CONTACT:
training@ofcc.net
http://www.ohioccwtraining.org

CLEVELAND, Jan 29 – Ohioans For Concealed Carry, Ohio’s largest
grassroots concealed carry rights organization, announced the
formation of the OFCC Education Foundation. The new organization is
responsible for the state’s largest concealed carry training network.

“When we started Ohioans For Concealed Carry our long term plans always
included a focus on providing quality education when the law was
passed,” said Jeff Garvas, president of OFCC. “The education foundation
is our attempt to meet the needs of concealed carry license applicants
while adhering to our strong convictions that quality education is the
key to firearm safety.”

When Michigan passed concealed carry legislation four years ago, nearly
71,000 applicants received training in the first year alone. Ohioans
For Concealed Carry expects the surge to exceed that number due to the
fact that a percentage of Michigan residents already had licenses prior
to their law being reformed.

In anticipation of the need to train literally thousands of potential
applicants, Ohioans For Concealed Carry trained nearly thirty
individuals to become NRA Certified Firearms Instructors last year. The
education foundation will continue that effort this year with instructor
classes being held in Columbus in the near future, and classes in other
cities being added based on student interest.

“The foundation will serve many roles,” said Greg Kopp, chairman of the
training committee. “Our primary goal is to make instructors and
affordable classes available in as many locations throughout Ohio as we
possibly can. Then, as a service to the community, we will make it
possible for non-profit groups, and individual and commercial
instructors to make their class schedules available to students through
our concealed carry training network.”

The concealed carry training network, where students, instructors, gun
range owners, and organized sportsmen clubs can register and find each
other, can be found at www.ohioccwtraining.org. Registration
through the website is always available and takes less than five minutes
to complete.

“We are very interested in hearing from existing OPOTA or NRA
instructors who would like to make a difference, as well as individuals
who would like to be notified when classes are available in their area,”
said Kopp.

###

Ohioans For Concealed Carry was formed in 1999 to reform Ohio's
concealed carry self-defense law. The organization has worked closely
with numerous lawmakers and contributed significantly to language found
in the current law. OFCC is committed to working hard to fix the flaws
in the current law. In addition to being the largest concealed carry
advocate in Ohio, the organization also formed the OFCC Political Action
Committee, credited with numerous political successes in November of 2002.

Whether a student or not, campus journalism is always good for a read...and sometimes good for a laugh. But as we read this story from the student voice of the Ohio State University, we're not laughing at the writer. Instead, we're laughing at Bob Taft's sudden conversion into a concealed carry advocate.

What to do about concealed guns
Taft hopes to ease concerns

The (OSU) Lantern (to read the complete story, free registration is required)
By Julie Slader
January 27, 2004

Gov. Bob Taft intended on taking a bite out of Ohio's crime on Jan. 8, when he signed a legislative bill to legalize the carrying of concealed handguns.

In an effort to prevent crime rates from rising, the Ohio legislature has followed the lead of 45 other states by upholding the Second Amendment as a constitutional right mandated by every law-abiding citizen.

Orest Holubec, spokesman for Taft, said the governor's decision to sign the bill was partially linked to the statistics of declining crime rates in other states.

Click on the "Read More..." link below for more.

Recently, asute readers have been treated to a couple of tasty freudian slips in mentions of Ms. Toby Hoover's personal anti-gun campaign, the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence.

In a recent article, an OSU Lantern writer referred to Hoover's group as the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Control, and said Hoover "would applaud Taft's efforts on initiating background checks, only if he plans to update the database in which they are stored." If all her comments were like this, and with a group name like that, we might consider joining.

Before you pass it off as a rookie error, consider that the Dayton Daily News recently termed Hoover's group the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Safety. This is, perhaps, even more appropriate than the name Hoover originally gave it, considering the policies she is known for promoting, which even the CDC agrees are proven to do nothing to stop gun violence, and everything to do with making sure only criminals (who, by definition, care nothing for the law) can get guns.

This may all seem a bit like kicking a person when they're down, but as The Lantern pointed out, Hoover hasn't stopped fighting against your right to self defense. She is now working to convince businesses to post discriminatory signs banning CHL holders. "He [oops, Freud again? "He" is a she] has attempted to allot private businesses the option of declaring their private property as an area unacceptable to enter with a concealed weapon."

"All this bill has done is set a policy that contributes to the belief of fearing our culture," Hoover said. "People are going to start to think that since the world is such a dangerous place, they can't go anywhere without a gun. It has all been reduced to politics. The governor can not legislate public acceptance, and the bulk of Ohioans will not accept the idea of people carrying around weapons."

Apparently she hasn't seen the latest poll from Zogby International. The survey examined how Americans feel about Right-to-Carry laws. Zogby found that voters overwhelming favor these self-protection laws by a margin of 79% to 18%. Right-to-Carry drew better than 70% support in every demographic group, with even non-gun owners indicating their backing by 73% to 23%.

Unfortunately for Hoover (but fortunately for Ohioans), there appear to be far more people these days who are ready to support a group like the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Control. And that is no freudian slip.

Crain's Cleveland Business editors and "Million" Mom/ Brady Bunch Clevelander Lori O'Neill have quite a history together.

In March of 2003, CCB editors published an editorial opposing the reformation of concealed carry laws in Ohio. This editorial bore striking similarity to a letter printed in multiple Ohio papers earier that month, written by Ms. O'Neill.

Despite their recent legislative defeat in Columbus, Crain's and O'Neill are at it again.

On January 12, 2004 Crain's timed a story on workplace violence to release with news that Ohio HB12 had finally become law. In the January 26 issue, O'Neill followed Crain's effort up with a retread of a year-old letter to the Cincinnati Enquirer editor.

In her latest piece, O'Neill has ignored facts presented in response to her 2003 business tirade by everyone from Cleveland Plain Dealer letter writers to the Ohio Council of Retail Merchants to the Columbus Business Journal, and is still attempting to scare Ohio businesses about Ohio's new self-protection/defense law.

As the Columbus Business Journal has pointed out, Crain's and O'Neill's scare tactics failed to rally opposition from business owners last year. Their current efforts to encourage businesses to discriminate against CHL holders should be met with the same objective recognition of the facts which the Ohio Legislature utilized in deciding to pass HB12.

We've heard (and responded to) her recycled claims before. But since these extremists refuse to let the facts get in the way of a good story, OFCC has submitted a response, which we hope Crain's will be good enough to publish. The piece will be published on this website after Crain's has had adequate time to make use of it.

Click on the "Read More..." link below to read O'Neill's latest letter as it appears in Crain's.

During the decade-long fight to restore Ohioans' self-defense rights, the gun ban lobby tried everything to derail the effort. At nearly every turn, the Ohio Senate and Gov. Taft seemed all too willing to let the opposition write our new law.

One of the issues the extremists fought for was a background check that included scans for persons who were "mentally ill". As with all their roadblocks, they resorted to falsehoods and twisted facts to try and make their case.

On May 14, 2003, Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence director Toby Hoover testified in a Senate committee hearing on HB12 that under the House version of the bill, a sheriff cannot deny a person a carry license who otherwise qualifies for a license, if he personally knows he is mentally ill.

The TRUTH was then, and is today, that sheriffs can refuse to issue a permit for someone he knows to be a mentally ill. In this scenario, the person would then be able to go to court to dispute the denial, and the sheriff can present his evidence.

They were still making these sorts of claims in the hours before final passage of HB12. In a Jan. 5 letter to the Columbus Dispatch, Hoover stated that "permits should not be issued until databases for mentally ill and criminal records are at least 95 percent complete in Ohio."

All too willing to accomodate the opponents, the Legislature included a provision for such a database, which we now know conflicts with Federal laws governing a persons' right to privacy concerning medical records.

Coupling this revelation with the public records compromise which gives the media access to lists of licenseholders, it is clear that Governor Taft, and some in the Ohio Senate, are less concerned with Ohioans' right to privacy than even the Federal government.

Click on the "Read More..." link below for the full story.