By D'Arcy Egan
Cleveland Plain Dealer Outdoors Writer

The Ohio dove hunting season opens Saturday, and veteran hunters know the more the merrier.

Dove hunting on opening day is best when there are lots of hunters surround the dove fields to keep the swift-flying birds on the wing. The dove hunting fields managed by the Ohio Division of Wildlife are magnets for mourning doves and for hunters, a good combination for success.

Click here for the entire column from the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

By John R. Lott, Jr. and Maxim C. Lott
FOXNews.com

Few tragedies make their victims feel more helpless than multiple-victim shootings.

Imagine the terror: Unable to escape, simply waiting for the killer.

With school starting, the April 16 attack at Virginia Tech that left 32 dead is still on many people’s minds. Some are looking for guarantees that such an attack won’t happen again.

But Virginia Tech’s just released report on how to stop future tragedies was pretty disappointing, and this coming week’s Virginia Governor’s task force report isn’t likely to be any better. The university proposes more counseling for mentally troubled students, internet based billboards to alert students of emergencies, putting both the police and fire departments into the same building to allow better coordination, more surveillance cameras, and locks that make it easier for students to get out of buildings.

...But one glaring omission remains: The report failed to ask whether there were any common features or similarities among the different multiple-victim public shooting tragedies. And what happens if these policies fail? Should there be some ultimate protection upon which the university can rely?

...Virginia Tech has rigorously enforced its gun-free zone policy and suspended students with concealed handgun permits who have tried to bring handguns onto school property, and it will continue to do so. Imagine what this means for a faculty member fired for bringing even a permitted concealed handgun on campus. It would be impossible for them to get another academic job at any other university. Similarly, a student who gets expelled for a firearms violation will find it virtually impossible to get admitted to another school.

But whether it is the suspensions and expulsions at universities, or even the three-year prison terms that can await those who take guns onto property of K-12 schools in most states, these penalties are completely meaningless for someone intent on killing and facing multiple life sentences or death penalties.

Click here to read the entire op-ed at FOXNews.com.

Buckeye Firearm Association's web site is seeing an amazing growth in visitors and new articles are being posted several times a week.

This week's "Friday Flashback" is....

Responder Zero

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 here to read the entire article.

The Cybercast News Service is reporting that, as gun-control advocates prepared to hold a "National Day of Protest Against Gun Violence" on Tuesday, a group dedicated to correcting misconceptions in the media about social conservatism and religious faith issued a study claiming that news outlets regularly "take potshots" at rights provided by the Second Amendment.

Click 'Read More' for details.

Counterpoint, not Gunpoint.

You never know who may be hearing the liberty message for the very first time.

By John Longenecker

As always, I write for the Non-gun owner sovereign in America.

2008 Candidates, listen up – some of whom own guns or bodyguards. Or both!

If I had interested people stopping me on the street in response to my button, I'd reduce my answers to an intelligent few sentences. I could answer quite a few people this way.

Understand, also, that, in asking, many would want to learn more. I'd gladly make the time for them.

Looking at two recent polls showing popular interest in people having automatic weapons – 41% according to the CBS hit show The Power of 10, and a Zogby International Poll showing a 66% desire for no more gun laws – I'd say one thing: Americans aren't afraid of automatic weapons or even guns for that matter – they're afraid of abuses. Violent crime is an abuse and gun control is an abuse of process. Name your poison.

Click "Read More" to read the entire article.

By Chris Chumita

There are more stories pertaining to our gun rights in Ohio then we can possibly draw attention to with individual daily commentary. But they are all worthy of mention.

What follows is our review of headlines from around the state though a pro-gun rights lens.

From a recently released felon striking again to a 13 year-old being suspended for drawing a gun, these articles should be a part of your required reading!

Click "Read More..." for several days of headlines accompanied by short, concise pro-gun analysis.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer is reporting that Northeast Ohio native and former Attorney General, Jim Petro, has set his sights on becoming Ohio's next Supreme Court chief justice.

From the story:

Party leaders, including U.S. House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio, had urged Petro, a moderate Republican who made an unsuccessful bid for governor in 2006, to run next year for a seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Deborah Pryce of subur- ban Columbus.

"I have had strong experience as a manager, a lawyer and advocate in courts across the country, so I really do lean toward running for the Supreme Court in Ohio," said Petro, who also has served as state auditor.

..."I don't hesitate to tell people in the political circles that I'm interested in running for chief justice, but that's still three years away -- a lifetime," he said.

In the meantime, Petro, 58, told the newspaper he will continue doing what he is doing -- practicing law, including performing death-penalty pro bono work, and playing handyman around his Columbus home -- until he begins a campaign in earnest in 2010.

August 28, 2007
Chillicothe Gazette

By Ross Co. Sheriff Ron Nichols

It was a law that had the support of politicians and law-enforcement personnel, alike, three years ago when it was enacted. The so-called "concealed carry" law gave honest citizens the right to apply for a permit to carry a concealed weapon - legally.

The sheriff's office has issued hundreds of these permits, and we have yet to see a problem as a result of it.

The right to bear arms is guaranteed by the United States Constitution, and it's not the law-abiding citizens we worry about, anyway. It's the criminals: They're going to be armed whether there's a law or not!

Sgt. Penny Pierce is the administrator of the permit process [in Ross County], and she is assisted by Deputies Vicki Hall and Pam McMurray.

And it is quite a process.

Click here to read the entire editorial in the Chillicothe Gazette.

Reprinted by permission of the National Rifle Association.

By Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice President
National Rifle Association

“Thousands Wrongly Listed on Terror Watch List”—Newsday

“U.S. to Block Gun Buyers Tied To Terror”—New York Times

Those two headlines tell the story of deep media duplicity.

When it comes to well-placed fears over widespread errors, civil liberties abuses and injustices involving tens of thousands of innocent Americans whose names have been indelibly added to huge federal “terror watchlists,” the mainstream media is on the job, on point. Their concern is well-founded.

Yet that concern evaporates when the Washington-based media enthusiastically reports those very same lists will be used to bar suspected “terrorists” from buying guns under legislation introduced by U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ). In their coverage of S. 1237, there is never a hint about deeply flawed, inaccurate lists, about the impossibility of ever getting off those lists or about the abuses by federal bureaucrats who manage the lists.

But in truth, Lautenberg’s bill is not centered on “no fly lists,” or “terror watch lists.” It’s far worse than that. Lautenberg’s S. 1237 isn’t about just “barring gun sales to terrorists.” It is about giving a future attorney general of the United States—think, a Hillary Clinton administration—power to declare anyone to be a “prohibited person” on a par with a convicted felon or fugitive from justice, all done in total secrecy.

Click 'Read More' for the entire commentary.

NRAILA.org

A recent Zogby International poll conducted for Associated Television News found that 66% of the American voting public rejects the idea that new gun control laws are needed.

The poll asked: “Which of the following two statements regarding gun control comes closer to your own opinion?

Statement A: There needs to be new and tougher gun control legislation to help in the fight against gun crime.

Statement B: There are enough laws on the books. What is needed is better enforcement of current laws regarding gun control.”

Conversely, the poll found that just 31% of the American public thinks new and tougher gun control laws are needed, and that voters who support better enforcement of existing gun laws are found across virtually all demographic groups, and in all regions of the country.