By Jim Irvine

On December 2, I attended an anti-gun advocacy lecture where Boston Mayor Thomas Menino joined Cleveland city council members and others to convince uneducated citizens that they need more gun control. They assert that making the current actions of law-abiding gun owners criminal would somehow aid them in catching real criminals.

Every person on the panel spoke of “illegal guns” and the need to get them off the street. Lori O’Neill of “Citizens for Safety” (who after Ohio's concealed handgun law was passed started a business to profit on fear - fear of law-abiding citizens which she had worked to generate) finally defined an illegal gun as being one that is in possession of a person who could not legally own the gun. It was refreshing to know that these “illegal guns” could be completely “rehabilitated” simply by placing them back in the hands of law-abiding citizens.

Curiously not one person talked about the illegal actions of individuals with guns. They repeatedly asked, “Where did the gun come from?” Of course the real question is “Where did the criminal come from?” Remember that this lecture was not about crime, it was about guns – your guns.

COLUMBUS, OH - Ohio hunters took 116,798 white-tailed deer during the state's popular, weeklong deer-gun season, which ran December 1 through 7, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife. In 2007, hunters killed a preliminary total of 103,195 deer during the same time period.

A total of 178,838 deer have been harvested so far this season when combining the adult and youth gun seasons, early muzzleloader season, and the first six weeks of the archery season. That compares to a total of 167,965 killed last year during the same time period. Hunters took a total of 232,854 deer during all of last year's hunting seasons.

The statewide deer population was estimated to be 700,000 in late September, prior to the start of the hunting season. Approximately 400,000 hunters were expected to participate in the statewide deer-gun season.

Hunters still have a weekend of deer-gun hunting, December 20-21, and nine weeks of archery hunting in Ohio. Archery season remains open until February 1. The statewide muzzleloader deer-hunting season will be held December 27-30.