Senate Bill 184, Ohio's Castle Doctrine bill, has been added to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Criminal Justice's agenda for Wednesday, March 12 at 10:00 a.m. in the Senate Building's North Hearing Room.

The purpose for Wednesday's hearing is so that the committee may adopt amendments via a substitute bill.

The following day, Thursday, March 13 at 9:00 a.m., the committee will reconvene in the Senate Building's North Conference Room for the purpose of voting on the bill.

Immediately following, the House Criminal Justice Committee will give a third hearing to that chamber's companion Castle Doctrine bill, House Bill 264, beginning at 9:30 a.m. in Statehouse Room 121.

The purpose for Thursday's House committee hearing is so that the committee may hear proponent, opponent and interested party testimony.

For more information on Ohio's Castle Doctrine legislation, see: Buckeye Firearms Association Endorses HB264/SB184; Castle Doctrine Legislation.

Thank you for responding to our call to use our Write to Legislators website feature to contact your legislators. Please encourage your friends and family to do the same.

The Mt. Vernon News, located in an Ohio city with no less than four colleges or universities located in or nearby, is reporting that since the tragic string of college campus shootings across the country, students are organizing a national campaign to allow handguns in classrooms.

By John R. Lott, Jr.

As Northern Illinois University restarts classes this week, one thing is clear: Six minutes proved too long. It took six minutes before the police were able to enter the classroom that horrible Thursday, and in that short time five people were murdered, 16 wounded.

Six minutes is actually record-breaking speed for the police arriving at such an attack, but it was simply not fast enough. Still, the police were much faster than at the Virginia Tech attack last year.

The previous Thursday, five people were killed in the city council chambers in Kirkwood, Mo. There was even a police officer already there when the attack occurred.

But, as happens time after time in these attacks when uniformed police are there, the killers either wait for the police to leave the area or they are the first people killed. In Kirkwood, the police officer was killed immediately when the attack started. People cowered or were reduced to futilely throwing chairs at the killer.

Just like attacks last year at the Westroads Mall in Omaha, Neb., the Trolley Square Mall in Salt Lake City and the recent attack at the Tinley Park Mall in Illinois, or all the public school attacks, they had one thing in common: They took place in "gun-free zones," where private citizens were not allowed to carry their guns with them.