According to a report in the Toledo Blade, an incident the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence's Toby Hoover prematurely flaunted in a press release last week, entitled "OHIO'S KIDS AT RISK OF BEING SHOT", has turned out much differently than Hoover's initial press release would have had you believe.

The press release shouted:

"On Wednesday, Riverside Elementary school in Toledo went in to lock down after witnesses saw a man entering the building with at least two firearms. Fast action by Toledo police and the school personnel kept the children safe this time. Parents gathered outside the school panicked about their children's safety.

Everyone was concerned about the schools and the police doing their jobs, but they did them well. It's the rest of us who have to take the responsibility for the guns in our society that enable this kind of event..."

But the fact is, as she has done on other occasions, Hoover issued her press release after the first headline, and before all the facts of the case were known.

As it turns out, this incident was nothing to have been panicked about. While Hoover's press release eagerly recounted initial news reports of "a man entering the building with at least two firearms," the facts of the case, however, have now been determined to be much different than the reports Hoover tried to exploit. From the Toledo Blade:

A 15-year-old boy was arrested yesterday for the May 25 incident that caused a lockdown at Riverside Elementary School, Chicago and Chase streets, police said.

Police recovered the pellet gun the boy was carrying.

The Columbus Dispatch is reporting that the announcement of crackdown on Internet surfing of "inappropriate" websites by city employees was not much of a deterrent, at least initially. But what caught our eye in the story was what the City of Columbus deems "inappropriate":

A week after the city announced it would begin monitoring on-the-job Internet use and blocking access to certain sites, employees made more than 3,100 attempts in a single day to access banned sites, an audit revealed.

Records obtained yesterday by WBNS-TV (Channel 10) show that about one-third of those attempts were flagged because the city’s Internet-security software detected "spyware" on the sites.

In the majority of cases, however, employees simply tried to visit sites deemed "inappropriate." The records show that 451 of the attempts involved sites classified as "adult/sexually explicit." Workers tried to access "personals and dating" sites 334 times, "gambling" sites 271 times and "weapons" sites 260 times.

According to the Dispatch, the crackdown came 10 days after WBNS reported that city officials weren’t using the Surf-Control Web-monitoring and filtering system they owned even though they had spent more than $88,000 to acquire and maintain the software. Again, from the story:

The new, more-stringent policy was outlined in a three-paragraph e-mail message sent to city employees May 19 by Guy Worley, Mayor Michael B. Coleman’s chief of staff. The policy revision had been recommended by the city’s Human Resources Best Practices Committee and endorsed by the mayor, he said.

"Sites that have been deemed inappropriate include, but are not limited to, sites that contain adult/sexually explicit material, criminal activity, gambling, illegal drugs, games, personal dating services and chat rooms," Worley wrote.

So what are the websites that triggered the Internet filters to register 260 attempts to access "inappropriate" "weapons" sites in one day?

Would a city employee in charge of helping to plan for the NRA's 2007 convention in Columbus find that he is unable to access the NRA's convention websites?

Does Mayor Michael Coleman, who is a Democrat candidate for Ohio governor in 2006, really believe that the act of a city employee looking into the applications process for a concealed handgun license, so she no longer has to be concerned about being assaulted on the way to her car, deserves to be lumped in with persons attempting to access pornography or gambling websites?

Is this another example of how Mayor Coleman continues to view self-defense as "inappropriate" for the law-abiding citizens of Columbus?

A full year after OhioCCW became law and after countless thousands of CHL-holders shopped in the stores countless thousands of times without incident, United Dairy Farmers management decided to post “no-guns” signs to keep their patrons safe. Great idea - IF you're a (criminal) patron planning on staging an armed robbery, that is:

Case # 050454919 Title Robbery
Report # 050454919.1 Subject 450 – Robbery
Location 3728 Karl Rd
City Columbus Zone 1
Precinct 2 District 23
Occurred 5/30/2005 5:35:00 AM
Reported By Officer Reed Badge 2071

Report Narrative
R/P STATES ON THE ABOVE DATE AND TIME SUSPECT CAME INTO THE STORE, AND
ASKED TO CHANGE HIS CHANGE IN FOR THE PAY PHONE. SHE STATED SHE COUNTED
OUT .25 CENTS AND OPEN HER CASH REGISTER TO GIVE HIM A QUARTER. SHE
STATED HE THEN PULLED A SMALL BLACK HAND GUN AND TOLD HER TO HAND OVER
THE MONEY. THE SUSPECT TOLD THE VICTIM NOT TO PULL THE MONEY FROM THE
BAIT SIDE. SHE STATED SHE IS UNSURE HOW MUCH HE DID GET IN CASH.

Offense Description: Aggravated Robbery _ deadly weapon on or about suspect, control, display, brandish, indicate possession, or use weapon

Victims: UNITED DAIRY FARMERS, 3728 Karl Rd, Columbus, OH 43224

Is United Dairy Farmers Director of Security John W. Osborne still under the impression that “no-guns” signs can keep UDF patrons and employees safe? Can his boss still have confidence in Osborne after all the evidence to the contrary?

United Dairy Farmers
Robert Lindner Jr., President
3955 Montgomery Rd.
Cincinnati,Ohio 45212
www.udfinc.com

Phone: 1-800-833-9911
Email: consumerrelations@udfinc.com

Related Stories:
Armed robbery at UDF; robber steals beer at knifepoint

Man charged after two UDF robberies and high-speed chase

"No-guns'' UDF robberies continue

Open letter United Dairy Farmers: John Osborne “not entitled to his own facts”

Two more ''no-guns'' UDFs suffer armed robberies

Last week: Five Ohio stores in ''no-guns'' UDF chain robbed!

UDF bans CHL - Tri-state customers told to stay out when armed