June 1, 2005
Dayton Daily News

I read with interest the community discussion, "Privacy versus the right to know," May 22. What I don't understand is why concealed carry is such a big deal in the state of Ohio. After all, Ohio is the 46th state to allow concealed carry. We do not hear this uproar over the right to know in the other 45 states.

I agree with Dayton Police Director Julian Davis, who said, "We have very little concern about people who have the permit and actually carry a weapon. It's the people who don't that we have concern about." That should sum up the issue in a nutshell.

The media are engaged in "selective journalism." Guns are used "defensively" approximately 2 million times per year, but these stories do not make the news.

A review of the top 10 newspapers reveals more verbiage given to gun crimes than defensive use of guns. In 2001, The New York Times published 104 gun crimes stories totaling 50,745 words, yet only a single story of defensive gun use, containing 163 words. USA Today printed 5,660 words on gun crimes, and not one word on defensive gun use. The Washington Post printed 46,884 words on gun crimes and only 953 words on defensive gun use.

How many words has the Dayton Daily News printed about gun crimes versus the defensive use of a gun to thwart a crime?

I believe Jeff Pedro, law enforcement officer and owner of SimTrainer, sums it up when he states, "There's not been a single newsworthy incident where a law-abiding concealed permit holder has done anything illegal by way of committing violent acts against other citizens."

Those people who choose to train, be fingerprinted and subject themselves to a background check in order to obtain a permit, have the right to privacy.

Journalists and everyday citizens do not have the right to know who these people are. Just be assured, they are law-abiding citizens who have made a choice to defend themselves and their families.

Randall W. Klotz
Germantown

FOXNews.com is reporting that more judges are carrying guns into their courtrooms, a move prompted by concerns over recent high-profile violence in court houses.

From the story:

"It sits beside me in the chair," Judge Arch McGarity of Henry County, Ga., said of his pistol.

McGarity and some of his colleagues were prompted to take action in the wake of some frightening incidents, like the assassination of Judge Roland Barnes during a March 11 courthouse shooting in Atlanta or threats caught on a police car camera just outside Kansas City.

"I know where that [expletive] judge sits or [expletive] judge in Platte City lives, and I'm going to [expletive] take him out," a man yelled to a Parkville Police officer in the tape.

With threats like those, it's no surprise McGarity wants added security. "I think it's more than just courtroom security. We have to be safe in our transfers from the courthouse to our homes, to our other things that we have to do," he said.

Although it's unclear how many judges are armed, those with guns insist it is a rising trend.

"It's always best to have something you don't need than to need something you don't have," McGarity said.

McGarity told FOXNews he keeps a pistol on him when he sits on the bench. The move is permitted by law, but the news report says at least one sheriff is crying foul.

Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill told FOXNews "if we have a situation where we don't know who has weapons, we don't know their level of training, we don't know where the weapons are being stored and suddenly we have judges and secretaries and clerks shooting — we have a nightmare."

No, Sheriff, the nightmare is another defenseless judge murdered with a deputy's stolen firearm.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer is reporting on the dangers of working in a convenience store, but has neglected any mention of how "no-guns" signs are proving to be of no help in stopping these crimes. Nor does the newspaper spend any time examining how they may be contributing to endangering these store owners by publishing their names if they chose to obtain a CHL, as Bill Singleton did.

From the story:

Fethik "Tony" Belhouane might be safer on the job if he were a police officer or firefighter. As the manager of a corner grocery, he faces danger every time the door swings open.

Usually, the feet that step onto the parquet floor in Tony's Deli belong to a child with a sweet tooth and a couple of quarters in his pocket. Or it's a neighborhood regular stopping in for a cold drink and a pack of smokes.

But all it takes is one visitor with a gun who wants something else to change the odds on whether Belhouane will return to his wife and two toddlers at the end of a long day. Belhouane learned the hard way, when he narrowly escaped the fate of two people murdered in December at his Scranton Road store.

"I'm always on guard," Belhouane said. "It's a very hard job and very dangerous."

Last week, a robbery at another West Side store named Tony's Deli ended in the fatal shooting of its owner. It was a reminder of just how dangerous the job can be.

Antonios "Tony" Elbkessini, 48, was the fourth worker or customer killed in a convenience store robbery in Cleveland in six months.

The Plain Dealer story notes that convenience store robberies are a longstanding problem in urban areas across the country, making up 6.2 percent of all robberies in 2003, the most recent FBI data show.

Of the 632 on-the-job fatalities due to homicides in 2003, more than one in 10 occurred in convenience stores or gas stations with convenience stores, according to U.S. Department of Labor statistics.

The 65 convenience store workers compared with 52 law enforcement officers who died in assaults that year.

The robberies, and murders that often accompany them, are crimes of opportunity. Of convenience.

The Plain Dealer states that many shopkeepers have learned the risk to their lives is part of the package.

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