Cincinnati & Toledo citizens vote for more of the same

Despite years of increasing violent crime rates and a erosion of Second Amendment rights, the small percentage of voters who turned out for non-partisan mayoral primaries in Toledo and Cincinnati have voted for more of the same.

In Cincinnati, Republican Councilman Charlie Winburn's battle to reverse 30 years of a Democrat hold on the mayor's seat came up short, despite endorsements from former New York Mayor Rudy Guilinai and the local Fraternal Order of Police.

Anti-gun state Sen. Mark L. Mallory and Democrat City Councilman David Pepper were chosen among seven candidates to face each other this November.

Tattered and torn from scandal related to former Republican county chairwoman Bernadette Noe's husband, and despite a three-way split among Democratic opponents, the Lucas County GOP was unable to bring its voters out to vote for the party's only candidate, Councilman Rob Ludeman.

Former anti-gun mayor Carty Finkbeiner and current anti-gun mayor Jack Ford will face off in the November election. Initial reports said only about 14% of voters bothered to come to the polls in Toledo to vote in Tuesday's runoff.

BELLEVUE, WA – By a three-to-one margin, American citizens think border control is far more important to national security and fighting crime than gun control, a nationwide Zogby survey has revealed.

The survey, commissioned by the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), found that 70 percent of the respondents believe border control is more important, while only 23 percent favor more gun control. Seven percent of the respondents were undecided. The survey was conducted Sept. 6-7, by randomly contacting more than 1,150 households around the country. The margin of error is +/- 2.9 percent, Zogby said.

"An overwhelming majority of American citizens think it is far more important to stop the flood of illegal aliens into this country than it is to restrict the rights of law-abiding gun owners," said SAF founder Alan M. Gottlieb. "Disarming American citizens is not now, and never has been the solution to violent crime, especially when it appears that a growing number of those violent crimes are being committed by people who are in this country illegally."

According to the Zogby survey, a majority of respondents in every sub-group – including 60 percent or more in most groups – says border control is more effective than gun control. Those most likely to agree include three-fourths or more of residents of rural areas, people with annual household income of $15,000-$34,999, high school graduates, and those with some college education, and four-fifths or more of Republicans, 18-29 year-olds, and Born-again Christians, the survey revealed.

People with household income less than $15,000 (38 percent) are more likely to support gun control, the survey said. Approximately one-third of Democrats, Hispanics, single adults, and residents of large cities agree, as do 28 percent each of college graduates and residents of the West region.

"Even those in categories that lean more favorably toward gun control are in the minority, according to the results of this survey," Gottlieb noted. "The results are pretty clear. Americans believe their constitutional right to bear arms should be protected, and that illegal immigration must be controlled, not the other way around."

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