By Ken Hanson

In her recent article 'God, Guns, Gays may be a stretch for average voter', the Associated Press' Julie Carr “I don’t like guns or objective reporting” Smyth sets out to prove the case that our Gubernatorial candidates in Ohio are pandering needlessly to gun nuts and Bible thumpers. If the author’s name sounds familiar, it is because until recently she was polluting the pages of the Cleveland Plain Dealer with her hatchet jobs on gun owners.

In this article, her train of thought appears to derail shortly after the title as she unleashes a barrage of non sequiturs on her hapless readers. Please take a moment to refresh yourself with the title of the article. Sit back and enjoy the ride as we follow Ms. Smyth’s logic.

Smyth first complains that the candidates are trying to one-up each other with scriptural references, clearly pandering to the religious even though “only half of Ohioans belong to a church.” In case you missed it, the foundation of her article has been abandoned in the first paragraph.

The premise of the story is that candidates are pandering to VOTERS, not Ohioans. So what, if anything, does the percentage of Ohioans belonging to a church have to do with anything? Shouldn’t Ms. Smyth be talking about what percentage of VOTERS belong to a church?

Ohio Media Gun Story #1

On April 8, 2004, Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman staged a press conference next to a jungle gym, lamenting the fact that the city was unable to protect children by posting signs banning concealed handgun license-holders. Coleman called Ohio's concealed carry law "a travesty for our city and for our state."

On Monday, the Columbus Dispatch reported on how police have been unable to come up with an explanation for a weekend of violence that ended with five people shot, two fatally, within five hours on Saturday.

Possible explanations: drug and gang activity; a youth culture more prone to gunplay; heat inducing more tempers to flare; and concentrated poverty in the area.

What deserves to be noted (the anti-gun Dispatch fails to do so) is what is NOT being noted among the potential causes: concealed carry laws, which recognize the self-defense rights of law-abiding citizens.

Ohio Media Gun Story #2, with a surprise

In a move that is sure to draw even more attention to the inexplicable failure of Ohio Senate President Bill Harris to move HB347, the Cleveland Plain Dealer has issued an endorsement of one of the central aspects of the legisation: statewide preemption of gun laws.

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.

HB347 passed the Ohio House with a large bi-partisan majority. It has had very little opposition from from persons testifying in Senate hearings, or Ohio's establishment media. The legislation now has the support of one of the most anti-gun editorial boards in the state.

President Harris has promised action on HB347 before year-end. The question this election season remains: Why not now, Mr. Harris?

The Associated Press is reporting that U.S. Representative Bob Ney, who has been under scrutiny over gifts he was alleged to have received from a lobbyist, has decided not to seek reelection this November, and has asked state Senator Joy Padgett to run in his place.

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[On] Monday, Ohio state Sen. Joy Padgett told The Associated Press that Ney called her Saturday and asked the fellow Republican to run in his place, saying defending himself has been a strain on his family.

"It's a very sad time," Padgett said of Ney's decision, first reported by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on its Web site.

Ney told her "just that there's only so much he can take. He said, 'I have to do this,'" Padgett said.

Padgett, from Coshocton, said she would run for Ney's seat in the 18th district, a conservative, 16-county region of farms, working and abandoned mines, Appalachian hills and Rust Belt cities.

Joy Padgett, a two-time Buckeye Firearms Association endorsee who ran for lieutenant governor this spring on a ticket with Attorney General Jim Petro, has been a strong friend to gun owners in the Ohio Senate. Although we are excited about the prospect of having another strong pro-gun legislator in Congress, should she win, the firearms movement in Ohio will miss the strong leadership Joy Padgett has exhibited in the Ohio Senate.