Columbus Dispatch is the latest participant in the Ohio establishment media's coordinated editorial attack on the issue of open records and concealed handgun licenses. Dispatch editorial commentary appears in black font, with Buckeye Firearms Association's Chad Baus responding in scarlet.

August 21, 2006
Columbus Dispatch

The law that allows Ohioans to carry concealed weapons was supposed to ensure that permits wouldn’t be issued to people who have committed certain crimes or are mentally ill or dependent on drugs or alcohol. But the General Assembly included so many restrictions on information about who holds conceal-carry permits that no one can judge whether the law is being followed.

The statute should be changed to allow the public to see how it’s working.

The Dispatch editors' suggestion that the public cannot already see how the program is working is ludicrous. Apparently the fact that more than 99% of licensees have proven to be law-abiding, and that many of the small fraction of a percent of licenses were suspended or revoked for reasons such as the license-holder moving out of state or dying just isn't enough for these self-appointed watch-dogs, who are hoping beyond hope to find one bad apple among the miniscule few revocations with which they can tarnish the other 75,000-plus law-abiding Ohioans.

The information blind spot was revealed most recently when state officials refused The Dispatch’s request for copies of letters sent to people whose conceal-carry licenses were suspended or revoked.

I find it hard to believe Dispatch editors are only now becoming aware of the limits to their ability to pry into the personal lives of gun owners.

What the Dispatch has revealed here is that sheriffs did their jobs by refusing to bend to a Dispatch request for protected information - something that sheriffs in Shelby and Lucas county failed to do when they were asked for protected information (Shelby Co.), or asked in an improper way (Lucas Co.), in 2004.

Click on 'Read More' for the entire editorial, with commentary.

Buckeye Firearms Association volunteer John Litle spreads a little common sense with readers of the Columbus Dispatch...

August 20, 2006
Columbus Dispatch

I have been following with great interest The Dispatch's coverage of Maurice Clarett's ongoing troubles. From his descent into criminality through his most recent arrest, The Dispatch has noted criminal charge after criminal charge against the former Ohio State University football player.

Interestingly, one crime The Dispatch has not mentioned and one for which Clarett has not been charged is a violation of Columbus' assault-weapons ban. Sure enough, I saw an "assault weapon" sitting in Clarett's car in the front-page photo ("Clarett's arrest deepens descent," Aug. 10). I recall City Councilman Mike Mentel pushing that law through with much fervor last year, claiming it would make Columbus' streets safer. Clarett's actions and the subsequent charges only prove how ill-conceived and ineffective Mentel's notions are.

The reason Clarett is not charged under Mentel's ban is that the City Council only has authority to create misdemeanor crimes, whereas Clarett, if he possessed the weapon while under indictment and, further, had it loaded in his vehicle, would have committed several felonies. Misdemeanor sentences are always concurrent with felony sentences, thus there would be no reason to charge Clarett under Mentel's pointless law.

On the other hand, the law does serve to make criminal the rightful possession of a whole swath of firearms by law-abiding and noncriminally minded individuals. The law is perverse; it is simply useless as a charge against those who have the mind-set to commit a crime with their weapons, and it criminalizes the nonculpable act of possessing a firearm that "looks scary."

It is unfortunate that crime on our city's streets has become so rampant that we are willing to try "solutions" that have no prayer of success; it is even more unfortunate that we are willing to make criminals of the innocent to achieve that end. I guess reason seldom conquers fear.

John Litle
Columbus

Related Story:
Clarett arrest shows Columbus is still Mentelly challenged