An article in the July 28th Cincinnati Enquirer concerning gunfire in densely populated township subdivisions caught Rep. Joe Uecker by surprise. Uecker, a tireless firearm rights advocate, was originally interviewed as part of a story on the growing conflict between those who move to the country to enjoy the shooting sports as part of home ownership and township zoning regulations that allow increasingly dense housing developments.

Buckeye Firearms Association would like to reassure Buckeye state gun owners that Rep. Uecker is a strong advocate for firearm rights, and has been an important partner in each step of the process, including co-sponsoring Bills that would reform Ohio’s absurd CCW laws. In fact, Rep. Uecker spent a portion of yesterday, July 27, 2006, with Buckeye Firearms Association volunteers discussing two recent, shocking criminal convictions of otherwise law abiding gun owners in Ohio. (Check back soon for a complete story on how HB12 turns law-abiding gun owners, not license-holders but GUN OWNERS, into felons. You thought you had it bad as a license-holder!)

Not surprisingly, Rep. Uecker showed as much, or more, outrage at the convictions as the volunteers he was meeting with, and immediately discussed urgent legislative fixes to these unintended consequences.

In the midst of what seems like an increasing number of anti-gun mayors and city councils who are seeking to stamp out our gun rights, the Cincinnati Enquirer is reporting on one Ohio town that is, to the benefit of women everywhere, going in the exact opposite direction:

A rootin', tootin' affair
Legendary sharpshooter Annie Oakley may conjure up images of the Wild West, but she has Ohio roots. Born near Greenville in 1860 as Phoebe Ann Moses, she learned to shoot at the tender age of eight to keep food on the table.

In 1875 Annie beat her future husband, Frank Butler, at a shooting match in Cincinnati. Taking the stage name Oakley, possibly from the neighborhood, Annie went on to international fame performing amazing feats of marksmanship.

She returned to Greenville, where, according to some accounts, she passed away of lead poisoning from buckshot in 1926. (Frank died only 18 days later).

Greenville, a town of 13,000 where Oakley relatives still reside, celebrates its renowned citizen every year with five days of festivities held at the Darke County Fairgrounds and throughout the town, culminating this weekend.

Miss Annie Oakley was crowned on Thursday, not in a beauty contest, but following a shooting match, open to Darke County girls age 14-19. During the next year, Miss Annie Oakley will participate in parades and events, beginning Saturday.

"Some of these girls have never picked up a gun in their life," says festival coordinator Gini Stuckey. It's a fitting test to represent a woman quoted as saying, "I would like to see every woman know how to handle firearms as naturally as they know how to handle babies."

Click here to read the entire story, and to get details on this weekend's 42nd Annual festival activities at the fairgrounds in Darke County.

Published Wednesday, July 26, 2006, in National Review Online

By John R. Lott Jr.

It is tough operating a gun shop under harassment from the federal
government and unjustified media attacks. But the harassment might
soon get a little better, as today the House Judiciary Committee
starts marking up a bill by Representatives Howard Coble and Bobby
Scott to ease the burden on gun merchants.

According to Justice Department numbers, since Bill Clinton was
elected president in 1992, the number of federally licensed firearms
dealers in the United States has plummeted by 80 percent. Kmart no
longer sells guns, Wal-Mart just recently stopped selling guns at a
third of its stores, and tens of thousands of other gun shops have
gone out of business. With all the talk of the recent legislative
success by gun owners, they have been winning some battles but
possibly losing the war. Gun-control advocates may be the ones
winning where it really counts.

Part of the drop in licensees has been due to fees imposed by the
federal government. Many license recipients were in the business of
selling only a small number of guns, and the fees made that practice
unprofitable.

The constant breakdowns of the “instant” background-check system
during the Clinton administration halted guns sales for hours or even
days at a time, costing stores untold sales and raising their costs.
Even by the end of the Clinton administration, from September 1999 to
December 2000, the system was down about one hour for every 16.7
hours of operation. The breakdowns often came in big blocks of time,
the worst during a period covering 60 hours during two weeks in the
middle of May 2000. Try running a business where neither customers
nor sellers are ever informed on how long outages are expected to last.

Fortunately, the background-check problems are now fixed. And there
are no new fees. So why are gun shops still going out of business?
There were about 100,000 license holders at the end of Clinton’s last
term. By today that has been cut almost in half.

The Washington Post’s front page on Sunday illustrated the problems
with both the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives
abuses as well as the media’s out-of-control attacks...

Click here to read the entire op-ed.