As expected, Attorney General Petro's move to intervene in interve in Ohioans For Concealed Carry, Inc. v City of Clyde is bringing new attention to our suit against the city.

The Toledo Blade has published an excellent report on these developments.

From the story:

In a lawsuit that could have statewide implications for Ohioans who carry concealed weapons or for those who try to limit them in certain places, Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro has stepped into a legal fray in Clyde.

There, City Council has banned guns in parks, but proponents for concealed carry rights said the city's ordinance contradicts Ohio's one-year-old law that allows adults with permits to carry concealed firearms.

Last year, Ohioans for Concealed Carry Inc. filed suit against the city.

Mr. Petro has asked Sandusky County Common Pleas Court Judge Harry Sargeant for a summary judgment, arguing that the law should be applied uniformly, rather than being fragmented by multiple, piecemeal regulations from around the state.

Chad Baus, a spokesman for Ohioans for Concealed Carry, agreed: "It's impossible to drive from Clyde to Toledo and to Archbold or wherever and know the different municipal laws."

A ruling - expected sometime this summer - could have implications in Toledo where a local gun owner has challenged the city on its ban on guns in parks.

The Blade story notes that a ruling in the Clyde case could eventually impact the City of Toledo, and then offers this Twilight Zone explanation of officials' actions in Clyde:

Clyde Mayor Nina Pascua said the city plans to fight on, in part, because the issue is as much about the right of an elected body to represent its taxpayers as it is about guns in Clyde's parks.

Clyde residents, she said, supported the ban on firearms in parks, and council passed it 5-0.

"A lot of people say, 'Why don't they just stay out of our city? It's our city. It's our kids, our safety," she said. "The law says a park is public. It's paid for by taxpayers' money, and we're representing them."

Where did Mayor Pascua get the impression she only represents taxpayers who agree with her?

For more coverage on the latest activity in this case from the Columbus Dispatch, Sandusy Register, and Fremont News Messenger, click on the "Read More..." link below.

Throughout the day and evening yesterday, both on their news channel and website, Columbus' NBC4i promoted a story on the 11 o'clock news, entitled "Did Guns Help Improve Safety?" Recognizing that even the headline suggested potential bias (given the hysteria we all heard from the anti-gun side beforehand, shouldn't the question be "are we any less safe"?), alert OFCC supporters quickly notified us.

So that he could not later explain away the (missing) content of his story by saying he was unaware of certain facts, we sent the reporter who did the story, Mike Bowersock, a wealth of information that, based on his story promo, we believed would be helpful to him in answering his questions. Did he use any of the information? You be the judge:

Concealed Carry Law Results Questioned
More Guns May Not Mean More Safety

In 2004, about 1,900 Franklin County residents received a concealed carry permit, NBC 4's Mike Bowersock reported.

"I have a right to defend myself, my family and my loved ones," said one Central Ohio resident.

"It does give you a sense of security," said another Central Ohio resident.

Machinist Ralph Hoover, 60, received his permit last year.

"I'm going to be very careful when I pull it, but I'm not going to hesitate to use it," Hoover said.

Donna, who did not want her last name used, also received a permit.

"It gives me confidence that I know if anything happened, I had that gun, if I had to use it," Donna said.

According to the Franklin County Sheriff's Office, since the law went into effect, there has not been one measurable crime as a result of the law.

On the other hand, there has not been one measurable crime avoided because of the law.

Statistically it has made no difference, Bowersock reported.

And so we have it - the conclusion Bowersock was wanting to report, and which he built his entire story around. There is no mention of the fact that the FBI Uniform Crime Report statistics for the second half of 2004 are not even available yet, not of the fact that an analysis of the first half of 2004 shows that violent crime was down in 4 of the 5 major Ohio cities. But Bowersock can't claim he wasn't told...

Again, from the story:

Cornell McCleary, 610 WTVN talk show host, has a concealed carry permit.

While working at his private security company in March, he shot and wounded two men during a confrontation.

"I became the target of their aggression. If I didn't have my two cousins with me, Smith and Wesson, I (would have) been history," McCleary said.

Pediatric surgeon Dr. Jonathan Groner deals with young gunshot victims.

"The basic premise that society can be safer by ready access to lethal firepower is a corrupt premise," Groner said.

He opposes concealed weapons. He said eventually, an innocent victim will be killed.

"For the average citizen, it's not an enhancement to safety. Why? Everybody has a bad day. When people walk around with lethal firepower, it's just someone is going to have a bad day," Grover said.

No proof. Not even the slightest bit of anecdotal evidence for the claim. Yet this doctor is allowed by Bowersock and NBC4i to spread his false claims to the masses. Why isn't this pediatrician concerned for all of the innocent victims who were killed in the past because they have no reason to fight back? Why didn't NBC4i ask?

From the Franklin County Sheriff's office we learn a new measuring stick for evaluating concealed carry: "measurable crime avoidance". Using this test, they try to pass off store robberies in which the store owner shoots the criminal, or cases like Mr. McCleary's, because crimes were still committed against the victims.

No way to say what would have happened to Mr. McCleary had he not been able to fight back against the gang that was attacking him. No way to say how many women in Columbus, which has one of the highest rates of rape in our state, brandished their firearm to scare off a stalking predator. And thus, they get to claim that there was "not one measurable crime avoided". Right.

To read the email which was sent to Mr. Bowersock in advance of this story, which proves he had plenty of time to ask the right questions, and to avoid making misstatements such as "statistically it has made no difference", click on the "Read More..." link below.

May 1, 2005
Marion Star

Dear Editor:

Re: "'The gun demands respect,'" April 4:

I'm curious - what made Ms. Daley chose Mr. White out of the 299 people who have received licenses up to the end of last year? Would readers have been more interested, perhaps, in a woman protecting herself from an abusive former husband or a newspaper or pizza carrier who works in a job with risks rivaling that of law enforcement officers?

Also, I can't help but consider her gender as I read of her puzzlement about why CCW became law in Ohio.

Did Daley know that raw data from the Justice Department's annual National Crime Victim Survey show that when a woman resists a "stranger rape" with a gun, the probability of completion was 0.1 percent and of victim injury 0.1 percent, compared to 31 percent and 40 percent respectively, for all stranger rapes? For all rapes, woman who resisted with a gun were 2.5 times more likely to escape without injury than those who did not resist, and 4 times more likely to escape uninjured than those who resisted with any means other than a gun. (Southwick, Journal of Criminal Justice, 2000)

Did Daley know that not all women must choose to carry a concealed firearm to benefit from the reformation of Ohio's self-defense laws?

In 1966 the police in Orlando, Florida, responded to a rape epidemic by embarking on a highly publicized program to train 2,500 women in firearm use. The next year rape fell by 88 percent in Orlando (the only major city to experience a decrease that year); burglary fell by 25 percent. Not one of the 2,500 women actually ended up firing her weapon; the deterrent effect of the publicity sufficed. (Congressional Record, 90th Cong., 2d sess., January 30, 1968, p. 1496, n. 7) Five years later Orlando's rape rate was still 13 percent below the pre-program level, whereas the surrounding standard metropolitan area had suffered a 308 percent increase.

Did Daley know that there exists an organization that can help her find these sorts of facts before writing a story? Heck, we could even have found her a woman who has been raped, and who carries to make sure it never happens again so that she could have interviewed her.

There are many reasons for which we lobbied for and Ohio legislators passed House Bill 12. She may not realize it, but one of them is Jillian Daley.

Chad D. Baus
Northwest Ohio Coordinator and Spokesperson
Ohioans For Concealed Carry

The Cleveland Dealer is reporting that Ashtabula County Sheriff William Johnson will recall 23 of the 42 staff members laid off in March to increase public safety.

From the story:

That is good news to homeowners like Barb Sivko who called 9-1-1 last week and was told there were no deputies to help her fend off a gun-toting neighbor at her Twitchell Road property in the southeast corner of the county.

"They told me, Don't go home,' " Sivko said of the Saturday dispute. "They had no one available. I was screaming for help, and they said they had no one on the road."

Sivko said she drove to the Sheriff's Office in Jefferson to file a report and waited an hour before being told to mail in her complaint.

The rehirings also come after a daring escape Sunday by two federal prisoners temporarily assigned to the Ashtabula County jail. The two overpowered two corrections officers and escaped for several hours. The two were caught with the help of laid-off deputies.

Johnson said his staff is doing the best it can in wake of $1.3 million in budget cuts. Sometimes only one patrol car covers the 716 square miles of Ohio's largest county.

Only you can protect you.

Related Stories:
Budget cuts result in prisoner release; suspected in escape

Ohio sheriffs feel brunt of state funding problems

Brown Co. citizens circulating petition protesting Sheriff's dept. cuts

Underfunded Sheriffs forced to accept hand-me-downs; OSHP wins ''best-dressed"

Once again, gun control laws which were passed with claims that they would keep guns out of criminals' hands (but that in actuality succeed only in making purchases more difficult for law-abiding citizens) have been completely circumvented by people who care nothing for the law.

The Ironton Tribune reported last week that a local firearms store, C&S Guns, was robbed.

From the story:

Ironton police detective Jim Akers said authorities received a call at 1:26 a.m. that the someone had broken into the store.

"Some guy driving by saw a man walking in that area with several guns and called police," Akers said. "He broke out the door glass entered the building and then forced open another door to get inside."

Akers said possibly six handguns were taken. The suspect is described as being approximately 5 feet 10 inches tall, 140 pounds, wearing a gray sweat suit, possibly with a hood.

April 28th, 2005
The (Cleveland) Sun Messenger

As a long-time resident of South Euclid, it saddens me to see the notices posted at many South Euclid businesses that prohibit concealed firearms on their premises. It has been over one year since Ohio's state senators and congress people passed Ohio House Bill 12, which was signed into law by Governor Taft. Many people thought that with the new law, Ohio would become like the wild wild West. In the past year, however, it is very apparent that this has not happened.


My issue with South Euclid is that there seems to be far more businesses prohibiting concealed weapons than in other cities. Why is that? I have no verifiable reason for why, just some hypotheses.

South Euclid businesses need to know three things:

-The law gives businesses immunity with respect to liability when concealed firearms are allowed on premises. This can be verified with Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro.

-Criminals don''t abide by the law, by definition. Signs prohibiting concealed firearms will only deter law-abiding citizens; the signs enable opportunists to easily identify businesses that are unarmed and unprotected.

-Any person with a concealed carry license is required to go through a 12 hour training class, pass a criminal records check, and an incompetence records check. I took my training at the Cleveland Heights Police Academy, am not a criminal, or incompetent. What do business owners know about their other customers?

I urge any business that posts prohibiting concealed carry to reconsider for the safety of themselves as well as their customers.

I make a conscious effort to avoid businesses that are posted, even when I am not carrying a weapon. This is in direct conflict with my conscious effort to keep my business local. The effort to avoid posted businesses overrides the latter. I do not feel as safe in a posted business; in addition, such establishments disregard my lawful right to protect myself.

Howard Kornhauser