By Gerard Valentino

The scourge of violent crime is tearing apart our communities and often strikes in our poorest neighborhoods. Often, it is the children that bear the brunt of the violence and often live in terror because of their neighborhoods are under the control of violent gangs.

Each day countless Ohioans in such neighborhoods are victimized due to their lack of access to the best self-defense tool ever devised – the firearm. But, it isn't just gun laws that are responsible for the success criminals have enjoyed over the last 30 years.

Those among us willing to pass laws that empower thugs and murders have also used a vile smear campaign that vilified guns and scared many people aware from the best possible choice to keep them safe. False statistics and shrill cries of children being killed in epidemic numbers by gun accidents left people confused about the benefit of gun ownership. The net effect was that innocent citizens were left at the whim of armed criminals without the means to fight back.

By Jim Shepherd

Senators Jon Tester and John McCain have introduced bipartisan legislation that would repeal most gun laws in the District of Columbia. The Second Amendment Enforcement Act, would overrule the District's deliberately complicated registration requirements and would prevent enactment of regulations that prohibit the carrying of firearms in public places. It also puts the bridle on Police Chief Cathy Lanier's discretionary power to deny licenses to law-abiding citizens.

Companion legislation was introduced in the House by Representatives Travis Childers (D-MS) and Mark Souder (R-IN).

Today, Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty, Chief Lanier and the District Council continue to thumb their collective noses at the Supreme Court's Heller decision from 2008. If the District had abided by that ruling, this new legislation would have been unnecessary. Of course, expecting the District's government to do anything responsibly might be setting the bar a bit too-high.

"The city's resistance to change has been both obstructive and childish, " says Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms Chairman Alan Gottlieb, "it's time for grown-ups in Congress to stop this nonsense."

Other than his generous representation of Congress, I couldn't agree more.

By Jim Irvine

SB247, a bill which will bring Ohio's restoration of rights in line with Federal law and United States Supreme Court ruling, received its first hearing on Wednesday in the Senate Judiciary on Criminal Justice Committee. The bill's primary sponsor, Sen. Jason Wilson, testified about the need for the bill and how his bill will correct the problem affecting many Ohio gun owners. (see below for transcript)

The committee also gave SB239 (Restaurant Carry & Car Carry Rules Fix) its third hearing. Three people testified in support of the bill, including Robert Kelley and Richard Clark who did a good job explaining their reason why current law is flawed and how SB239 will solve their problems.

The third person offering testimony, Texas state legislator Suzanna Gratia Hupp, came at the invitation of Buckeye Firearms Association.

By Chad D. Baus

In 2009, Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG), the gun control front group run by billionaire New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, made news for apparently having added the names of mayors to his group without permission.

In 2010, Bloomberg hopes to make news for a different reason. According to a recent MAIG press release, the gun ban group is spending more than a quarter of a million dollars to release a series of television commercials on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News and in local markets in Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Ohio, and Virginia. The ads call on senators from those states to join a minority that wishes to ban private sales of firearms between individuals at gun shows.

Using the 11th anniversary of the infamous killing spree in the "no-guns" Columbine high school as a backdrop (and repeating the lie that requiring background checks at gun shows could have stopped that attack - it wouldn't have), Bloomberg is hoping to pressure three Democrats (Mark Udall [CO], Jim Webb and Mark Warner [VA]) and four Republicans (Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins [ME], Scott Brown [MA], and George Voinovich [OH]) to go against the will of the American people by supporting legislation that would regulate gun shows out of existence.

It seems clear that Bloomberg is desperate to pressure a vote before the 2010 elections, when many expect that voters will rid Washington D.C. of even more anti-gun legislators. (For example, here in Ohio, George Voinovich has wisely decided not to seek reelection, and staunchly pro-gun Rob Portman seeks to replace him as the Republican nominee.)

Since briefly-"Republican" Mayor Michael Bloomberg seeks to make the mythical "gun show loophole" an issue this campaign season, questions should naturally be asked of the two Republican candidates for statewide office in Ohio who have previously cast votes in support of this gun control proposal, but are now voicing support for the Second Amendment in their campaigns.

Parents Can Choose from Shotgun, Rifle and Handgun Programs

Warmer weather and more hours of daylight make spring the perfect time to introduce youngsters to the shooting sports. To help get children properly started in these safe, adult-supervised and fun activities, parents have many programs from which to choose.

Programs exist for practically every age level, allowing youngsters to find the type of target shooting that best suits their interests and abilities, whether it's shooting clay pigeons with a shotgun or silhouette targets with a rifle or falling steel plates with a handgun. Certified instructors and adult coaches ensure that youngsters understand and follow the rules of firearm safety in addition to learning marksmanship skills that will help them enjoy these sports with friends and family for years to come.

By Chad D. Baus

Do a few bad apples truly ruin the bunch? Do groups of people truly deserve to be judged by the very worst among them?

That's exactly what anti-gun extremists do when they exploit despicable acts of violence, or point to a random example of illegal firearms misuse to support their effort to ban firearms ownership and defensive use.

Recently, The Cleveland Plain Dealer published a story entitled "State numbers show majority of concealed-carry permit holders comply with gun laws."

While it is good to have that type of data made available to the public, and while The Plain Dealer article is surprisingly well-balanced examination of the issue, quotes from Ohio gun ban extremists Toby Hoover suggesting that one recent questionable act by a license-holder should be grounds for cracking down on ALL license-holders deserve attention.

By Aaron Kirkingburg

I awoke early in the morning, most of the gear already loaded in the truck. It would be an hour and a half drive down to Athens County Fish and Game where our first Appleseed experience awaited. I woke my oldest daughter, who would be with me on the firing line for the weekend. She prepared for the ride with stoic anticipation. We had only the vaguest idea what we were in for that first day, but looked forward to every minute of it, if for no other reason than this would be a weekend that father and daughter would spend together on the range.

As I drove in the pre-dawn light down the twisted curvy roads that carve their way through the Hocking Hills, my thoughts were on the rifle instruction we would receive that day, and whether my skills would be honed enough over the course of this weekend to earn the coveted "Rifleman" patch. Would my daughter enjoy herself enough that first day to willingly participate the second? I wished more of my family had been able to come along, but glad I would be sharing the time with my daughter and my cousin who was meeting us there. What will this place be like? How will the people be? Is it going to live up to my expectations?

By Gerard Valentino

As evidence supporting permissive gun laws and legal concealed carry mounts, the Ohio anti-gun movement's shrill ravings and outlandish antics are a clear indication of desperation. Recent press releases by anti-gun organizations called for closing a mythical "terrorist loophole," have labeled proponents of the Second Amendment as violent insurrectionists and promised, yet again, that the current proposed pro-gun reform will cause a return to the Wild West. Despite their zeal, the anti-gun leadership failed to offer a single piece of viable evidence that a "terrorist loophole" exists, or that all pro-gun Americans are plotting a violent revolution.

In recent months, they've trotted out nearly all of their emotion-based arguments, including the image of dead children and terrorists and criminals obtaining guns at gun shows and permissive gun laws leading to "Gunageddon."

When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment does confirm an individual right to bear arms, the anti-gun lobby immediately pointed out that it doesn't mean gun rights are absolute, and they are right. To determine how rights are regulated, however, requires some type of credible threat to public safety, or requires proof that exercising a right in a particular manner damages society as a whole.

A fact not in dispute is that over the last thirty years, while gun ownership goes up and more people are carrying guns than ever before, gun crime and gun accidents continue to drop.

Ohio hunters harvested a preliminary total of 2,874 bearded wild turkeys on the first day of the spring turkey-hunting season, which is open statewide through May 16. Last year's opening day harvest number was 1,712 turkeys, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife.

Top counties for wild turkeys killed were: Ashtabula-115, Guernsey and Meigs-94, Tuscarawas-93, Gallia-86, Harrison-83, Coshocton-82, Clermont-81, Adams-77, and Jackson-74.

The ODNR Division of Wildlife estimates that more than 70,000 people will hunt turkeys during the four-week season. Legal hunting hours are one-half hour before sunrise until noon from April 19 to May 2 2010. New this year, hunting hours May 3-16 will be a half hour before sunrise to sunset. Ohio's wild turkey population was estimated at 200,000 prior to the start of the spring season.

Overall Target Shooting Participation Reaches New High -- 34.4 Million

The first comprehensive survey to look at ownership and use of modern sporting rifles reveals that 8.9 million Americans went target shooting with AR-style rifles in 2009 and that participants using this type of rifle were the most active among all types of sport shooters.

"These findings underscore that modern sporting rifles are becoming commonplace in America and are among the most desired firearms by sport shooters," said Steve Sanetti, president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, trade association of the firearms industry. "Those who want to ban these civilian sporting rifles simply because they look like military rifles must acknowledge after seeing this study that AR-style rifles are exceedingly popular with millions of Americans. These rifles are our industry's high-tech, cutting-edge product -- rugged, accurate, versatile, fun to shoot and easily accessorized -- and they're here to stay."