Worst case scenario: They are intentionally lying, and hoping you don't know the difference

It has been widely reported that the killer in the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut last year was a semi-automatic AR-15 stolen from its rightful owner. In fact, it was for precisely that reason that President Obama said that gun control will be a "central issue" of his last four years in office.

But on Thursday, reports began circulating that at a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee fundraiser in San Francisco on Wednesday, Obama claimed that the AR-15 used in the Connecticut crime was a fully-automatic firearm. At first, we wondered if the reports were accurate, or whether the president might have had a slip of the tongue.

by Chad D. Baus

As we reported in February, Shelby Co. Sheriff John Lenhart's office has implemented a concealed carry/ firearms training course for school administrators and select teachers.

WDTN (NBC Dayton) is reporting on a range session that was recently conducted as a part of this important training:

by Chad D. Baus

If there was any doubt left for Ohioans that the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) is an anti-gun rights, anti-Second Amendment organization that cares more about protecting the jobs of its members than it does the very safety of our school children, it should be removed after they hear news that the FOP is pushing to strip the right of Boards of Education to arm staff to protect students.

From Gongwer News Service, in an article about House Bill 8, a place-holder bill that will eventually be amended to contain language intended to enhance school safety in the wake of the latest mass murder in a "no-guns" zone:

Mike Weinman, director of government affairs for the FOP of Ohio, said he is concerned the aim of the bill is to further arm teachers and school staff.

"That's one thing that we feel should be left up to school resource officers or those police officers trained able to confront an armed individual," he said. "It's really a safety issue. Even some of the most experienced, best-trained officers don't hit the target under stress as often as they should, so you can just image what would happen in a school setting with inexperienced, undertrained teachers or janitors or whoever."

The FOP also wants the existing language that allows boards to "willy-nilly allow somebody to carry a gun" changed, adding he expects there could be liability issues for boards.

"When that was originally put into law, it was one of those unforeseen consequences of something that the firearms lobby was asking for because they were complaining about people going to pick up their kids," he said. "They're concealed carry permit holders and they can't go pick up their kids because now they're not authorized. So that was kind of like a compromise, I guess.

"Now it's being used to arm teachers and janitors and lunch ladies.... If you're going to work security in school, you have to meet certain criteria, but if you're just armed in a school you don't have to."

[UPDATE: Weinman is just plain wrong about the genesis of allowing armed teachers into school. This section of law was not added in response to the firearms lobby to help people who wanted to pick up/drop off kids at school. That problem was addressed in SB184, Ohio's Castle Doctrine law. The language addressing giving boards of education the ability to authorize concealed carry in the school was in the original concealed carry law (HB12, passed in 2004), when CHLs were still forbidden from picking up or dropping off kids. In fact, the whole Ohio school safety zone law didn't exist until HB12, and that provision of HB12 was written by anti-gun forces in the Senate (among them the FOP).]

The facts about these school and church massacres are simple. FOP members don't make it to the scene until the shooting is done. That's because, according to extensive research by law enforcement consultant-trainer Ron Borsch, on average, it takes six minutes for officers to respond, and the average mass killing lasts...you guessed it - six minutes. Many boards of education want to reduce that the killing time on what Borsch calls the "Stop Watch of Death," so that a trained, armed staffer can respond and stop the killing while it still in progress.

But that doesn't seem to matter to Mike Weinman, who appears more concerned about preserving the helpless dependence of citizens on his officers than he does the safety of school children. Think that statement is over the top? Consider this:

by Larry S. Moore

OGCA check presentation - From left to right: Larry Moore, BFA;
Robert Ray Preston, OGCA First Vice President; Joe Eaton, BFA;
Fred L. Kolb, OGCA BoD; and Charles D. Rush, OGCA Second
Vice President

The momentum behind the Buckeye Firearms Foundation's efforts to train our teachers to respond to school violence continues to grow. The program received a major boost when the Ohio Gun Collectors Association (OGCA) Board of Directors stepped up with a very significant contribution to the effort. But the organization wasn't done yet. The OGCA Civil Rights Defense Fund, which is a separate 501(c)3 entity, Board of Directors also approved another contribution to the Armed Teacher Training Program. The OGCA Civil Rights Defense Fund was established in 1995 to fill a niche within Ohio for the education and defense of firearms rights.

Buckeye Firearms Association leaders Larry Moore and Joe Eaton attended the recent OGCA meeting and show to receive the checks. Meeting with the various OGCA Board Members was an absolutely wonderful conversation about the importance of taking bold steps in these times to protect our children. We know that no gun signs and other current methods are not working to protect our most precious ones. While law makers threaten to reduce our rights to the whims of favors from politicians and the President calls for action while emotions are high, the OGCA Directors applauded and encouraged the steps Buckeye Firearms Foundation is taking to address the real world problems we face. The OGCA expressed how thankful they are for the training and what the Foundation is doing.

Everyone at Buckeye Firearms Foundation and Buckeye Firearms Association are very grateful, excited and humbled by the donation from the OGCA. It is exciting to note that so many are overwhelmingly supportive of the efforts to train teachers to respond to active shooter threats. When this support is coupled with the over 1400 school personnel statewide who have responded to be part of the program, we know that we have hit on the right track. Of course we knew a nerve was hit on that fateful night when Buckeye Firearms Association legal chair Ken Hanson made the announcement in Columbus during a Town Hall meeting and anti-gun activist Toby Hoover gasped for air!

by Chad D. Baus

The Middletown Journal is reporting that Ohio schools are analyzing the results of a recently-released $1 million, 225-page study on school safety funded by the NRA.

From the article:

Schools should train selected staff members to carry weapons and should each have at least one armed security officer to make students safer and allow a quicker response to an attack, the director of a National Rifle Association-sponsored study said Tuesday.

Republican former Rep. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas made the remarks as a task force he headed released its report, which included a 40- to 60-hour training program for school staff members who are qualified and can pass background checks.

Local school officials said they are still analyzing the NRA's recommendations, but most said they were concentrating on making school entrances and procedures more secure and working with local law enforcement on ways to boost security.

The No. 1 cause of death for African-American men between the ages of 15 and 34: being murdered with a gun.

by Juan Williams

This week much of the talk about gun control concerns New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's $12 million ad campaign to put pressure on senators in key states to support legislation that he backs. Or the talk is about the National Rifle Association's pushback against the Bloomberg campaign. Then there was last week's mini-tempest over Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's decision not to include Sen. Dianne Feinstein's assault-weapon ban in a comprehensive gun-control bill the Senate will take up next month.

One thing you don't hear much about in the discussions of guns: race. That is an astonishing omission, because race ought to be an inescapable part of the debate. Gun-related violence and murders are concentrated among blacks and Latinos in big cities. Murders with guns are the No. 1 cause of death for African-American men between the ages of 15 and 34. But talking about race in the context of guns would also mean taking on a subject that can't be addressed by passing a law: the family-breakdown issues that lead too many minority children to find social status and power in guns.

The statistics are staggering. In 2009, for example, the Centers for Disease Control reported that 54% of all murders committed, overwhelmingly with guns, are murders of black people. Black people are about 13% of the population.

The Justice Department reports that between 1980 and 2008, "blacks were six times more likely than whites to be homicide victims and seven times more likely than whites to commit homicide."

The dire implications of these numbers is evident in a Children's Defense Fund report that included a chilling historical perspective: The 44,038 black children killed by guns since 1979 (when national data on the age of gun violence victims was first collected) is "nearly 13 times more" than all the black people killed by lynching in the 86-year period of 1882 to 1968.

...I support gun control. But speaking honestly about the combustible mix of race and guns may be more important to stopping the slaughter in minority communities than any new gun-control laws.

Click here to read the entire article in The Wall Street Journal.

by Jim Irvine

The training class that Buckeye Firearms Foundation proposed at a town hall meeting following the mass murder of teachers and school children in Newtown, Connecticut, has been completed. The class of 24 teachers, administrators, and school employees attended a three day class at Tactical Defense Institute (TDI) in Adams County, Ohio on March 25-27. The weather was cold and at times difficult, but the teachers-turned-students all showed up ready and eager to learn.

Instructors work with students on shooting while moving

The class started with a lecture from John Benner. He explained what we have learned from studying past events, complete with statistics, and addressed the mental preparation needed to end an event. Then students were instructed in proper stance, grip, and trigger management and practiced dry firing with roped guns. The class moved to a range where they continued to work on shooting fundamentals as they practiced live fire drills.

Afternoon training consisted of more work on the fundamentals and added drawing from a holster and from concealment. By the end of the day the newer shooters were all shooting well, and the long-time shooters had shrunk their groupings or increased the speed at which they could reliably make follow-up shots. Several experienced shooters commented that they had learned more about shooting on that first day than the rest of their life combined. Knowing TDI's instructors, that is likely an accurate assessment.

Day Two started with more shooting. Students worked on reloading magazines and refinement of the skills they learned on Day One. They were introduced to shooting while moving and moving past and around people while keeping their gun pointed in a safe direction.

[Last] week, Vice-President Joe Biden, and House Minority Leader, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), showed us--once again--how thorough their contempt is for our Constitutionally guaranteed Second Amendment rights.

According to a Washington Times article, on a Wednesday conference call organized by "Mayors Against Illegal Guns," Biden referred to current anti-gun legislation and told his anti-gun supporters, "Let me say this as clearly as I can: this is just the beginning."

As the article notes, recent surveys show increasing opposition to stricter gun control measures. But this fact matters not to Biden; nor to Pelosi, who also voiced a determination to continue pushing for gun bans, no matter what the American public says.

"I've been to a number of states since this Congress has gone in and many parts of different states and the public is so far ahead of the Congress on this subject. I believe whatever passes in the Congress now will not be the end of the day for this issue."

by Chad D. Baus

As a candidate for the U.S. Senate, Republican Rob Portman was unabashed in his support for the Second Amendment. In September 2010 his campaign released a flyer which pointed out his strong history of support for Second Amendment-related issues, and grading resume from than National Rifle Association over his entire 12 years in Congress.

The Portman campaign flyer promises that "As Ohio's next Senator Rob will continue to protect our Constitutional freedoms and will be a strong advocate for preserving these rights and traditions for future generations."

A few weeks later, in an interview given prior to his address to the U.S. Sportsmen Alliance (USSA) Ohio Rally, Portman informed Outdoor Writers of Ohio members that pro-Second Amendment voters could feel comfortable supporting him, and stressed that "it is critical to have a Senator who will stand up for the Second Amendment."

In the wake of the re-election of President Obama, and the political fallout from a spree killer's attack on the "no-guns" victim zone in Connecticut, it is indeed critical to have a Senator who will stand up for the Second Amendment.

A newly-released statement by Sen. Portman proves that is exactly what we have.

In the days following the attack at Sandy Hook, the media and anti-gun politicians thought they had their chance to accomplish political goals they had long-been denied: the renewal and expansion of a Federal ban on modern semi-automatic rifles, and a "universal background check" gun registration scheme.

When the media questioned Portman about whether or not he would support attempts to renew the rifle ban, headlines across the nation screamed that he believed gun limits should be on the table. Behind the scenes, and with the knowledge that you can't always trust what you read in the media, representatives from Buckeye Firearms Association contacted Portman's office to inquire as to his actual position.

The response came in no uncertain terms: his representatives assured us Sen. Portman's comments had been taken out of context, and that he would not waver on his support for the Second Amendment. His office also released a media statement that said "[Portman] has emphasized that he is a supporter of Second Amendment rights and has yet to see data that points to new gun control laws as an effective way to making our communities safer."

So when news began circulating that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg had decided to spend $12 million on television ads designed to influence Senators who are supposedly on the fence regarding their support for a so-called "universal background check" gun registration scheme, we naturally decided it was time to call the Senator again to verify whether or not media reports that he was undecided about the legislation were true. Once again the Senator has responded, and this time even more forcefully.

In fact, it could be said that Sen. Portman has just dropped the equivalent of a "MOAB" on Mayor Bloomberg's multi-million dollar efforts to sway his support for Americans' Second Amendment rights.

by Jim Shepherd

With yesterday's passage of the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty, the Obama administration added more fuel to the fire of critics who refer to the "imperial presidency" rather than the "current administration." Reversing previous national policy to endorse a gun control treaty that would essentially allow the United Nations to have the final say on any firearms exports, the administration put its full weight behind the measure.

It's brought more than a few blasts from unhappy members of the firearms industry in the past few days, but it's also gotten the attention of the United States Congress. And Congress says that while the president might well sign the treaty, it will be dead on arrival at the Senate. If the Senate doesn't approve the treaty, Mr. Obama's signature will, essentially, be meaningless from a legal standpoint.

That hasn't kept anti-gun groups from crowing about the "setback for the pro-gun bloc, especially the NRA". And it only points out the growing division over gun rights between the administration and the Congress and the administration and the people.