This is test of the BREAK

By Chad D. Baus

It has been interesting to watch the Ohio media's reaction to Attorney General Marc Dann's issuance of an opinion reiterating that a new state law does not allow journalists to copy the confidential, non-public information of concealed handgun license (CHL) -holders by any means.

Several Gannett-owned newspapers in the state, like the Mansfield News Journal and Bucyrus Telegraph Forum, didn't even bother to write their own protest and have just been reprinting the same piece ad nauseum, and the Warren Tribune-Chronicle once again repeated the false statement that Ohio CHL records are "public records" that are wrongly being treated differently than others.

Yet aside from a few angry op-eds, and other than coverage in two regional newspapers (the opinion was issued in response to an inquiry about the law from Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins), the Ohio media was almost totally silent on this important development.

In fact, it took more than a week since the ruling, but Toledo Blade Columbus Bureau Chief Jim Provance has finally helped that newspapers' readers become informed on the issue, and a quote from the executive director of the Ohio Newspaper Association may provide some insight as to why ONA members have kept so mum before now...

In a special investigative report unlike that which gun owners are used to seeing from the mainstream media, Larry Hansgen, the host of Miami Valley's Morning News on AM 1290 & 95.7FM in Dayton, recently took a SimTrainer course, and followed up with a story about concealed handgun license holders, asking... Who are they? Why do they carry a firearm? and other information that is sure to interest and inform listeners across the state.

Click 'Read More' for streaming audio links to the three-part series.