By Chad D. Baus

On August 7, in an editorial entitled "Chose your weapon", the Cleveland Plain Dealer endorsed the need for statewide preemption of local gun control laws as provided in HB347.

From the editorial:

This page continues to look skeptically on concealed carry, but consistency in the form of statewide, uniform standards makes more sense than a confusing patchwork of local contradictions.

Less than four months later, Plain Dealer editors have reversed themselves (without noting or explaining the reversal).

By taking away local governments' ability to regulate the sale and possession of guns, the legislature tramples the principle of home rule more egregiously than ever.

The statewide preemption language passed by the legislature this week is the exact same language contained in the bill on August 7.

Throwing out the possibility that the group of people who make up the editorial board suffer from a collective form of multiple-personality disorder, there can be only two explanations for these two opposing editorials.

Either the editors wrote the August 7 piece without having read the bill (unprofessional, to say the least), or they are now allowing emotional anti-gun rhetoric to overcome rational thought (also extremely unprofessional). In either case, the reversal should have been recognized in this latest editorial, and explained.

Click here to ask Plain Dealer editors to explain their seemingly irrational behavior.

Chad D. Baus is the Northwest Ohio Chair of Buckeye Firearms Association.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported last week that the Ohio Senate Democratic caucus appointed Capri Cafaro to the 32nd District seat that was vacated by Buckeye Firearms Association-endorsee Sen. Marc Dann, who won election as Ohio's Attorney General Nov. 7.

Cafaro was endorsed by the National Rifle Association in her party primary for a U.S Congressional seat last May, but she was defeated. The NRA has given Ms. Cafaro an “A” rating in 2004 and 2006, based on the answers she provided in her NRA US House Candidate Questionnaires. However, many gun owners point out that many of the properties owned by her family are criminal protection zones, because they ban law-abiding citizens from carrying concealed handguns. Buckeye Firearms Association will set about testing Cafaro's pro-gun principles early in the next legislative session.

The Plain Dealer goes on to say that 38-year-old Jason Wilson was also appointed Tuesday to an eastern Ohio Senate seat. Wilson will fill the vacancy left open in the 30th District by his father, Charlie Wilson, who was elected to Congress. The Congressman-elect Wilson was a multiple-endorsee of this political action committee, and we are eager to confirm that he has passed on his pro-gun values to his son.