By Chad D. Baus

On Monday, the Associated Press published an opinion piece by John McCarty entitled "PERSPECTIVE: Economy, energy trump Ohio social issues". While the original news wire contained the word "perspective" in the headline, many newspapers removed that word and instead ran the story as fact. Their motivation for wanting to report it this way can be seen after reading the first couple of paragraphs:

A year after the Legislature's ban on gay marriages and concealed weapons took effect, social issues are largely absent from the House or Senate floor and hearing rooms.

It's going to stay that way, for now at least.

Senate President Bill Harris and House Speaker Jon Husted, both Republicans, say their priorities over the next nine months are reviving Ohio's economy, creating jobs and trying to contain the price of energy, especially gasoline and natural gas.

Rep. Bill Seitz, a Cincinnati Republican who sponsored the gay marriage ban, said many of the so-called values issues have already become law and it's time to focus on pocketbook issues.

"That's not to say we're deserting those issues. What hasn't turned around to anybody's satisfaction is the economy of the state of Ohio," Seitz said Friday.

In its October 2005 issue, America's 1st Freedom magazine is reporting that Canadian MP Garry Brietkreuz has reason to believe that the country's $2 billion gun registry debacle is being used by criminals to target potential burglaries.

From the story:

"We know from reports to our office by individual firearms owners (particularly owners of registered handguns) that there may be as many as 19 suspicious thefts in the Edmonton area alone," [Brietkreuz] says. "Most of these reported thefts involved the theft of multiple handguns from each residence and were reported either to Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Edmonton Police Service, or both."

In the police reports filed by the victims, specific mention has been made about their suspicions that the thieves may be obtaining personal and private information about the types of firearms they own from the firearms registry."

Before the media access loophole was inserted into the law by Governor Taft as an 11th hour poison pill, legislators in Ohio were warned that newspapers would abuse the law and publish entire lists of concealed handgun license-holders. They were also warned that such lists could then be exploited by criminals wishing to steal firearms, and that instances of criminals targeting particular locations they know to contain specific valuables (such as firearms), and staking out or casing residences to make sure no one is home, are common and well documented. But few listened...

The Akron Beacon Journal called this warning a "flimsy presumption", and Gannett News Columbus Bureau Chief Jim Siegel said warnings about the dangers of publishing the list of CHL-holders "elevate these criminals to a level of sophistication they very likely do not possess..." At the time, even Attorney General Jim Petro called such a scenario "a stretch".

More than a year after the law was passed, however, Mr. Petro, who has done an excellent job implementing Ohio's concealed carry law, seems to have realized there are indeed instances where a person's personal, private information should be kept from the media.

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