FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

While most of Ohio’s news media have done a fair-to-admirable job covering the issue of self-defense, Cleveland’s Plain Dealer appears to have abandoned any pretext of journalistic integrity on this topic.

Consider several recent stories: A boy dies, and a gun debate is reignited (April 24, 2007), Tragedy at Virginia Tech (April 18, 2007), and Gun advocates in massacre find a call to arms (April 19, 2007).

In each case, the journalists involved ignored facts and evidence available to them and even ignored their own previous reporting, resulting in factually inaccurate and misleading stories.

We therefore issue this open challenge to the Ohio media and the Plain Dealer, which claims to be a member of your professional ranks.

Click 'Read More' for the entire press release.

By Clint Lake

In the world of infectious diseases there is a term called ‘Patient Zero’. This is essentially the first person to start the epidemic spreading to numerous points unknown. The Center For Disease Control has the job of backtracking from the most recent recipient of the disease all the way back to ‘Patient Zero’ in order to determine how the bug transported from person to person and to prevent further outbreaks in the future.

For those of us who choose to carry a concealed handgun for self-defense, I would like to coin a new term in describing the general benefit we provide to our community. We are ‘Responder Zero’.

Click 'Read More' for the entire commentary.

Buckeye Firearms Association would like to extend congratulations to David Graham, Ohio's new Division of Wildlife Chief. Mr. Graham played a key role in the recent rules change allowing CCW for hunters, and was instrumental in implementing Ohio's hugely successful Apprentice Hunting License Program.

We look forward to working with our new Chief, and wish him many more years of success.

Click 'Read More' for the ODNR press release

By Jim Irvine and Chad D. Baus

The Cleveland Plain Dealer is reporting that another innocent life has been protected thanks to Ohio's concealed handgun license law.

From the story:

Damon Wells is the man gun supporters were imagining when they fought for the right to carry concealed weapons.

He had a permit to carry his gun, and he had the gun on him when a pair of teenage thieves approached him Saturday night on his front porch in Cleveland.

When one of the youths pulled a gun, Wells drew his and shot one of the boys several times in the chest, police said. Arthur Buford, 15, died after stumbling away and collapsing on a sidewalk near East 134th Street and Kinsman Road.

Arthur Buford proved the point that age does not matter when deadly force is involved. We have seen far too many times that those under 18 are capable of committing heinous crimes. It does not matter to a crime victim, or to the family of a dead victim, how old the murderer was.

How many times have we heard, "If it saves just one life it's worth it"? Apparently, not to family members of the armed robber who suffered life ending injuries after pulling a gun on a law-abiding citizen, on the man's own front porch.

Again, from the story:

An angry throng of about 30 youths gathered Monday and set up a memorial at the intersection where Buford, a freshman at John F. Kennedy High School, died.