for knife reform. The editorial, "Reducing knife crime: We need to ban the sale of long, pointed kitchen knives," notes that the knives are being used to stab people as well as roasts and the odd tin of Spam.

The authors of the essay - Drs. Emma Hern, Will Glazebrook and Mike Beckett of the West Middlesex University Hospital in London - called for laws requiring knife manufacturers to redesign their wares with rounded, blunt tips.

The researchers noted that the rate of violent crime in Britain rose nearly 18 percent from 2003 to 2004, and that in the first two weeks of 2005, 15 killings and 16 nonfatal attacks involved stabbings. In an unusual move for a scholarly work, the researchers cited a January headline from The Daily Express, a London tabloid: "Britain is in the grip of knives terror - third of murder victims are now stabbed to death." Dr. Hern said that "we came up with the idea and tossed it into the pot" to get people talking about crime reduction. "Whether it's a sensible solution to this problem or not, I'm not sure."

In the United States, where people are more likely to debate gun control than knife control, partisans on both sides sounded amused. Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, asked, "Are they going to have everybody using plastic knives and forks and spoons in their own homes, like they do in airlines?"

Peter Hamm, a spokesman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, which supports gun control, joked, "Can sharp stick control be far behind?" He said people in his movement were "envious" of England for having such problems.

Click here to read the entire story from the New York Times.

Commentary:
That Peter Hamm is envious of a country whose crime rate has surpassed America's is incredibly telling. The very laws which Hamm would like to see passed in America haven't done what they claimed in Britain. As John R. Lott and Eli Lehrer pointed out in an op-ed last year, the government has reported that gun crime in England and Wales nearly doubled in the four years from 1998-99 to 2002-03. The serious violent crime rate soared by 64%, and overall violent crime by 118%. The violent crime rate in England and Wales now stands at twice the rate of that in the U.S.

May 20, 2005
MensNewsDaily.com

By John Longenecker

Violence. Conflict. As if these were useless and undesirable societal dynamics.

As a matter of fact, without them, we would be stomped by those who use coercion as an everyday tool to get their way. Perhaps that's why there's a worldwide movement to discourage resistance to issues in general. It's made its way here, and we're feeling it big time. One of the pressure tactics we're experiencing is disinformation in both facts and attitude, and this one comes from The Brady Bunch in the news again lately.

Since the attempt on the life of President Reagan, where James Brady was shot also and suffered permanent brain injury, Sarah and James Brady have devoted their lives to the elimination of handguns, and in so doing, they seek to destroy Liberty for all. Though there is a big connection between guns and liberty, there is an even more significant connection between resistance and liberty. People want to be left alone. Some cannot leave them alone.

Why?

As one example: is the Brady response a rational response in grief or injury, or it is a normal, but irrational response to grief and injury?

An irrational response can be normal.

At first.

Click here to read the entire article from MensNewsDaily.com.

The Toledo Blade is reporting that the Perrysburg Police Division is planning to reduce the number of officers it assigns to teach Drug Abuse Resistance Education in the schools, known as DARE, which has some area educators and students worried about the future of the program.

From the story:

Police Chief Richard Gilts said he decided to reassign Officer Don Humphrey to road patrol full-time. Officer Humphrey had been splitting his time between the road patrol and DARE. The change will be in effect next school year.

Officer Jeff Graham will remain as the full-time DARE teacher. He has been assigned to the program for several years, and will now handle all the teaching.

"Cutting back on the program is a real loss for the students," said Barbara Jenks, principal of St. Rose Elementary School.

Although they won't have time for this program, OFCC has learned Perrysburg police may still have time to help post "no-guns" signs to private property.

An alert OFCC supporter reported last week that a Perrysburg condo development has posted a “no guns” sign at the entrance of the development. The condo park, Callander Corner, is located just east of N. Dixie Highway off of Eckel Junction. According to this volunteer, one of the condo owners says the sign was installed by the Perrysburg police, after the neighborhood association vote to post the signs. OFCC is attempting to verify the reports.

The (Ohio University) Post Online recently reported that the Student Senate passed a resolution opposing a portion of a bill introduced by Rep. Tom Brinkman (R-Cincinnati), who is currently recently running for an open seat in the U.S. Congress, that would allow persons qualified for concealed handgun licenses to protect themselves on college campuses.

From the story:

Ohio University students might be forced to live with owners and carriers of concealed weapons -and even forced to sleep with guns in their own rooms -if a bill up in the Ohio Senate passes.

Under the Ohio House of Representatives Bill 91, universities, churches, day-care centers and homes must allow people to bring concealed weapons on their premises, currently considered a criminal act.

The bill also allows non-licensed citizens to carry handguns, provided they meet licensing qualifications. This means that even if a person is not licensed and is caught carrying a concealed weapon, it is still legal as long as they could potentially be licensed.

Student Senate passed a resolution last night opposed to this portion of the bill. It asks the Ohio house to allow universities to decide individually if they will allow concealed weapons on their campuses.

"Guns in public places, on college campuses such as academic buildings, libraries and dorms is a bad idea," said Linsey Pecikonis, senator for women's affairs.

The article reveals that many of the students are apparently unfamiliar with Ohio's concealed carry law or Federal laws regarding firearms in primary schools:

Senate staff member Bryan O'Shea said the bill still exempts elementary, middle and high schools from conceal-and-carry regulations, and asked why preschoolers and college students do not need the same protection.

He also noted the culture of drinking on college campuses and the increased danger that intoxication adds to carrying weapons.

Since he mentions it, one is led to wonder if O'Shea's Student Senate has resolved to oppose underage drinking on the Ohio University campus...

A few days after this article, an informative letter to the editor opposing the resolution appeared in the Post Online. To read the letter,click on the "Read More..." link below.