The Hannah Report is covering news that the Ohio Republican Party released the results of its recent straw poll for the 2008 presidential primary showing the pro-gun former
U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson leading the anti-gun former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

The Toledo Blade is reporting that the Ohio Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case involving the city of Clyde's ordinance prohibiting the carrying of firearms in public parks.

The Blade's headline, "Clyde wins bid to hear appeal of city gun law", appears meant to convey that Clyde is somehow "winning" something, but the story clearly shows that Ohioans for Concealed Carry (OFCC) Inc. was the group that wanted the case to be heard, had planned the case all along to get the preemption argument up to the Ohio Supreme Court, and determined that this was the best vehicle for getting it there quickly.

From the story:

The Toledo-based 6th District Court of Appeals, in overturning a Sandusky County Common Pleas Court decision, had ruled that the ordinance conflicted with Ohio's concealed-carry laws. Parks are not on the state's list of public and private places where guns are off-limits, and House Bill 347, which passed in December, expressly forbids cities from enforcing gun laws deemed stricter than state and federal law.

Ohioans for Concealed Carry Inc. successfully challenged the ordinance. The group took the unusual stance of supporting an appeal of a case it won.

"We feel absolutely that the Supreme Court should hear the case," said Jeff Garvis, founder of the organization. "This would solve the issue of statewide preemption and would directly impact the city of Cleveland's lawsuit."

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....

Self Defense Against Rogue Statistics

by Dean Rieck

Mark Twain is often quoted as saying, “There are three types of lies - lies, damn lies, and statistics.” That’s another way of saying that while statistics are useful, they can be slippery. Much of the problem with statistics is ignorance about how they are created and what they mean. However, many people, including some anti-gun zealots, purposely misuse statistics, especially polls and surveys, to deceive the public.

Unfortunately, people in the media are equally ignorant about numbers, so they are just as easily deceived and become accomplices in the deception. It works like this: An anti-gun group runs across a statistic that appears to support their cause. They don’t check the veracity of the statistic. They just write a quick news release and rush it to their media contacts.

A busy editor receives the news release, decides to run with it, and hands it to a staff reporter to write up a story. The reporter, who is overworked and underpaid and is likely to be at least a little sympathetic to gun control, doesn’t question the statistic because it just seems to make sense. Plus, since the anti-gun group has a name such as “Americans for Gun Safety” or “American Hunters and Shooters Association,” the reporter doesn’t question their motives because it appears that the group is genuinely concerned about safety, as opposed to the NRA or Buckeye Firearms Association who are openly (and honestly) partisan.

So the statistic gets reported. The public gets deceived. And the truth gets buried under one more shovel full of anti-gun B.S.

So what can you do? The best form of self-defense against deception is knowledge. We’ve discussed how the anti-gun groups funnel their slippery statistics to the media. Now let’s look at how the statistics get mangled in the first place.

Click here to read the entire article.

By Chad D. Baus

The Youngstown Vindicator is reporting that Trumbull County prosecutor Dennis Watkins has instructed the sheriff not to allow journalists to copy the confidential records of concealed handgun llicense (CHL) holders, and has asked Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann to clarify how information about those who have licenses can be released under an amendment to Ohio's concealed carry law media access loophole.

Click 'Read More' for the full story.

Buckeye Firearms Association Chairman Jim Irvine was interviewed by FOX News for a story about Mayor Frank Jackson's proposal for a new state gun control law.

The segment aired several times on Tuesday, September 25th in various forms. The comprehensive version aired during the 6:00p.m. evening news hour with Brit Hume.

Click here to view the FOX News story online.

On Wednesday, September 26th, Jim was a guest on "Call the Cops" with host John Ligato. They discussed Cleveland's crime problems and the laws relating to firearms, and the attention Hi-Point firearms has received including a recent Plain Dealer article .

The show starts after the news in the 9:00 hour and runs till 10:00 and is broadcast on WHKW AM 1220 in Cleveland and simulcast on WHKZ AM 1440 in Warren Ohio.

By Chad D. Baus

As I was preparing to put Buckeye Firearms Association's latest set of campaign finance report figures on this website, I was reminded of a figure who has been appearing frequently in news stories about 'Castle Doctrine' legislation - someone I haven't much cared to spend time on in the past year or so because, frankly, she hasn't much mattered.

That someone is Toby Hoover, who heads what University of Toledo professor Brian Patrick memorably referred to at the NRA's 2005 Annual Meeting and Convention as a “coalition of two” (the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence, or OCAGV).

Hoover never releases reports like ours, because she has cloaked the OCAGV behind a declaration of being a tax-exempt, not-for-profit charity, or as the IRS refers to it, a 501(c)(3).

As I revealed in August of 2005 ("Exposed: Pulling back the curtain on the gun grabbers' Wizard of Toledo"), Hoover can't hide everything about where her anti-gun funding comes from. OCAGV is required to turn in an IRS Form 990 each year, which becomes a public record.

It was not yet available to me when I published that first analysis of the sources of her anti-gun funding, but Hoover had already filed the Form 990 for OCAGV's second full year of operation (2004). So imagine my curiosity when I discovered that she had filed an Amended 2004 form soon after the cat was out of the bag - after it was revealed that someone was watching - and that she filed a second Amended 2004 return several months later.

The Washington Times is reporting that Chris Cox, Executive Director of The National Rifle Association's Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA), says the group is considering stepping into the presidential campaign fray early next year during the primary season.

This would mark a significant shift from years past - the NRA-ILA did not endorse President Bush in 2000 and 2004 until just a month before the general election.

Click 'Read More' for the full story.

By Chad D. Baus

Gun owners have a general mistrust for the mainstream media, and rightly so. Over the years, having witnessed examples of poor and/or biased journalism ranging from images of fully-automatic rifles being fired during a story about the Clinton assault weapons ban (which had nothing to do with full-autos) to editorializing about gun legislation they later admit to not even having read. An even more direct journalistic attack on Ohio's gun owners came in for form of a few anti-gun editors who chose to publish the confidential [see ORC § 2923.129 (B)(1)] information of persons who have committed what these journalists apparently view as the "crime" of exercising their right to bear arms for self-defense by obtaining an Ohio concealed handgun license.

The list of grievances Ohio gun owners have against the mainstream media is long indeed. However, if, in the context of discussing these many biased journalistic attacks on the Second Amendment, The Lima News is raised in conversation among Ohio's grassroots gun owners, the comments will generally turn positive.

Click 'Read More' for the entire commentary.

On Friday, we reported that GOP presidential wanna-be Rudy Guiliani would be seeking support from the NRA, a group he once likened to 'extremists', at the group's “A Celebration of American Values” candidate forum in Washington D.C..

As a follow-up to that meeting, MSNBC is reporting that Giuliani's attempts to distract pro-gun voters from his anti-gun record with a few pro-gun election year pick-up lines fell on largely deaf ears.

Most members of the gun lobby who attended Friday’s “A Celebration of American Values” conference said they were encouraged by Giuliani’s appearance and what he said about support for gun rights. But most also said they were concerned about his track record supporting gun control as mayor of New York City, and favored other candidates in the Republican presidential primary.

Bob Bell, a salesman from Clarkesville, MD, said he respected Giuliani’s leadership during the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, but preferred Thompson, a longtime supporter of Second Amendment rights. Bell said Giuliani’s mayoral record -- including his advocacy for the assault weapons ban and lawsuits against gun manufacturers -- weighed heavy on him. “He was a mayor of New York City, and try and get a gun permit up there,” he said.

The mainstream media is running wild with the latest anti-gun "report", this time purported to have been completed by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP).

But as firearms law expert David Hardy reports on his website, Armsandthelaw.com, there is far more than meets the eye when it comes to measuring the report's objectivity.

Click 'Read More' for the entire story.