2018 - BFA in the News
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December 31, 2018
Ammoland.com - Ohio Legislature Overrides Kasich’ Veto of Gun Law Reform
Buckeye Firearms Association President Jim Irvine said shifting the burden ensures that someone is “innocent until proven guilty… one of the pillars of our nation's legal system.”
December 28, 2018
WHIO (AM 1290) - This gun device is closer to becoming illegal, but area advocates hope challenges are coming
Dean Rieck, executive director of the Buckeye Firearms Association, said his organization is disappointed there are no exceptions to the federal rule. The government could have allowed owners of existing devices to keep them, for example. Machine guns are banned, but owners of them before laws passed decades ago were allowed to keep them, he said.
The penalty “could be up to 10 years in prison, or a quarter-million dollars in fines, or both,” Rieck said.
“Basically, they’re saying, ‘Give them back to us — hand them in — or destroy them. Period,” he said.
His association has sued Cincinnati and Columbus over bump-stock bans. It won its case against Columbus, but that is under appeal. No decision has been made in the Cincinnati lawsuit.
“We’re very disappointed with this (federal) ruling,” Rieck said. “We urge people to submit comments to tell them not to do this.”
Rieck argues forcing people to turn in bump stocks or destroy them may be a constitutional issue because the devices are being taken without financial compensation for their value.
December 28, 2018
WLWT (NBC Cincinnati) - Ohio lawmakers override governor's veto, pass new gun law
Joe Eaton, with Buckeye Firearms Association, feels just the opposite.
"We all grew up knowing that we were supposed to be innocent until proven guilty in the United States, and Ohio law did not recognize that until the passage of this bill," Eaton said.
While he had hoped Ohio's newest gun law would have included the so-called stand your ground provision, Eaton is happy the law will shift the burden of proof in self-defense cases from a person who fires a gun to prosecutors.
"If you're the victim of a violent crime and you have to use deadly force to protect you or your family, currently in Ohio you are guilty and have to admit to murder or manslaughter and then say, 'Yes, but,'" Eaton said. "Getting us aligned with the other 49 states and putting back innocent until proven guilty in all situations is a key part of this bill and is a huge benefit to Ohioans."
Eaton said the new law will also make it more costly for cities and towns to defy state gun laws by trying to implement local measures.
December 28, 2018
WRGT (Fox Dayton) - Ohio lawmakers override Kasich, approve new gun laws
The Buckeye Firearm Association also applauded the legislature's override of the governor's veto.
"We shouldn't put additional burdens on crime victims to prove themselves innocent. It should be up to the prosecutors to prove there was a crime committed," said Joe Eaton with the association.
The bill also strengthens gun rights by voiding any laws Ohio cities make about guns.
Earlier this year, Cincinnati banned bump stocks and Columbus passed 11 gun laws hoping to decrease gun violence.
The Buckeye Firearm Association is currently suing both cities and if successful, could be compensated for the cost.
"House bill 228 makes any municipality who chooses to disobey Ohio law responsible for court fees should they be found in violation of ohio law."
December 27, 2018
MSN.com - Ohio lawmakers override governor's veto, pass new gun law
Joe Eaton, with Buckeye Firearms Association, feels just the opposite.
"We all grew up knowing that we were supposed to be innocent until proven guilty in the United States, and Ohio law did not recognize that until the passage of this bill," Eaton said.
While he had hoped Ohio's newest gun law would have included the so-called stand your ground provision, Eaton is happy the law will shift the burden of proof in self-defense cases from a person who fires a gun to prosecutors.
"If you're the victim of a violent crime and you have to use deadly force to protect you or your family, currently in Ohio you are guilty and have to admit to murder or manslaughter and then say, 'Yes, but,'" Eaton said. "Getting us aligned with the other 49 states and putting back innocent until proven guilty in all situations is a key part of this bill and is a huge benefit to Ohioans."
Eaton said the new law will also make it more costly for cities and towns to defy state gun laws by trying to implement local measures.
December 27, 2018
Associated Press - Heartbeat abortion bill veto survives day of Ohio overrides
"Even though John Kasich used all his political power and even used political gamesmanship, he could not stop the Legislature from doing their job, and executing the will of the Ohio people," the Buckeye Firearms Association said on its website.
December 27, 2018
WOSU (NPR Columbus) - Ohio Legislature Passes Self-Defense Gun Bill Over Kasich's Objections
Buckeye Firearms Association President Jim Irvine said shifting the burden ensures that someone is "innocent until proven guilty… one of the pillars of our nation's legal system.”
In his veto message, Kasich said the legislature should’ve considered his “red flag law” proposal, which allows courts to take guns away from people who pose a threat to themselves or others.
“It’s hard for me to know what his reason is for doing anything,” Irvine says. “They’re two completely unrelated concepts and ideas. So why you would veto ‘Bill A’ because they didn’t pass ‘Bill Three’ makes no sense to me.”
December 27, 2018
WVXU (NPR Cincinnati) - Ohio House, Senate Override Kasich Veto On Self-Defense Gun Bill
The legislation had strong support from pro-gun groups who said this would put Ohio in step with every other state in the country. Buckeye Firearms Association President Jim Irvine said shifting the burden ensures that someone is "innocent until proven guilty…one of the pillars of our nation's legal system.”
In his veto message, Kasich said the Legislature should’ve considered his “red flag law” proposal which allows courts to take guns away from people who pose a threat to themselves or others.
“It’s hard for me to know what his reason is for doing anything,” says Irvine. “They’re two completely unrelated concepts and ideas. So why you would veto ‘Bill A’ because they didn’t pass ‘Bill 3’ makes no sense to me.”
December 26, 2018
WOSU (NPR Columbus) - Self-Defense Gun Bill Contingent On Possible Veto Override
In his veto message, Kasich said the Legislature should’ve considered his “red flag law” proposal which allows courts to take guns away from people who pose a threat to themselves or others.
“It’s hard for me to know what his reason is for doing anything,” says Jim Irvine, president of the Buckeye Firearms Association. “They’re two completely unrelated concepts and ideas. So why you would veto ‘Bill A’ because they didn’t pass ‘Bill 3’ makes no sense to me.”
Irvine is urging the Ohio General Assembly to override the veto saying the bill would correct “an absolute wrong in Ohio law.”
December 19, 2018
WOSU (Columus NPR) - Federal Bump Stock Ban May Impact Columbus Lawsuit
Last May, Columbus passed a slew of gun ordinances that included a ban on bump stocks within city limits. Ohioans for Concealed Carry and the Buckeye Firearms Association filed a lawsuit in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, and a judge ruled the city ban unconstitutional in July.
December 14, 2018
Portsmouth Daily Times - Sheriff investigating CCW instructor
Rick Jones is a local firearms instructor as well as the south-central Ohio spokesperson for the Buckeye Firearms Association. He said should problems be found with the firearms instruction classes given by any instructor, persons who used that instructor to gain a concealed carry permit may well lose that permit.
Jones talked about another case currently underway against an instructor in Akron. He said several years ago an Ohio instructor was convicted of selling course completion certificates without actually requiring buyers to take any training. Persons who had used the instructor lost any money they paid to that person and any who had gained a permit using that person’s instruction, lost their permit.
December 9, 2018
LibertyWatchRadio.com's "Armed & Free" with Charles Heller
Buckeye Firearms Foundation President Jim Irvine was a guest on "Armed & Free" with host Charles Heller.
December 9, 2018
Armed American Radio
Buckeye Firearms Foundation President Jim Irvine was a guest on "Armed American Radio" with host Mark Walters.
December 7, 2018
BBC News - Inside a US training course to arm teachers
December 7, 2018
Columbus Dispatch - Ohio legislature moves gun bill without stand-your-ground provision
“I don’t think there has ever been a time when we’ve gotten everything we wanted,” said Jim Irvine, president of the Buckeye Firearms Association. “We will be back to work on duty-to-retreat next session. It’s a priority.”
December 7, 2018
Cox Newspapers - Senators scale back Ohio gun rights bill
Jim Irvine of the Buckeye Firearms Association said the amended bill is a compromise that accomplishes multiple goals.
"The Buckeye Firearms Association and NRA, we will be back next session to work on the duty to retreat stuff. We think that is important," Irvine said.
December 7, 2018
Cleveland Scene - Ohio Legislature Passes Gun Bill After 'Stand Your Ground' Provision Removed
Buckeye Firearms Association President Jim Irvine said the group would go back to work lobbying for a bill with "stand your ground" provisions next session.
December 6, 2018
Norwalk Reflector - Ohio Senate moving gun bill without stand-your-ground provision
"I don't think there has ever been a time when we've gotten everything we wanted," said Jim Irvine, president of the Buckeye Firearms Association. "We will be back to work on duty to retreat next session. It's a priority."
December 3, 2018
Gongwer News Service - Controversial Firearm Bills Not Given Uniform Backing By Gun Groups
Ron Lemieux of the Buckeye Firearms Association called the duty to retreat under current law "the very definition of government overreach."
"The victim of an attack, acting in self-defense, should be in control of her own destiny and the means with which she chooses to defend her life," he said.
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While gun rights groups expressed uniform support for the self-defense measure at the meeting, the same did not hold true for HB142. While representatives of BFA testified in support of the both measures and the NRA backed both in written testimony, Ohioans for Concealed Carry expressed dissatisfaction with the notification measure.
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Sean Maloney of BFA said legislation will be helpful to concealed-carry license holders because it eliminates the requirement that they "promptly" disclose they are in possession of a firearm. He said that word can mean different things to different people and, in his opinion, lead to unnecessary prosecutions.
"Promptly is subject to such a wide range of interpretations," he said.
December 3, 2018
Columbus Dispatch - Lower penalties, no duty to retreat highlight latest Statehouse gun fight
A key provision in the bill would eliminate someone’s duty to retreat from a confrontation before using lethal force.
“To impose a duty to retreat on a person when her life is in imminent peril is the very definition of government overreach,” said Ronald Lemieux, an attorney testifying on behalf of the Buckeye Firearms Association.
December 3, 2018
The Vindicator - Complexity of Ohio laws may be slowing resolution of teacher weapons case
A discussion with the president of the Buckeye Firearms Association suggests the reason the case has dragged on as long as it has: The matter raises legal issues that could take time to sift through since Ohio law protects people with concealed handguns differently than it does people with concealed knives, and state law regarding knives can be vague.
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Jim Irvine, president of the Buckeye Firearms Assocation, said Ohio law, approved in 2017, provides protections for individuals storing a weapon in their vehicle, even in a school safety zone.
The law says a public or private employer cannot enforce a policy that stops people with a valid concealed handgun license from storing a handgun or ammunition in their vehicle if the gun is locked in the trunk, glove box or other enclosed compartment or container in the vehicle.
Irvine said if the school district disciplines the teacher for the handgun or ammunition, it would be violating Ohio law, and the teacher would have recourse through the civil courts.
He said Ohio law regarding storage of knives in a vehicle doesn’t protect the owner as much, but a crucial factor is whether the knife is considered a “deadly weapon,” meaning an “instrument, device or thing capable of inflicting death, and designed or specially adapted for use as a weapon, or possessed, carried or used as a weapon.”
A July 25, 2018, article written by police officer Greg Ellifritz on the Buckeye Firearms website says there is “minimal clear-cut statutory guidance about the difference between a common pocketknife carried for utilitarian purposes and a deadly weapon that is illegal under the law.”
Ellifritz said it could be illegal to carry a concealed pencil if it were rammed into someone’s eye socket because it may be capable of inflicting death.
Some factors a police officer might use to classify a knife as a weapon are the name of the knife (example: Throat Cutter 6000), length of the blade and features such as opening automatically, Ellifritz said.
“In practice, 99 percent of street cops are not trying to arrest you for carrying a knife clipped to your pocket,” he said. “If you don’t threaten the cop or anyone else with your blade, most cops won’t make an issue out of carrying a knife, even if you are carrying it as a weapon,” the article says.
December 3, 2018
WTRF (CBS Wheeling) - 'Stand your ground' bill up for possible vote Thursday
November 23, 2018
WKYC (NBC Cleveland) - What would 'Stand Your Ground' law look like in Ohio?
Buckeye Firearms Association Treasurer Joe Eaton was interviewed for this television broadcast.
November 22, 2018
Deadline.com - Channel 4 Explores Controversial Subject Of School Shootings In ‘Training Teachers to Kill’ From Sundog Pictures
Sundog has gained access to FASTER, one of America’s most controversial summer schools where high school teachers are trained to use guns, deal with potential school shooting scenarios and if the situation demands it, kill.
November 22, 2018
Royal Television Society - Channel 4 commissions documentary Training Teachers to Kill
It also looks at a controversial summer school called Faster, where high school teachers are trained to use guns, deal with potential shooters, and possibly kill a disturbed student wielding a gun.
The 60-minute film follows teachers in this course as they do drills and simulate school shootings.
November 20, 2018
CitizensVoice.com - Debate over arming Tamaqua Area teachers erupts on social media
Third Summers Brother (@hugetinymistake) tweeted: “The Tamaqua School District was fooled by the Buckeye Firearm [sic] Foundation (a front for those who want to proliferate more and more firearms) into thinking this is a safe and smart idea.”
Asked about the tweet, Joe Eaton of Buckeye Firearms Association said he was asked to speak a public meeting in Tamaqua on Nov. 7 about a training program that his association offers to schools where police or other employees are armed. The FASTER Saves Lives program has been given at 250 schools in 15 states.
Eaton said Third Summers Brother was “woefully uninformed” about the best response to mass killings.
“In active mass killing, every minute you allow the violence to continue results in 5-7 additional dead and wounded so even waiting 2-4 minutes on outside help is too long,” Eaton said by email.
November 15, 2018
WAKR AM 1590
Buckeye Firearms Association President Jim Irvine was a guest on this live broadcast.
November 15, 2018
Guns.com - Ohio Sees Record Number of Carry LIcenses Issued, Renewed
“Concealed carry is mainstream, common sense and close to most people on a daily basis,” said Jim Irvine, Buckeye Firearms Association President. “It works so well that most people are blissfully unaware that people around them are carrying guns.”
Irvine stresses that in the 14 years Ohio has had a concealed carry law in effect, the practice has become accepted. “License-holders, like gun owners in general, are not extremists as the anti-gun rights crowd claims. They are men and women, liberal and conservative and every ethnic and religious background. They are honorable citizens who want the means of protection from real dangers.”
November 14, 2018
WLWT (NBC Cincinnati) - Ohio House approves controversial ‘stand your ground’ bill
Proponents of the bill say this legislation simply aligns Ohio with most other states in the country.
"Ohio is kind of backwards where self-defense you are guilty and have to prove yourself innocent. And we think that the burden should be on the prosecutors, not on the innocent person that is trying to keep their family safe," said Joe Eaton with Buckeye Firearms Association.
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"We should not put additional burdens on crime victims," said Eaton.
November 14, 2018
Cincinnati Enquirer - Ohio House passes 'stand your ground' bill, sending it to the Senate for approval
The Buckeye Firearms Association and other supporters argue the bill makes common-sense changes to Ohio's gun laws.
November 14, 2018
Dayton Daily News - ‘Stand your ground’ gun bill passes Ohio House
Jim Irvine, Buckeye Firearms Association board president, said he hopes the bill moves swiftly through the Senate.
“If they don’t get to it soon they’re not going to get to it at all,” he said. “Obviously it’s a lame duck (session) and it’s a compressed time frame. We’re cautiously optimistic the Senate will take it up.”
The bill would need to pass by the end of the year or it would have to be brought back after new legislators and Gov.-elect Mike DeWine are sworn in in January.
Irvine said the bill corrects much in Ohio law.
“To us, this is really simple. Ohio law is contrary to federal law and every other state law,” Irvine said. “Ohio law is wrong and it’s defective and it needs to get fixed.”
Irvine said he knows Gov. John Kasich plans to veto the bill it if passes the Senate.
“That’s his prerogative as governor, but I think it’s sad that our governor is adamant that he would veto a bill saying people aren’t innocent until proven guilty.”
The bill also loosens other gun laws, including striking a rule that concealed handgun licensees keep hands in plain site during law enforcement stops. It also bars rental agreements for subsidized housing from prohibiting or restricting the ownership, use, or possession of a firearm within a dwelling.
The bill has backing from pro-gun rights groups such as Ohio Gun Owners and Buckeye Firearms Association but it is opposed by the ACLU of Ohio, League of Women Voters of Ohio, Moms Demand Action, Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence and March for Our Lives.
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If Gov. Kasich vetoes the bill, Republicans say there is enough support to override a veto.
November 8, 2018
PRNewswire.com - Store it Safe Awareness Month Encourages Safe Firearm Storage Discussions
Store It Safe Awareness Month is a program supported by the Ohio AAP and the Partnership for Safety of Children Around Firearms, which includes Buckeye Firearms Association, Black Wing Shooting Center, Kiwanis Club of Columbus and many other interested parties. For more information about firearm safety and Ohio AAP's initiatives, visit: http://ohioaap.org/firearmsafety.
November 5, 2018
WYSO (Dayton NPR) - Political Newcomers Challenge Incumbents In Ohio House District 73,74
Incumbent Rick Perales has been endorsed by Ohio Right to Life and the Buckeye Firearms association, among other groups. During his time in office, he’s focused on military and veterans' issues.
November 1, 2018
Cleveland Plain Dealer - A step-by-step look at how Ohio’s pro-gun lawmakers stripped away cities power to write their own rules
As it stands, Ohio has some of the loosest gun laws in America, but not for a lack of trying by some urban communities. The city of Cleveland, for one, passed numerous gun regulations, only to have them nullified in 2006 by a General Assembly lobbied heavily by pro-gun groups such as the Buckeye Firearms Association and the National Rifle Association.
November 1, 2018
Cleveland Plain Dealer - As Ohio gun deaths continue to increase, action in local communities is limited by a 2006 state law
[T]o the Buckeye Firearms Association, local ordinances are burdens to law-abiding citizens traveling from one city to another, and did little to deter crime: "The only thing any city could ever do was make a crime that is a misdemeanor. ... With state law, almost everything is a felony, more jail time and higher fines," the association's president, Jim Irvine said during an interview with cleveland.com earlier this year.
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Irvine, from the Buckeye Firearms, views suicides as a mental health issue unrelated to gun laws, but offers an alternative to reducing homicides.
"If you want to reduce crime, it's a timely arrest of a criminal, prosecution and lengthy prison sentences," Irvine said.
November 1, 2018
Cleveland Plain Dealer - How the Ohio legislature wrestled gun control away from cities like Cleveland
In 2006, pro-gun legislators, fueled by the NRA and Buckeye Firearms Association, took exception with urban communities taking gun regulation into their own hands and passed House Bill 347, which declared that all gun laws must be uniform across Ohio.
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The Buckeye Firearms Association heralded the uniformity called for in H.B. 347 as the bill’s “most momentous accomplishment,” saying at the time that it “will eliminate problems for all gun owners who have been unduly burdened by local ordinances such as the Columbus’ so-called assault weapons ban or the unjust firearms confiscation and convictions in Toledo. This is crucial to anyone who owns a firearm in Ohio.”
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[Senator Kenny] Yuko who is now the Senate minority leader and running for re-election, said several months ago that he still supports H.B. 347, but not because the Buckeye Firearms Association wants him to. He tells the story of a guy from Collinwood with a concealed carry permit who was rushing downstate to see his ailing brother who had suffered a heart attack. On the way, the man’s truck broke down. A local law-enforcement official stopping to help spotted the bulge beneath the man’s clothing and took him into custody because it was a no-carry community. The delay prevented than man from reaching his brother before he died.
Yuko said that story left an impression on him.
“As I thought about it, here we’re taking a citizen, telling him that he must abide by state law, which he did, and upon meeting completion of all the terms and conditions was awarded a CCW permit, but it wasn’t recognized all throughout Ohio,” Yuko said during an interview with cleveland.com.
“If we’re going to have a law, let’s make it uniform,” Yuko said. “If we’re going to have a law that limits the size of a weapon we can have, let’s make it universal, where it covers all 88 counties and all of the municipalities and cities and villages and townships within.”
October 29, 2018
Cincinnati Enquirer - Suicide prevention: In Ohio, drawing a bull's-eye to enlist gun owners in the cause
In signing up, the leader of the Buckeye Firearms Association and a Defiance gun-store owner acted on their belief that gun violence is not about the gun. They, too, have grieved over the suicides of friends and relatives. They, too, want to fix the problem.
“I see it as a sheepdog model,” said Dean Rieck, the association's executive director. “Gun owners are kind of like sheepdogs. When you talk about a sheepdog, you’re talking about a certain mindset. You’re looking out for the benefit of others, and you’re taking responsibility for other people’s welfare. You have your buddy’s back.”
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Mueller and Rieck dispute research showing the presence of a gun in the home increases the risk for suicide. A gun is only a tool, Mueller said, like a knife or a rope, but when contemplated for suicide, “A firearm is a very efficient means. It’s hard to change your mind once you pull the trigger.”
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The Buckeye Firearms Association is working with Franklin County Loss, a Columbus nonprofit that puts volunteers with resources at the elbows of people coping with a suicide. Denise Meine-Graham joined the group after her son died of suicide six years ago and now is executive director.
In May, Meine-Graham and Dean Rieck took training from New Hampshire leaders of the Gun Shop Project leaders. Rieck “did a wonderful job explaining the gun community,” Meine-Graham said. “I’m sure it was like breathing for him, but for us, we got a better understanding of this community to help us reach them.”
Rieck learned some things, as well. “There’s a time period, a short window of opportunity, when people are most likely to complete suicide, and it can last an hour or few minutes. That it comes in waves. That’s not how I ever envisioned it.”
Meine-Graham and Rieck wrote a brochure appealing to the sheepdog instinct titled “Do you have your buddy’s back?” They signed a letter to Central Ohio gun-store owners that went into the mail in mid-October. Meine-Graham said she hopes the brochures will be in stores by year's end.
October 13, 2018
WTVN 610 AM's "OnTarget"
Buckeye Firearms Association Leader Steve Loos was a guest on "OnTarget" with hosts Eric & Phil Delbert. The show is aired on AM 610 in Columbus, OH. Click here to listen to the podcast. Steve's segment starts at 39:00.
October 13, 2018
WHIO 1290 AM's "Shootin' From the Hip" radio program
Buckeye Firearms Association Board of Directors member Sean Maloney was a guest on "Shootin' From the Hip" with hosts Jeff Pedro and Mark Avery. The show is aired on AM 1290 & 95.7 FM in Dayton.
October 10, 2018
NRATV.com
Buckeye Firearms Association Director Sean Maloney appeared on NRATV.com.
September 28, 2018
WVAH 800 AM's "The Tom Roten Morning Show" radio program
Buckeye Firearms Association Leader Tom Hall was a guest on "The Tom Roten Morning Show" with host Tom Roten. The show is aired on AM 800 in Huntington, WV. Click here to listen to the podcast.
September 26, 2018
Toledo Blade - Powerful gun-rights group backs DeWine in Ohio governor's race
Mr. DeWine already has the support of the Buckeye Firearms Association.
September 24, 2018
Associated Press - AP: Despite shootings, states return to familiar patterns
State Rep. Nickie Antonio, a Cleveland-area Democrat, said she could have told the governor it would fail. She said Republican lawmakers sound to her "like automatons" when the topic of gun control arises.
"They go to these automatic catchphrases that come right out of a pamphlet from either Buckeye Firearms or the NRA," she said. "That's what I think it's about. I do believe it's a case of follow the money."
To express his frustration, Kasich refused to sign the next gun bill that crossed his desk, which waived certain concealed carry license fees and training requirements for current and former military members. It became law without his signature.
Asked months later about the defeat of his legislation, the governor said gun-control groups are simply not as unified as the pro-gun lobby.
"And so you," he said, "you have disparate groups going against a force that totally knows what it wants."
September 24, 2018
Gongwer News Service - Kasich Looks To Improve Background Checks As He Continues Call For Passage Of Gun Legislation
When announced, the Buckeye Firearms Association said it had no problem with enforcing current law. However, Executive Director Dean Rieck said the BFA would fight hard to prevent the governor's gun proposals (HB 585 & SB 288) from becoming law.
September 14, 2018
Cincinnati Enquirer - Cincinnati shooting: Experts see mass shootings as an outgrowth of U.S. suicide epidemic
“The FBI has found that in about 56 percent of mass shootings, they found ‘leakage,’ meaning that the shooter told someone what he was considering,” Lankford said. “If the line (for possessing a gun) is that someone who openly admits to having thoughts of killing others, that should be the line we can all agree on. But we’re not even at that point in this country. You can admit those things, and still get firearms.”
But gun-rights advocates oppose red-flag orders as pre-emptive and unconstitutional. After the Sept. 6 attack in Cincinnati, an official of the Buckeye Firearms Association wrote an essay on the Greenville, Darke County-based group's website that the only thing that would have stopped the shooter was "a good guy with a gun."
Association secretary Chad H.[sic] Baus said a version of a “red-flag orders” that Ohio Gov. John Kasich has proposed would have overridden gun rights of all felons, even of nonviolent crimes.
“There are already plenty of laws in place to deal with people who are suffering mental health issues that could cause them to commit violence, and which still respect our constitutional rights,” said Baus. “Those who suggest that yet another gun-control law is all that is needed for our government bureaucracy to finally act properly and efficiently are misguided, at best.”
‘Create a culture of safety’
A better approach, the experts said, is a widespread cultural shift that would mean getting gun advocates on board with suicide prevention – just as the culture changed over drunken driving.
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The Buckeye Firearms Association is taking that step. The group is working with Franklin County Local Outreach to Suicide Survivors to develop safety materials for gun owners that would go into gun stores, said LOSS Executive Director Denise Meine-Graham.
The materials, entitled, "Do You Have Your Buddy's Back?" encourage gun owners to help other find mental health care if they are feeling the need. Meine-Graham said her organization reached out to the firearms group to get a better understanding of how best to reach out.
September 8, 2018
Columbus Dispatch - Capitol Insider: Trump Jr. coming
The president’s son also going to a less-publicized central Ohio gathering at Blackwing Shooting Center in Delaware on behalf of brand-new Congressman Troy Balderson, who faces a rematch against the man he narrowly edged in last month’s 12th District special election, Danny O’Connor. The gathering is sponsored by Buckeye Firearms Association PAC and Ohioans for Concealed Carry.
Buckeye Firearms also is hosting numerous GOP candidates and raffling off a free gun at a Second Amendment Celebration on Sept. 28 at Premier Shooting & Training Center near Cincinnati. Listed as attending are DeWine and running mate Jon Husted, Renacci, Faber and Ohio Supreme Court Justice Sharon Kennedy. Also coming are “lethal force attorney” Sean Maloney and National Rifle Association lobbyist David Conte.
September 5, 2018
Columbus Dispatch - Many central Ohio school districts oppose using federal aid to buy guns
Jim Irvine, director of FASTER Saves Lives, a Buckeye Firearms Foundation program that provides emergency-response and firearms training for teachers, said that although he supports allowing willing teachers to carry guns, he doesn’t support schools using Title IV funds to buy them.
If not paired with proper training, doing so could put the wrong guns into the wrong hands, he said.
“Rather than start with guns, we need to start with the training — that’s where the money is needed,” Irvine said. “We’re not lacking schools that want to do this, or staff willing to take it upon themselves. We’re lacking the funding needed to make it happen.”
September 4, 2018
Ashland Source - Buckeye Firearms speaker headlines Ashland Republican picnic
The Ashland County Republican Party held its annual family picnic Aug. 15 at the Ashland County Wildlife Conservation League.
Party chairman Chris Tunnell said the event drew approximately 200 Republican picnickers. A potluck dinner then followed the Pledge of Allegiance. Following dinner, Jane Roland, Chairwoman of the Ashland County Republic Party Central Committee, acknowledged twenty-two elected officials in attendance.
The featured speaker was Jim Irvine, Chairman of Buckeye Firearms Association. Irvine spoke about the Buckeye Firearms Association’s role in state and national litigation in defense of the Second Amendment. He further outlined the efforts of Buckeye Firearms Association’s School Safety Initiative, as well as his Association’s views of candidates and legislation currently under consideration in Ohio.
September 3, 2018
MotherJones.com - A Firsthand Look at Teachers Training to Pack Heat
Today is the second day of a free, three-day class offered by the Buckeye Firearms Association, an Ohio-based gun rights organization. The attendees are mostly public school teachers and employees. There is a red-headed superintendent from a school district in northeastern Ohio, a couple in their late 20s who both teach physical education just outside Toledo, a slight woman who is a principal of a rural high school, and a pot-bellied custodian of a rural elementary school. Some have come from schools and districts that have already approved arming teachers and other campus staff, while others are there in hopes of going home to lobby for the practice in their communities. Many are here in secret and have been assured of the trainers’ discretion.
Since the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012, training programs like this one have been spreading throughout the country with little attention. I covered two of these trainings in the documentary I co-produced, G Is for Gun, which will air in September on the PBS WORLD Channel.
August 29, 2018
TheHill.com - As the gun control narrative fails, local organizations are making a difference
Children deserve the same protection as our celebrities, politicians, and elites. Given massive political gridlock and unorganized spending priorities, it’s unlikely we’ll see government at any level budgeting large amounts of money for school security. That’s where programs like FASTER Colorado and FasterSavesLives in Ohio come in.
FASTER stands for Faculty/Administrator Safety Training and Emergency Response. It’s an intensive three-day class that prepares authorized, armed school staff members to stop an active shooter and save lives using advanced medical techniques. Fifteen years ago, Colorado passed a law that allows school districts to choose if they want to let their staff carry, and over 30 school districts have.
The goal is to stop the killing and keep people alive until law enforcement, and paramedics arrive.
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Local organizations devoted to that goal, like FASTER, are changing the narrative in Colorado and across the country amid a volatile policy debate. When we can’t stop evil actions in advance, a trained staffer can and will save lives.
August 22, 2018
NRATV.com - Stinchfield
Buckeye Firearms Foundation's Jeff Skaggs appeared on NRATV.com's Stinchfield with host Grant Stinchfield.
August 14, 2018
Columbus Dispatch - Both sides appeal split ruling on Columbus attempt to regulate guns
Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein on Friday appealed Judge David E. Cain’s ruling that the city’s bump-stock ban is unconstitutional. On Monday, Ohioans for Concealed Carry and the Buckeye Firearms Foundation filed a cross appeal of Cain’s decision that the city’s separate ordinance making it a misdemeanor to carry a gun while under disability does not conflict with state law and could be enforced.
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Ohioans for Concealed Carry and the Buckeye Firearms Association sued the city in June, arguing that both ordinances violated state pre-emption laws.
August 14, 2018
Gongwer News Service - Columbus Appeals Bump Stock Ruling; Gun Groups Challenge Separate Finding In Same Case
Buckeye Firearms Association and Ohioans for Concealed Carry had sought to have the ordinance overturned but the city had argued that bump stocks are gun accessories and not gun components, a contention that Judge Cain did not buy.
"Columbus' argument that a bump stock is an accessory completely revolves around the fact that a bump stock can be installed by the end user. It argues that since this is so, a bump stock is an accessory. When taking its logic to the bitter end, it can be seen that Columbus' argument fails," he wrote.
In that same decision, Judge Cain upheld a city ordinance to keep guns out of the hands of certain individuals - a move that has drawn a cross-appeal from the two gun rights groups. The ordinance, upheld at the trial court level, makes it a first-degree misdemeanor to possess a weapon if a person was previously convicted of domestic violence or is subject to a protection order.
"We just thought that Judge Cain was wrong on that particular ruling and we wanted to appeal it to get a correct ruling," BFA Executive Director Dean Rieck said in an interview.
August 11, 2018
WHIO 1290 AM's "Shootin' From the Hip" radio program
Buckeye Firearms Association Board of Directors member Sean Maloney was a guest on "Shootin' From the Hip" with hosts Jeff Pedro and Mark Avery. The show is aired on AM 1290 & 95.7 FM in Dayton. Click here to listen to the podcast.
August 8, 2018
Guns.com- Everytown-backed Democrat falls short in high-profile election
In an alert, the Buckeye Firearms Association not only backed Balderson on his past record as a state legislator but labeled O’Connor a “gun grabber,” saying, “O’Connor has called for banning ‘assault’ weapons, is in favor ‘red flag,’ laws to seize guns without due process, and wants to prevent teachers from being armed in schools to protect kids.”
August 6, 2018
Guns.com- Ohio drops CCW fees for vets without Kasich signature on bill
In March, two weeks after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that left 17 people dead and added momentum to a push for changes on gun policy, Kasich backed a six-part plan of proposed new regulations pitched to state lawmakers. The package included banning bump stocks, changing Ohio law to mirror federal regulations on armor-piercing ammo, straw buys, and gun surrenders due to domestic violence charges, as well as instituting a so-called “red-flag” bill to allow for temporary gun seizures in cases where an individual is thought to be a threat to themselves or others.
While the governor’s office argued such ideas had bipartisan support, Second Amendment advocates from National Rifle Association, Buckeye Firearms Association and Ohioans for Concealed Carry criticized the measures as well as Kasich himself at the grassroots level and in the end the bills never left committee.
August 1, 2018
Dayton Daily News - As 3-D printed gun debate rages, Ohio AG DeWine says ‘it is legal to make a gun’
Jim Irvine of Buckeye Firearms Association says that’s the right course of action. “I don’t see how any state has a dog in that hunt. It’s a federal issue,” he said.
He added that there are easier ways to obtain firearms than downloading computer files and using a 3-D printer. “Your criminal is not going to go do this because they do not have the material or money or expertise to do this. It’s way easier to buy one or steal one.”
July 17, 2018
Ammoland.com - Ohio Court Strikes Down Bump-Stock Ban
Buckeye Firearms Foundation and Ohioans for Concealed Carry have been vigilant Second Amendment supporters.
July 17, 2018
Columbus Dispatch - Editorial: Ruling shows gun regulation tough to enact
But the existence of other Ohio laws gave leverage for two groups, Ohioans for Concealed Carry and the Buckeye Firearms Foundation, to sue the city in June on claims that the local ordinances violate state pre-emptions against local gun regulations.
July 16, 2018
Guns.com - Judge scraps city’s ban on bump stocks as ‘untenable’
Two Second Amendment organizations, Buckeye Firearms Foundation and Ohioans for Concealed Carry, filed the challenge and thought from the outset they had an easy win on their hands. “This is exactly what we expected,” said Dean Rieck, executive director of Buckeye Firearms Association. “We told the city that it could not pass any gun laws. But they ignored us and did it anyway. This victory is not a surprise, but it should be a warning to other cities in Ohio.”
Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein was joined in defending the case by pro-bono legal assistance provided by Everytown for Gun Safety.
A second challenge, filed against a like-minded ban in Cincinnati, is pending with the courts although Rieck says he expects to see similar results in that case.
July 14, 2018
WSYX (ABC Columbus) - Reaction flooding in after Columbus bump-stock ban ruled unconstitutional
Ohioans For Concealed Carry and The Buckeye Firearms Association sued over the ordinance, which was passed in May. They say the city has no authority to regulate firearms under state law.
A Franklin County Judge ruled Columbus's bump-stock ban was unconstitutional Friday.
Ohioans For Concealed Carry and The Buckeye Firearms Association sued over the ordinance, which was passed in May. They say the city has no authority to regulate firearms under state law.
Buckeye Firearms said for them it's simple, the rights of gun owners have been protected and they see the ruling as a major win.
"It is our duty based on what membership tells us. To protect the Second Amendment and that is what we did here," said Buckeye Firearms Association member Gerard Valentino.
July 14, 2018
WCPO (ABC Cincinnati) - Columbus judge says bump stock ban unconstitutional, is Cincinnati's ban next?
A judge ruled this week that Columbus' citywide ban on bump stocks is unconstitutional.
If that ruling holds, Cincinnati's ban could be next to fall -- though its main sponsor says he thinks that's unlikely and a ways off.
Franklin County Court of Common Pleas Judge David Cain handed down the Columbus ruling Thursday, according to WBNS. Ohioans for Concealed Carry and the Buckeye Firearms Foundation sued after the Columbus City Council passed its ban in May.
"This victory is not a surprise, but it should be a warning to other cities in Ohio," Dean Rieck, executive director of Buckeye Firearms Association, said in a written statement.
"It's unfortunate that we must sue cities to force them to obey state law. But we simply cannot stand by and allow activist city councils to break the law and violate the rights of Ohio's 4 million gun owners."
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Rieck's group and Ohioans for Concealed Carry then sued Cincinnati last month.
July 13, 2018
WCMH (NBC Columbus) - Franklin Co. judge overturns Columbus bump stock ban; upholds ban on criminals possessing guns
Dean Rieck, executive director of the Buckeye Firearms Association, said the ruling is "exactly what we expected.
"We told the city that it could not pass any gun laws," he said in a statement. "But they ignored us and did it anyway. This victory is not a surprise, but it should be a warning to other cities in Ohio. Buckeye Firearms Association will not tolerate infringements against the Second Amendment and will take action against any city that passes unconstitutional laws.
"Not only has Columbus lost this lawsuit. They will now be forced to pay all attorney fees and legal costs. Instead of using that money for legitimate programs that would reduce crime, they have just thrown their money away on a completely useless lawsuit everyone knew they would lose. For what? To make a political statement? It's a shameful waste," he said.
July 13, 2018
Columbus Dispatch - Columbus’ bump-stock ban unconstitutional, but judge upholds gun ban for violent felons
Ohioans for Concealed Carry and the Buckeye Firearms Foundation had sued the city in June, arguing that Columbus had violated the state’s pre-emption law by passing ordinances to regulate guns. A similar lawsuit against the city of Cincinnati has not been decided.
July 10, 2018
Washington Times - 'Bump stock' ban on hold in Columbus, Ohio, as judge weighs larger legal issues
Dean Rieck, executive director of the Buckeye Firearms Association, another group challenging the rules, said Columbus knew in advance that the ban would violate state law — and that it would prompt legal action.
“It is sad that citizens must file a lawsuit to restore the rule of law,” Mr. Rieck said in an email. “We must remind cities across Ohio that their power is limited, and they must obey state law just like the rest of us.”
July 9, 2018
Ashland Source - Hillsdale schools seek community input on arming staff
Recognizing the idea may be controversial and desiring transparency about the district's intentions, the district is soliciting community input from district residents via an online survey, according to Supt. Steve Dickerson.
Along with the survey, Dickerson posted an "Armed Staff in Schools Article" to the district's website. The "article" contains a Q&A from Coloradans For Civil Liberties and refers readers to the website of a program called FASTER (Faculty/Administrator Safety Training & Emergency Response), which trains school staff to use firearms in violence response situations.
The program is funded by Buckeye Firearms Foundation, a non-profit arm of the Buckeye Firearms Association.
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Dickerson said while some people have suggested the information he posted from Buckeye Firearms Association is biased, he felt a need to post it to clear up misconceptions.
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Dickerson said what likely would happen first, if the district decides to proceed, is the district would ask for volunteers from among the staff. Ideally, Dickerson said, volunteers would be spread among the district's three buildings.
From there, volunteers would have to pass a training, likely from the FASTER program.
"I was very sold on the intensiveness of the program," Dickerson said, adding that the program "has no problem letting people know if they're not right for this role.
"I'm very comfortable that the program would weed people out in a hurry," he said.
July 1, 2018
Agence France-Presse - US teachers quietly train to carry guns into school
When Donald Trump proposed arming teachers to deter school shooters, the overwhelming response from educators was horror. Yet teachers in Colorado are taking action to carry concealed guns to school.
The non-profit group FASTER, set up after 20 small children were killed in 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School, has trained more than 1,300 US school staff, mostly in Ohio, on how to use a handgun in the event of a school shooting.
Sixty-three of them have been trained in Colorado, home to the 1999 Columbine High School shooting. The swing state has a Democratic governor and both a Democrat and a Republican in the US Senate.
"I think it's scary to people to bring a weapon into school," conceded Katie, a first-grade teacher in Jefferson County, west of state capital Denver, who declined to give her second name.
"They just see the bad side, not the positive side of how guns can save people," the 27-year-old said.
She was a student this week at the three-day, $1,000 course in Commerce City outside Denver.
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As shootings multiply and Congress remains paralyzed, FASTER saw an uptick in business, even before President Donald Trump supported arming teachers in the wake of a Valentine's Day massacre in Florida.
"I had to add four additional classes to our schedule to meet demand this year, but I don't think it was related to Trump," Ohio director Joe Eaton said.
This week, 24 Colorado school staff, including principals, teachers and pastors, attended a three-day training led by four active duty law enforcement officers.Colorado law prevents anyone from carrying weapons onto school grounds with the exception of school resource officers - law enforcement responsible for safety in schools - and security guards.
Many on the course are prohibited from being armed at school, but hope their training will help their districts change their minds.
The curriculum includes handgun basics, range shooting, casualty care tactics and roleplaying with an active shooter and simulated fire.
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By the end of the course, 21 of the 24 participants met the Colorado Peace Officer Standards and Training requirements in handgun proficiency, the same level for police officers who graduate from the academy.
Staff who receive POST qualification could be considered by their school districts to be security guards in order to legally carry concealed guns on school premises.
FASTER encourages schools to announce that they have armed staff as a deterrent for would-be shooters.
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FASTER is trying to schedule classes in Indiana and Wyoming, and see if there is enough demand to hold classes in New York state next year.
June 29, 2018
Columbus Dispatch - Group tied to Bloomberg helping city fight gun regulations lawsuit
Ohioans for Concealed Carry and the Buckeye Firearms Foundation sued Columbus last week, saying the city overstepped its home-rule powers when it created ordinances violating state law that requires uniform laws across the state to regulate guns.
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Ohioans for Concealed Carry and Buckeye Firearms specifically challenged the city’s ban on bump stocks, which convert semiautomatic weapons into near-full automatic fire, and an ordinance that made carrying a gun while under disability a misdemeanor.
June 27, 2018
Cleveland Plain Dealer - Akron shooting of suspected intruder might be self-defense, but unclear if Castle Doctrine applies, experts say
Gun rights advocates say the Castle Doctrine is important because it allows residents to assume they are in danger if someone is breaking into their home. It lets residents use deadly force to defend themselves "without worrying about other factors," said Dean Rieck, the executive director of the Buckeye Firearms Association.
"The idea was pretty simple - we didn't want the state second-guessing people when they felt their life was in danger," Rieck said. "I think the overwhelming number of people would agree that when you're in your home, you have the right to defend yourself."
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Rieck dismissed the notion that the Castle Doctrine gives a resident a free pass to use deadly force against intruders in their homes. The law does include exceptions that prevent people from shooting invited guests or anyone who doesn't put the resident's life in imminent danger.
"It's not a get-out-of-jail-free card," he said. "The police are still going to make sure the facts match your explanation."
Self-defense claims could change if the state's House of Representatives passes a so-called "stand your ground" bill that would eliminate the duty to retreat before using deadly force. The vote on the bill could happen this week, House Speaker Ryan Smith said.
[Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence founder] Hoover said her organization is strongly against the bill, which the Buckeye Firearms Association and other gun-rights organizations have supported.
June 26, 2018
Guns.com - Judge suspends enforcement of Ohio city’s bump stock ban
A county court in the Buckeye State has sided with a pair of gun rights groups challenging the city of Columbus over their recently enacted prohibition on bump stocks.
Judge David Cain in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas on Friday issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting Columbus from enforcing their bump stock ban pending a July 9 hearing on a lawsuit brought against the city. Two Second Amendment organizations, Buckeye Firearms Foundation and Ohioans for Concealed Carry, filed the challenge on Thursday, citing that state preemption law prevents the city from regulating firearms.
“This is important because Ohio used to have a confusing patchwork of gun laws,” said Dean Rieck, executive director of the Buckeye Firearms Association. “Merely crossing a city border could turn an otherwise law-abiding citizen into a criminal. More than a decade ago, legislators wisely decided to correct this problem by creating a uniform system of state law and forbidding cities from passing any laws which conflict with those laws.”
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The groups have also filed a similar lawsuit against Cincinnati’s new bump stock law.
June 26, 2018
Columbus Dispatch - Ohio House delays vote on one gun bill, revamps another
Opponents say the bill would give those involved in a conflict less incentive to try to de-escalate or escape without using lethal force. But supporters, including the Buckeye Firearms Association, say it properly places the burden of proof on the prosecution, and that the law should not require any retreat from a potentially violent encounter.
June 25, 2018
Dayton Daily News - Ohio gun rights could expand under so-called ‘stand your ground’ law
The bill, with 38 co-sponsors in the House, has backing from pro-gun rights groups such as Ohio Gun Owners and Buckeye Firearms Association but it is opposed by the ACLU of Ohio, League of Women Voters of Ohio, Moms Demand Action, Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence and March for Our Lives.
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Supporters say the bill will clear up a legal gray area faced by would-be crime victims in moments of danger.
“Why are we putting the duty on the victim of a crime? That is wrong,” said Jim Irvine, Buckeye Firearms Association president. “We should not be putting duties on someone who is about to suffer — and is suffering — a legal force threat?”
“When else do we have a duty to jump through a hoop before you defend your life?”
June 25, 2018
Columbus Dispatch - Court order temporarily blocks Columbus’ gun ordinances
Columbus must halt enforcement of its bump-stock ban and an ordinance that made carrying a gun while under disability a misdemeanor as a Franklin County court decides a lawsuit brought by gun rights groups.
Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge David E. Cain granted a temporary restraining order Friday that was requested by Ohioans for Concealed Carry and the Buckeye Firearms Foundation.
Those two groups sued the city last week, arguing that Columbus violated state pre-emption laws by banning bump stocks, which effectively convert semiautomatic firearms to full automatic fire, and instituted a misdemeanor violation for carrying a gun while under disability.
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City officials have said they believe the regulations are reasonable and that they plan to defend them in court. Attorneys for Ohioans for Concealed Carry and the Buckeye Firearms Foundation argued that the new laws were an “abuse” of home-rule power.
June 25, 2018
WOSU (Columus NPR) - Judge Temporarily Blocks Columbus Bump Stock Ban
A Franklin County judge has temporarily blocked two gun control laws recently passed by Columbus City Council, following a lawsuit from pro-gun groups.
Court of Common Pleas Judge David Cain issued a temporary restraining order on Friday against two city ordinances passed in May: one that banned the possession or use of bump stocks, and another that banned people from carrying a gun while under protection orders or convicted of domestic violence.
Buckeye Firearms Association and Ohioans for Concealed Carry sued Columbus on Thursday over the laws, arguing that the state blocks municipalities from passing local gun control restrictions. The groups also sued Cincinnati over a similar bump stock ban.
"These lawsuits are not about the bump stock per se, it's about the rule of law in Ohio," said Dean Rieke, executive director of Buckeye Firearms, on Friday. "Because it's our belief that they're passing these laws as a test to see what they can get away with."
June 25, 2018
WSYX/WTTE (ABC/Fox Columbus) - Columbus' ban on bump stocks hits a bump in the road
The city says bump stocks are accessories, which Ohio law lets local municipalities regulate. Buckeye Firearms and Ohioans for Concealed Carry, the groups that filed the lawsuit, say cities can’t regulate firearms. They say bump stocks aren’t accessories, but components, which are considered part of the firearm and therefore not subject to city regulations.
June 22, 2018
Fox News - Gun rights groups protest Ohio cities' regulations as 'abuse of power'
Gun rights activists in Ohio are suing the cities of Columbus and Cincinnati over recently enacted gun regulations that they regard as an “abuse of power.”
The lawsuits, filed by Ohioans for Concealed Carry and the Buckeye Firearms Foundation, maintains that the gun regulations violate state pre-emption laws, the Columbus Dispatch reported.
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The Ohio gun rights groups have requested that the new ordinances be suspended until their lawsuits are settled.
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Dean Rieke, executive director of the Buckeye Firearms Association, agreed.
"These lawsuits are not about the bump stock per se, it's about the rule of law in Ohio," Rieke told WOSU Radio in Columbus. "Because it's our belief that they're passing these laws as a test to see what they can get away with."
Attorneys representing the gun rights groups have said classifying bump stocks as a gun accessory rather than a part is “a dubious form of legal gymnastics meant to circumvent the intent and meaning.”
June 22, 2018
CourthouseNews.com- Gun Advocates Sue Cincinnati and Columbus
Ohio gun advocates sued Cincinnati and Columbus this week, claiming city laws banning “trigger activators” — bump stocks — on guns are unconstitutional.
Two lawsuits in state courts filed on the first day of summer claim that city ordinances outlawing specific parts and components of guns are unconstitutional.
In the Cincinnati case, the Buckeye Firearms Foundation, Ohioans for Concealed Carry and Jordan Telting sued the city in Hamilton County Court.
In Columbus, the Buckeye Firearms Foundation, Ohioans for Concealed Carry and Gary Witt challenged an emergency ordinance banning trigger activators within city limits. The city law would make it illegal to possess, use or sell trigger activators.
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“Ohioans for Concealed Carry and Buckeye Firearms Foundation have sued Columbus over a violation of state law,” said David Kessler, with Haynes, Kessler, Myers and Postalakis, representing the plaintiffs in both lawsuits.
“The Columbus ordinance banning ‘trigger activators’ is unconstitutional under Ohio law because Ohio has passed a firearm preemption statute.”
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The gun advocates say that Muething and Klein have a duty to apply for an injunction to restrain the misapplication city money, and are abusing their powers.
They seek an injunction enjoining the cities from enforcing the laws, and from spending city money to implement them.
June 22, 2018
Columbus Dispatch - DeWine sides with gun groups in lawsuit against Columbus
DeWine’s office is seeking to file amicus or friend-of-the-court briefs in the actions brought by Ohioans for Concealed Carry and the Buckeye Firearms Foundation.
June 21, 2018
WCMH (NBC Columbus - Gun rights groups sue Columbus over bump stock ordinance
Buckeye Firearms Association and Ohioans for Concealed Carry are named as plaintiffs in lawsuits filed against the cities of Columbus and Cincinnati over recently-introduced bump stock ordinances.
According to a press release from Buckeye Firearms Association, the plaintiffs claim the ordinances violate Ohio law.
June 21, 2018
WLWT (NBC Cincinnati) - City of Cincinnati sued over bump stock ban ordinance
The city of Cincinnati is heading to court.
Two lawsuits were filed Thursday, against Cincinnati and Columbus, for local ordinances that ban the use of bump stocks within city limits.
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Buckeye Firearms Foundation and Ohioans for Concealed Carry filed the lawsuits, claiming the bans are unconstitutional and violate Ohio Revised Code 9.68.
"Ohio Revised Code 9.68 pre-empts the home rule powers of municipalities to regulate firearms, their components and ammo," Dean Rieck said. Reick is executive director of Buckeye Firearms Association.
June 21, 2018
Gongwer News Service - Bump Stock Bans Prompt Lawsuits Against Columbus, Cincinnati
Two of Ohio's largest cities are facing lawsuits from gun rights advocates after they enacted bans on "bump stocks."
The lawsuits, one of which was filed in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, alleges that state law preempts Cincinnati and Columbus from using home rule powers to ban the possession, use or acquisition of the firearm accessories that enhance the rate of fire.
"This is important because Ohio used to have a confusing patchwork of gun laws," Dean Rieck, executive director of the Buckeye Firearms Association, said in a statement. "Merely crossing a city border could turn an otherwise law-abiding citizen into a criminal. More than a decade ago, legislators wisely decided to correct this problem by creating a uniform system of state law and forbidding cities from passing any laws which conflict with those laws."
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In filing the lawsuit, the groups cited the 2010 Ohio Supreme Court case in which in a 5-2 opinion it upheld the state's preemption law.
The groups said that both cities rejected overtures to not put the bans in place.
"It's unfortunate that we must sue cities to force them to obey state law," Mr. Rieck said. "But we simply cannot stand by and allow activist city councils to break the law and violate the rights of Ohio's four million gun owners."
June 21, 2018
WSYX/WTTE (ABC/FOX Columbus) - Gun rights groups sue Columbus over bump stock ban
There’s a legal fight heading to court over the City of Columbus’s recent gun regulations. City Council members passed legislation this spring to ban bump stocks as well as keep guns away from people who have been convicted of domestic violence offenses. Two gun rights group sued Thursday arguing the City wasn’t allowed to regulate guns in any way under Ohio law.
Buckeye Firearms and Ohioans for Concealed Carry filed the lawsuit in Franklin County Common Pleas.
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Buckeye Firearms and Ohioans for Concealed Carry also filed a lawsuit against the City of Cincinnati. Cincinnati voted to ban bump stocks.
June 21, 2018
Columbus Dispatch - Gun-rights groups sue to block Columbus regulations
Ohioans for Concealed Carry and Buckeye Firearms Foundation have sued the city of Columbus over gun regulations the city adopted in May.
The lawsuit filed Thursday in Franklin County Common Pleas Court alleges that the city violated state pre-emption laws when it banned bump stocks and made carrying a gun while under a disability a misdemeaner.
Gun ordinances the city passed in May "are an abuse of the city's home-rule power," the lawsuit alleges.
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Ohioans for Concealed Carry and Buckeye Firearms Foundation also requested a remporary restraining order that would suspend the new ordinances until a judge rules on the case.
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Attorneys representing the groups sent letters to [City Attorney Zach] Klein in May and June outlining their concerns about the gun proposals. They wrote that the city's attempt to classify bump stocks - which are used to, in effect, convert semiahtumatic rifles to nearly full automatic fire - as a gun accessory rather than a part "is a dubious form of legal gymnastics meant to circumvent the intent and meaning" of Ohio's preemption law.
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The June letter from the groups' attorneys argued that the city did not have the right to make possessing a weapon under a disability a misdemeanoer when it already is a felony at the state and federal levels.
"Our clients have no quarrels with keeping firearms out of the hands of dangerous people, but the ordinance, as written, is unlawful," the attorneys wrote.
June 20, 2018
WOSU (Columus NPR) - Ohio House Planning To Pass 'Stand Your Ground'
While "Stand Your Ground" is supported by pro-gun groups such as Buckeye Firearms Association, it's opposed by the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association and many state public defenders - who say it "will probably result in more death."
June 20, 2018
WBNS (CBS Columbus) - Gun groups file suit against Columbus, Cincinnati for "unlawful" gun laws
“What’s at stake here is the integrity of Ohio’s Revised Code 9.68 and Ohio law in general,” Chuck LaRosa said.
LaRosa is with Ohioans for Concealed Carry, which is one of two groups suing the city. The other is Buckeye Firearms Foundation. The pro-gun groups are taking aim at the city and City Attorney Zach Klein because of its “common sense” gun laws.
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Ohioans for Concealed Carry and Buckeye Firearms Foundation also say the implementation of the new laws is an inappropriate and unlawful expenditure of city funds.
June 19, 2018
Columbus Dispatch - Speaker: Ohio House won’t pass Kasich’s gun bill; stand-your-ground likely to pass
A bill containing six gun proposals from a bipartisan panel formed by Kasich is causing House Republicans “a lot of consternation,” said new Speaker Ryan Smith, R-Bidwell.
Rep. Michael Henne, R-Clayton, who has had National Rifle Association support in the past and was endorsed in 2016 by the Buckeye Firearms Association, introduced the bill in April, saying, “No one should have any objections to this. This is just sensible stuff.”
But his fellow Republican legislators remain loath to pass any type of gun restrictions.
“There is no gun law in America that’s going to stop a lot of this,” said Smith, who was elected as House speaker two weeks ago following a contentious fight within the House GOP caucus. “Criminals don’t abide by the law, by their very nature.”
June 18, 2018
NBC News - Teachers and guns: Inside a firearm training where educators learn to take down shooters
On a recent morning in Newcomerstown, Ohio, a row of teachers stood in a line with guns drawn and moved slowly toward a row of steel plate targets.
As the teachers advanced, bullets pinged off the metal with each round they fired.
The teachers had come to take part in Faster Saves Lives, a voluntary training program run by an Ohio-based nonprofit that has taught more than 1,300 school staff members to carry and use firearms since 2013. (Faster stands for Faculty/Administrator Safety Training & Emergency Response.)
“My students are my kids, basically, and I want to be able to protect them just like I would protect my own son,” said a 34-year-old Ohio teacher of students with special needs who participated in the program and spoke on the condition of anonymity out of concern that by going public, she or her school could be targeted by a shooter.
The teacher is one of 400 who will be trained by Faster this year, said Joe Eaton, the program director for Faster. Even before the Parkland shooting in February, classes were filling up within 24 hours. Since then, Eaton has scheduled four extra classes in response to the high demand.
"Schools are realizing they have to have a plan for themselves of how to save lives until the professionals get there," Eaton said.
As state legislatures and school boards across the country grapple with arming teachers in the wake of recent school shootings, a growing number of districts have sought to train their staff, and Faster’s leaders are in talks to expand their regular trainings into 12 other states beyond Ohio. Despite concerns from insurance companies, gun-control advocates and many teachers who say that arming educators will make schools more dangerous, the number of trained teachers is likely to continue to grow.
Over the past several months, as the toll of school shootings has risen, many districts have either approved of or are considering proposals to arm teachers.
“Even people who say, ‘We don’t want guns in our schools,’ well, when an event happens, you’re calling the police and you’re hoping they bring guns,” said Jim Irvine, president of the Buckeye Firearms Foundation, a pro-gun group that runs the Faster training in Ohio.
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Ohio is one of the states where a teacher can bring a gun to school with the approval of a principal or district. Some districts, like Sidney City School District in the western part of the state, requires firearms to be kept locked in biometric safes, until they are needed in an emergency. The Ohio special needs teacher who completed the Faster program this spring said she's hoping she'll be able to carry a gun with her as she moves from classroom to classroom throughout the school day.
"I need to have that weapon on me at all times in case something would happen,” she said. “I know the other teachers feel the same way."
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In some Ohio districts, uniformed and armed officers cost $100,000 per person to insure, according to The New York Times. It is unclear what it will cost to insure trained teachers.
But Irvine, who runs the group that oversees Faster, said he believes this is the only way forward to protect school children.
“We protect things of value with armed security,” he said, “and our children are our most precious resource.”
June 18, 2018
WOSU (Columbus NPR) - 'Stand Your Ground' Bill Advances In Ohio House. What's At Stake?
Pro-gun groups like the Buckeye Firearms Association have said this expands their ability to protect themselves. But as for the self-defense portion of the bill, Young has a theory about why the prosecutors don’t like it.
“They just don’t want to prove this element because it makes their job a little harder,” [State public defender Tim] Young says.
[Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association Executive director Louis] Tobin admits it’s difficult to argue when 49 states already do it this way.
June 12, 2018
Ernest Emerson Podcast- #9 - Jim Irvine from FASTER
Buckeye Firearms Foundation President Jim Irvine was a guest on "Ernest Emerson Podcast." Ernest and Jim discuss the merits of the program, explain in detail the training and arming of teachers, how to survive an attack of an active shooter, and how to care for the wounded. Especially of interest is the arming and training of school faculty. A must listen for doubters and skeptics to help shed some light on the specifics. Click here to download to the podcast.
May 25, 2018
WLWT (NBC Cincinnati) - Groups gather at Washington Park to raise awareness about gun violence
Dean Rieck, the executive director of the Buckeye Firearms Association, shared this statement with WLWT on Saturday:
"More gun laws are simply not the answer. Every time there's a mass murder, the same people demand the same laws and in most cases, they are unrelated to the facts of the case. What would stop or discourage these incidents is a mindshift in our society. We need to stop preaching the failed concept of making people helpless which makes schools and churches soft targets for dangerous people. These deranged murderers don't attack police stations or other hard targets because they know someone can stop them quickly. If the same were true of our schools, you'd see these incidents drop in number rapidly.
Also, if the media would REFUSE to make these murders famous by publicizing their names and faces, that would help as well. Many of them seek attention and our society should deny them that. Your news station should stop making murderers famous and we'd ask the same of every media outlet in Ohio and across the country. Report the facts but NEVER mention the name or show the face of the killer."
May 25, 2018
New England Public Radio - Documentary Examines Arming Teachers Through The Eyes Of An Ohio Community
The gun association that was sponsoring this firearms training -- they were willing to speak on-camera about what they were doing. And you got into a couple of the classes.
We did. They actually gave us sort of remarkable access to their program, and we were able to visit three or four of their trainings, actually.
Audio clip:
Somebody pulls out a gun and start shooting. How long does it take somebody to pick up the phone and call 911? We don't know. The guess is about five minutes. To the people who are under the gun, you are the most important person in the world.
This is the Buckeye Firearms Association, which is pro-gun advocacy lobbying group that's really pretty effective at what they do. I mean, they've actually been responsible, I think, for getting a lot of pro-gun legislation passed in Ohio. They are now offering this three-day training specifically targeted at school personnel.
May 25, 2018
NewsMax.com - Kasich Called 'Radical Gun Control Militant' for Supporting 'Red Flag' Law
"They all have some issues," Henne told the Times-Reporter, referring to members of the National Rifle Association, Buckeye Firearms Association and Ohioans for Concealed Carry. "We are working through the issues. There will be some changes. I know of some changes I am already going to make."
May 24, 2018
Columbus Dispatch - John Kasich called 'radical gun control militant' during gun bill hearing
[Chairman] Anielski said it important for those opposing the bill to read it and sit down Henne to discuss the contents and attempts to reach a compromise.
[Representative] Henne said he has met with members of the National Rifle Association, Buckeye Firearms Association and Ohioans for Concealed Carry to try and reach common ground for the legislation.
"They all have some issues," Henne said. "We are working through those issues. There will be some changes. I know of some changes I am already going to make."
May 23, 2018
WSPD AM 1370 Toledo
Buckeye Firearms Association's Jim Irvine appeared on WSPD AM 1370 Toledo with host Scott Sands.
May 23, 2018
WXIX (Fox Cincinnati) - Controversial 'Stand Your Ground' gun bill advances in Ohio House
Several groups, including the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association and ACLU of Ohio, have said they oppose House Bill 228, while others including the Buckeye Firearms Association and Ohio Gun Owners have endorsed it.
May 22, 2018
Dayton Daily News - Ohio step closer to having ‘Stand your ground’ gun law
The bill has backing from pro-gun rights groups such as Ohio Gun Owners and Buckeye Firearms Association but it is opposed by the ACLU of Ohio, League of Women Voters of Ohio, Moms Demand Action, Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence and March for Our Lives.
May 21, 2018
WHK AM 1420 Cleveland
Buckeye Firearms Association's Jim Irvine appeared on WHK AM 1420 Cleveland with host Bob Franz.
May 18, 2018
WBNS (CBS Columbus) - Ohio organizations weigh in on possible solutions for school shootings
Santa Fe. One shooter. 10 dead. 10 wounded. One familiar conversation that Dean Rieck is tired of having.
"It's not a conversation," he said. "It ends up being a political debate. We haven't decided yet in our society that we want to make schools secure. And, when we make that decision, they'll be secure. Because we already know how to do it."
Rieck is the executive director of Buckeye Firearms Association. He says if you want to stop school shootings - arm the teachers.
"And there are schools today in Ohio who have armed security in the schools," he said. "The teachers. The staff. The administration."
In the last five years, he says Buckeye Firearms Association has spent more than $1 million training 1,300 teachers in Ohio not only to carry guns in schools, but also to render medical aid. He says 400 more teachers will be trained this year and there's a waiting list of more than 2,000 other teachers.
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"This may not be the only solution," Rieck said. "But, it's one solution."
May 16, 2018
WTVG (ABC Toledo) - Local gun reform advocates back bills working through Ohio House, Senate
In a statement to 13abc, a representative from the Buckeye Firearms Association says in part:
"[The bill] seeks to expand the number of Ohioans who cannot legally own firearms by making offences such as gambling or bribery disqualifiers even though they are not violent crimes," said Dean Rieck. "It seeks to repeal entire sections of law that would eliminate any possibility of regaining firearm rights if previously disqualified. It seeks to enact so-called 'extreme risk protection orders' that provide no due process before confiscating personal firearms."
May 15, 2018
AmericanRifleman.org- Strength in Numbers: Women Show Up for Dallas 2018 NRA Annual Meetings
The WNEB committee, comprised of NRA Board members NRA Past President and WNEB founder Sandy Froman, Maria Heil (Second Amendment Sisters) and Linda Walker (Buckeye Firearms Association)—all stewards in the fight to maintain the freedoms ensured under the Second Amendment—kicked off the event with individual welcomes and the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by a motivational greeting from the woman who, more than anyone, epitomizes the word “energy” during the NRA Annual Meetings: Susan LaPierre.
May 14, 2018
WSYX/WTTE (ABC/FOX Columbus) - Columbus City Council passes four ordinances aimed at reducing gun violence
Cincinnati also took action on banning bump stocks. The Buckeye Firearms Association has threatened to sue that city over their legislation.
The association’s executive director told WSYX/WTTE he couldn’t comment on Columbus’ legislation because lawyers are still looking over the language.
May 10, 2018
Cincinnati Enquirer - Groups prepared to sue Cincinnati over bump stock ban
Two Second Amendment advocacy groups have told Cincinnati they could sue over the bump stock ban passed by City Council Wednesday.
Ohioans for Concealed Carry (OFCC) and the Buckeye Firearms Association have both sent letters to the city suggesting it could face expensive litigation.
On Wednesday, City Council passed an ordinance making it a misdemeanor to use, own or possess "trigger activators" defined as devices that accelerate the rate of fire of guns. Bump stocks are named specifically.
Both firearm groups argue that the ordinance violates Ohio's so-called preemption law enacted in 2007.
The state law states Ohio residents "without further license, permission, restriction, delay, or process, may own, possess, purchase, sell, transfer, transport, store, or keep any firearm, part of a firearm, its components, and its ammunition” in accordance with state and federal law.
The Buckeye Firearms Association said the law overrides home rule on the matter of firearms, meaning Ohio cities cannot pass laws tightening or loosening gun regulations established at the state and federal level.
"This really isn't about bump stocks," said Dean Rieck, executive director of the association. "It's about the rule of law in Ohio. Cities can pass all kinds of laws. But they can't pass gun laws. We thought everyone understood that by now, but apparently not. So if we have to sue to once again to make the point, that's exactly what we'll do."
"We have no choice, we have to sue them for this,” Rieck told The Enquirer Thursday.
May 10, 2018
IdeaStream.org - One Gun Control Group Tries To Seize The Moment Post-Parkland
Gun rights groups like Buckeye Firearms Association have long-established ties in the Ohio legislature.
Buckeye Firearms executive director Dean Rieck said this push for gun control will fade, like others before it.
“If you look at some of these groups like Moms Demand Action or Every Town - if you take away the politics, take away the money, there's nothing left," said Rieck.
May 9, 2018
The Economist - Democrats and Republicans breathe a sigh of relief after the primaries
Mindful of many Midwestern voters’ attachment to the second amendment, Mr Cordray advocates only moderate gun-control policies. The Buckeye Firearms Association, a gun lobby, endorsed him in both 2006, when he ran for state treasurer, and in 2010, when he ran for attorney-general.
May 8, 2018
ThisWeekNews.com - Myers: Worthington’s gun-control letter sparked vital conversation
Attention to the hot-button issue only increased when a statewide gun-rights-advocacy organization put out a call for members to make an appearance at the meeting.
On May 2, the Buckeye Firearms Association released an “alert” with the headline, “Worthington City Council is considering a gun ban.” “If Worthington moves forward with any law that violates state law on guns, Buckeye Firearms Association will file a complaint and sue the city,” the statement read.
However, the council’s draft of the letter specifically mentioned the city’s inability to ban guns and made a plea for changes at the state level.
The Buckeye Firearms Association is an organization that represents a “family of highly effective pro-gun organizations,” according to its website.
Four audience members who spoke against the letter referenced the association, and its executive director, Dean Rieck, was in attendance.
In the organization’s “alert,” people with questions were directed to contact Paul Dorothy – Rachael Dorothy’s husband – who is listed as the president of a Facebook page called Worthington for Good Government.
May 7, 2018
Politifact.com - Fact-checking the 2018 Ohio primary
DeWine did receiving failing grades from the NRA based on his record in the U.S. Senate. As attorney general he has taken several stances more aligned with the NRA and no longer supports an assault weapons ban. By 2014, he had clearly earned the support of the Buckeye Firearms Association when it endorsed his re-election.
May 3, 2018
Toledo Blade - GOP slugfest comes down to the wire
Mr. DeWine went into this primary race seeming to hold all the cards — money, the state party endorsement, and backing from key GOP constituent groups such as Ohio Right to Life and Buckeye Firearms Association.
May 2, 2018
Cleveland Plain Dealer - Find out where the 2018 Ohio gubernatorial candidates stand on these issues ahead of the May primary
Richard Cordray, the former head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, hasn't been in line with much of the Democratic Party's base on guns. Cordray as attorney general was part of the lawsuit to end individual cities' bans on assault weapons. The Buckeye Firearms Association endorsed Cordray in both the 2006’s treasurer’s race and in 2010 when he ran for attorney general.
May 1, 2018
Dayton Daily News - Ohio Republican U.S. Senate candidates fight for Trump voters
The Buckeye Firearms Association director told this newspaper the organization has not advocated for students carrying firearms in schools and does not plan to do so.
April 30, 2018
Columbus Dispatch - Gun group offers free Glock for Mike DeWine answers to survey
“Mike DeWine and Jon Husted have done more for to protect and expand Second Amendment rights than any other candidate in this race; that’s why we’re proud to be endorsed by Buckeye Firearms Association. We look forward to working cooperatively with all Ohio gun groups as governor in 2019,” said campaign spokesman Ryan Stubenrauch.
April 26, 2018
The Journal-News - Community reaction mixed after Madison Schools decides to arm staff
This resolution is part of the district’s participation in the FASTER Saves Lives program, school officials said Tuesday.
The FASTER program — Faculty/Administrator Safety Training and Emergency Response — consists of a 26-hour training focused on armed response, crisis management, and emergency medical aid, the district said. Staff participation in the FASTER program will be voluntary.
“I hope our community understands that the FASTER program is so much more than just about arming staff in our schools,” French said in a statement. “The training that is part of the program will make our district more safe and our staff better prepared to handle an emergency situation.”
The FASTER program has trained more than 1,091 school teachers and staff members from 226 districts in 12 states, including staff from 76 of Ohio’s 88 counties, Madison officials said.
April 26, 2018
WJW (FOX Cleveland) - Tough lesson: Ohio teachers train to have firearms in class
Down a long, remote gravel road in rural Central Ohio, more than a dozen educators and school employees arrive early on a Saturday morning recently after making the most difficult decision of their careers.
“It’s definitely been a lot of heavy thinking,” said a Cleveland area teacher who asked to only be identified as Cory.
They’ll be learning how to stop an active killer and also properly carry a firearm at school through a non-profit 501C-3 program called FASTER Saves Lives, which stands for Faculty Administrator Safety Training and Emergency Response.
The program was created by concerned parents and John Benner after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012.
At the time, Benner was training school resource officer nationally for NASRO, the National Association of School Resource Officers.
Director Jim Irvine says, that’s when he realized that the school staff needed to be trained and carrying weapons, because they were the only ones there when the shootings began, and law enforcement response times can vary greatly depending on location.
“The thing most people don’t understand is the timeline on these events,” said Irvine, “The killing continues until either the killer quits or he is stopped.”
The training was designed by nationally recognized law enforcement, weapons and medical experts and is free to applicants who are approved by their district.
“We train people who have permission from the school and the school sends them to us,” said Irvine.
A growing number of church employees and congregation members are also enrolling in the program.
They must have a conceal carry permit before starting the program and complete a one day FASTER gun course, which was modeled after the Ohio Peace Officers Training Academy.
Program Director Joe Eaton says, they learn important skills like, “how to draw from a holster, how to shoot one handed, how to shoot weak hand ed and shooting while moving.“
The qualification standards are higher than both the U.S. Army’s basic marksmanship and Ohio police officers. To pass, they must shoot with 93% accuracy.
Once that course is complete they begin a 3 days and 27 hours of emotionally and physically grueling scenario based instruction, where they learn military style tactics and also how to de-escalate a situation.
But they say, the traumatic care medical training is perhaps most important of all.
“The vast majority of these events are over before any law enforcement get inside and even longer before medics can enter a building,” said Irvine, “According to the most recent statistics 90% of people shot with firearms survive, unless you’re in a school the death rate is 5 times higher.”
Irvine says, in many cases the victims “bleed out” before help can arrive so the teachers and staff are given “trauma care” medical kits and taught skills like how to apply a tourniquet.
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After the recent mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, FL FASTER has been overwhelmed by districts across the country who interested in signing up.
That’s on top of already training 1,300 employees in over 200 districts from 12 states.
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Irvine responded saying, “The vast majority of school staff want nothing to do with carrying a gun and there’s nothing wrong with that- they’re good people but there’s also nothing wrong those who will respond.”
Training and range hours continue for teachers once they are at home. They must maintain qualifications just like police officers and in many cases begin training with them.
According to Irvine, one of their trained teachers in Arapaho County Colorado was able to disarm a student without ever using force or anyone getting hurt.
April 26, 2018
WTOV (NBC Steubenville) - NEWS9 Special Assignment: Lesson plan on defense
At a shooting range in Coshocton County earlier this month, teachers, administrators and even cafeteria workers or custodians were learning how to handle a firearm on school grounds.
FASTER Saves Lives training
Targets were in place for the 16 people embarking on this particular FASTER Saves Lives training.
“If there's going to be firearms in the schools, we want the people with them to have access to the best training that we know of,” said Joe Eaton, program director with http://fastersaveslives.org/.
FASTER Saves Lives is a safety and emergency response course designed for schools. It's run through donations and some state funds so up to five people from every district can train for free. Additional staff costs $1,500 each.
“There are so many innocent people in the schools that an errant shot is just not permissible in a school environment, and that's something we drive home really hard to the schools all throughout the training,” Eaton said.
It starts with the basics like trying a grip on a ruler.
Within 2 hours, the participants went from practicing with a ruler to firing live rounds. And they're expected to get in 300 shots before the end of the session.
And this is just the primer. A full 3-day course will follow.
Tougher requirements
Requirements for passing FASTER are more difficult than those for law enforcement.
The handgun qualification for the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy requires officers to take 25 shots. They can miss five, and still pass.
At FASTER Saves Lives, they add on three additional shooting-while-moving shots, but staff can only miss two overall.
April 26, 2018
WTVG (ABC Toledo) - School Violence: A Search for Solutions brought students, experts together to address the issue
"I represent over 2,500 teachers and not one of our teachers is raising their hands to say that [they] want to be the armed guard," he said. "We do not need to be the front-line security office for students and staff.
Gun rights activist with the Buckeye Fire Arms Association and panelist, Joe Eaton, also responded to the question.
"I have to clarify that," he said. "The people that are in the building when the violence starts are the front line, no matter what. "
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Conversations and debate about gun control also took center stage at times. Eaton made the case that the AR-15 has been around since the 50s and called mass shootings a modern issue.
April 26, 2018
Toledo Blade - Guns, mental health, bullying dominate town hall on school violence
WTVG-TV, Channel 13, and The Blade teamed up to host a school violence town hall at Veterans Hall, and it didn’t take long for guns to pop up in the conversation.
Several questions were lobbed at Buckeye Firearms Association spokesman Joe Eaton, including one from a student asking about stricter gun control.
“The problem is not related to the guns,” Mr. Eaton said. “Semi-autos have been in existence for 100 years. Up until the late 1960s, there were no background checks. If the firearms were the problem, why haven't they been a problem until recently?”
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The discussion shifted to arming teachers, which the Buckeye Firearms Association advocates. Mr. Eaton said his group has trained more than1,000 teachers.
April 26, 2018
WCBE (PBS Columbus) - Pro-Gun Group Threatens To Sue Columbus Over Proposed Gun Control Ordinances
A pro-gun group says it is prepared to sue the City of Columbus if the group determines proposed gun control laws violate state law.
The city is holding a public hearing tonight at 5 p.m. on eleven proposed changes contained in four ordinances. The changes include banning bump stocks, banning gun sales in neighborhoods, prohibiting the sale of imitation guns to minors, and better protecting domestic violence victims. The Buckeye Firearms Association says it will sue if the ordinances violate state law.
April 26, 2018
WLWT (NBC Cincinnati) - School boards in Ohio not required to reveal if educators can carry guns in class
Shouting, 'You're all going to die," a man played the role of a mass killer in a school shooting demonstration in Hilliard, Ohio.
Candy Petticord played the role of the shooter's first victim.
"And you're standing there (saying), 'They're all dead,'" a visibly shaken Petticord said immediately after the drill. "(It) scared the crap out of me."
The Buckeye Firearms Association organized the event to promote the group's push to let more teachers pack heat.
"We've had armed staff in our school district for the last five years," said Jeff Staggs, superintendent of Newcomerstown Exempted Village School District in Tuscarawas County.
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Staggs believes interest in finding out more about Buckeye Firearms' weapons training program is increasing at other school districts, especially since the January school massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
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"We don't pay teachers enough to carry a gun," said Kimberly Whitehead during a recent meeting at a school district in Butler County. "Honestly, we do not."
While many share that sentiment, a representative with Buckeye Firearms Association said workers in 76 of Ohio's 88 counties have been trained to carry guns in the classroom.
April 25, 2018
WBNS (CBS Columbus) - Pro-gun rights group could file lawsuit against Columbus as city leaders talk gun control
"We are prepared to launch a lawsuit if we determine that any of the proposals violate state law," Buckeye Firearms Association Executive Director Dean Rieck said.
Dean Rieck says the Buckeye Firearms Association will be tracking what happens during Thursday's public hearing on gun control and what happens after.
"I really don't think most of these are going to keep people safe. We already have plenty of laws on the books," Rieck said.
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"Some of those proposals may violate state law," Rieck said.
April 25, 2018
WCPO (ABC Cincinnati) - Madison Local Schools board votes to allow arming of teachers, staff
District officials said the resolution is just the first step in a plan to participate in the Faculty/Administrator Safety Training and Emergency Response program, which is a branch of the Buckeye Firearms Association, according to its website. The program consists of 26 hours of training in armed response, crisis management and emergency medical aid, officials said in an announcement Wednesday.
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The Buckeye Firearms Association is a nonprofit that lobbies lawmakers to pass pro-gun legislation and provides training and other resources for gun owners.
April 24, 2018
WBNS (CBS Columbus) - Community learns about public safety during active shooter training event
Neighbors in Hilliard got a little hands on training to prepare and respond to a worse-case scenario.
At an active shooter drill on Tuesday, some of them froze in their tracks.
Organizers say the idea behind it is to prepare the community for a violent situation.
A 30 second drill with an active shooter felt a lot longer for the volunteers in the room.
"To me it seemed like a couple of minutes, not 32 seconds," Suzanne Trubee said.
The demonstration, put on by the Buckeye Firearms Association, gauged reaction from school officials, church leaders, business owners, and neighbors.
"The concept of what it would be like in that situation. Would you react? How would you respond? Can you respond? So, it was really self revealing, frightening at the same time," Trubee said.
The simulation is part of the Faster Saves Lives program.
The program provides training for law enforcement and civilians to learn how to respond to violent situations in almost any setting.
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Officials with the Faster Saves Lives program say they've provided firearms, tactics, crisis and medical training to more than 13 hundred school staff in 12 different states.
April 24, 2018
WSYX (ABC Columbus) - Class teaches people to stay safe during an active shooter situation
Deadly mass shootings at restaurants, schools, and churches, are now being used as life lessons to keep people safe.
"It's real, it's scary, it's nerve racking," said Candy Petticord, after she took part in an active shooter class thru The Buckeye Firearms Association.
"It's very scary to think this is happening to our children," said Petticord.
Volunteers with the group's "Faster Saves Lives" program conducted the exercise hours before a first of its kind Town Hall.
Experts including, law enforcement, the medical community, clergy, schools, took part to discuss what communities can do to save lives during an active shooting situation.
"We've seen it happen in churches, we've seen it happen in the streets, these things can happen anywhere, anytime," said Dean RIECK, with The Buckeye Firearms Foundation.
April 24, 2018
Columbus Dispatch - Active-shooter training aims to arm teachers
Candy Petticord was on the ground, shot in the side with what was likely a lethal wound that would mean a slow death.
Above her, a gunman raged, close enough for the Akron woman to hear him breathing hard and uttering, “They’re all dead.”
In her injured condition and without a handgun to return fire, there was little she could do but watch others drop. In about 30 seconds, at least half of the dozen or so people in the room were “dead.”
“It scared the crap out of me,” Petticord said afterward.
Fortunately, Petticord and the other participants were acting out an active-shooter scenario in advance of an evening panel discussion organized by the Buckeye Firearms Association to demonstrate what happens when bad guys with guns storm rooms filled with people without the means to defend themselves.
The goal of the demonstration and discussion was to spotlight what Buckeye Firearms and other gun supporters believe is the need to train and arm teachers and others who might find themselves in the middle of a mass shooting.
Organizers said some people would run when faced with such situations, and others would hide, but somebody should stand ready to fight back.
“We want our schools and our kids to be safe,” said Jim Irvine, president of the Buckeye Firearms Foundation and director of Faster Saves Lives, an offshoot that spearheads active-shooter response training.
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On Monday, Gov. John Kasich signed an executive order aimed at improving background checks for gun purchases in Ohio.
But for Irvine and others, the debate shouldn’t be about taking guns away from people.
“That’s not going to stop the school shootings,” said John Benner, president and chief instructor at the Tactical Defense Institute in Adams County, who led the active-shooter exercise Tuesday in Hilliard.
Irvine said Faster Saves Lives has invested more than $1 million in training 1,300-plus school employees over the past five years.
“We have a waiting list of over 2,000 teachers,” said Dean Rieck, executive director of the Buckeye Firearms Association.
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“How long are you going to let someone walk around your building killing everyone?” Irvine asked. “If you want a lower body count, don’t let them spend so much time killing everyone. Somebody has to react and stop them, confront them.”
April 23, 2018
Gongwer News Service - Kasich Orders Compliance Review For Gun Owner Background Checks
Buckeye Firearms Association Executive Director Dean Rieck, who had not seen the language in the governor's action, said in an interview that he has no problem with enforcing current law.
"It sounds to me like the governor after seven years has decided that government agencies should follow the law," he said. "I'm sure that has nothing to do with him running for president."
Gov. Kasich also repeated calls for passage of legislation (HB 585 & SB 288) based on six proposals unanimously supported by a group he quietly convened months ago.
Those proposals will meet stiff opposition from the BFA, according to Mr. Rieck.
April 21, 2018
Columbus Dispatch - Patriots’ Day rally at Statehouse focuses on freedoms, Second Amendment
As Shawn Fryman and Nicole Johnson stood at the back of the crowd on the lawn of the Ohio Statehouse waiting for the Patriots’ Day speeches to begin, their two young kids flipped through pocket-sized copies of the Constitution.
Asked what he was reading, 7-year-old C.J. was quick with his reply: “A history book.”
Johnson smiled, and said the couple brought the children to Saturday’s rally — led by the organizations Ohio Carry, Ohioans for Concealed Carry and the Buckeye Firearms Association — for just one reason. “We’re trying to teach them their rights,” she said.
The organizations advertised the two-hour event as a celebration of patriotism and freedom. It has been held for the past several years on or near the date of April 19, which is the date of the first battles near Boston in 1775 that signaled the emerging independence of the Colonies would be won in the Revolutionary War. This was the first year the groups secured a permit, making it a more organized affair.
April 21, 2018
WSYX (ABC Columbus) - "Patriots Day" rally at Statehouse focuses on gun rights
"I would be more concerned about the people who aren't here today," said Linda Walker, a board member with the National Rifle Association. "We don't know who we're walking by on the sidewalk. But this here is probably the safest place in Ohio today."
Speakers from Buckeye Firearms Association, Ohioans for Concealed Carry and "Ohio Carry" rounded out the hour-long program Saturday afternoon.
April 20, 2018
WTOV (NBC Steubenville) - Should school employees carry firearms?
In Ohio, Faculty/Administrator Safety and Emergency Response, or FASTER, is training employees in different school districts how to respond and use a weapon in an active shooter situation.
Washington County has one school that has used the program, and it's been received well.
“People have realized that having somebody there that's armed that can respond much quicker, especially in rural counties, the response time for local officers can be up to 30, 35, 40 minutes just depending on what's going on,” Rhodes.
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“I would rather a weapon be in a school with a trusted adult that's trained and take the risk that something bad might happen to that individual, or that weapon may be used to cause harm, than to not have that weapon available if that threat entered the building,” Rhodes said.
Faster has over 200 school districts in the state of Ohio participating in its armed employees program.
April 20, 2018
Statehouse News Bureau - Gun Rights Activists Plan 'Patriots Day Rally' In Downtown Columbus
One day after students at Central Ohio schools walked out of class again to call for tighter gun laws, pro-gun activists will rally themselves in downtown Columbus.
Saturday's Patriots Day Rally at the Ohio Statehouse is organized by three groups that oppose most gun regulations, including Ohio Carry, Buckeye Firearms Association and Ohioans for Concealed Carry.
April 19, 2018
Columbus Dispatch - Columbus official: Ohio House’s gun bill would block ‘common sense’ local laws
The Buckeye Firearms Association said Kasich's plan isn't the answer. They believe the legislation would strip rights from law-abiding people. According to the wording in the bill, anyone convicted of even a non-violent felony offense wouldn't be allowed to have a gun.
The group wants existing restrictions to be used instead of new ones being added.
April 18, 2018
The Glendale Star - Leadership West hosts debate on school safety
[BFA Board of Directors member Sean Maloney] referenced Faculty/Administrator Safety Training and Emergency Response (F.A.S.T.E.R.), an organization in Ohio that, along with Buckeye Firearms Association, raises a half million dollars a year to train teachers free of charge.
“We understood in Ohio that the first hurdle we’re going to overcome was money. We wanted to make sure that was taken away,” he said. “We’re asking for volunteers, they train on their own, they care enough about their kids to volunteer to sacrifice their lives for this, they’ll train on their own. The main thing is, it’s free. School resource officers are great, but they’re the first people to go when the budget needs to be cut. We can’t afford to pay our teachers, we understood that and that’s why we created F.A.S.T.E.R.”
He said F.A.S.T.E.R. has proven successful in Ohio for the last six years.
“We paired up with some of the best law enforcement trainers in the world, medical and educational, and came up with a great program, which is the F.A.S.T.E.R. program in the state of Ohio,” he said. “We’re not training someone to be a police officer. We’re not training someone to be a paramedic. We’re training them to stop the bleeding with tourniquets if necessary, with chest seals, and then well over 95 percent of the cases, shooters commit suicide. There’s not going to be any gun battle, they don’t ambush somebody. We just need someone there to stop the killing once it enters the high school.”
He said a lot of teachers are in favor of being armed.
“I’ve spoken to teachers that said, ‘I will stand between bullets and children, not my kids, but your children. We just want a chance to survive,’” he said.
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Maloney agreed that more access to mental health help is needed, but it won’t provide an immediate solution to school shootings.
“Katey’s solutions are going to take time and take much more money, I think, than what the F.A.S.T.E.R. program has done in the state of Ohio and again, I want all this implemented,” he said. “I never want to have an armed person come into a school again. All I’m advocating for is if it does, we have to stop it as soon as possible. The faster we can stop the shooting, the more people will live, the faster we can apply a tourniquet, the faster we can put a chest seal on, the faster we can get help there, the better it is for all of us.”
April 17, 2018
Columbus Dispatch - Columbus official: Ohio House’s gun bill would block ‘common sense’ local laws
Ronald Lemieux of the Buckeye Firearms Association argued that the bill makes necessary changes to self-defense law “to ensure those accused of a crime in Ohio receive a fair and just trial.”
April 16, 2018
Dayton Daily News - Ohio gun rights activists to rally Saturday at Statehouse
Supporters of gun rights will host a rally Saturday at the Ohio Statehouse.
The groups Ohioans for Concealed Carry, Ohio Carry and the Buckeye Firearms Association, will host the rally at 11 a.m. on Patriots Day, according to a release from the Buckeye Firearms Association.
Patriots Day is a holiday designated to commemorate the first battles of the American Revolutionary War.
The rally is supposed to be a “celebration of patriotism and freedom” rather than a protest or a political event, according to the association.
April 16, 2018
Lancaster Eagle-Gazette - Fairfield County concealed carry applications track at normal pace
Buckeye Firearms Association Board President Jim Irvine said the 2016 spike is probably an anomaly. He said that's because people thought there could be challenges to the Second Amendment if Hillary Clinton would have defeated Donald Trump for the presidency and if the Democrats would have taken control of the House of Representatives.
"But Trump won, so people thought all was safe," Irvine said.
Irvine said people may have gotten complacent and caused gun sales to go down with the Trump victory. However, he cautioned against that and said gun owners must still be vigilant to keep their Second Amendment rights.
April 15, 2018
Cleveland Plain Dealer - Mike DeWine in the Republican primary for Ohio governor: endorsement editorial
DeWine, endorsed for governor by the Buckeye Firearms Association PAC, said that, assuming there are due-process safeguards, he could support a "red flag" law, which Kasich has said he'd back and Cleveland's City Council voted 17-0 Monday to ask the legislature to pass.
April 12, 2018
Politifact.com - Cordray on point about increase in firearm deaths in Ohio
Richard Cordray, a Democrat who has supported gun rights in the past, is playing defense during the Ohio primary for governor on his position on guns.
Cordray received an A grade from the NRA and was endorsed by the Buckeye Firearms Association in 2010 when he ran for Ohio Attorney General.
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Jim Irvine, a volunteer with the Buckeye Firearms Association, noted that CDC data shows an increase in suicides overall and that "guns are one of several methods/tools used."
CDC data shows that the rate of suicides both by firearms -- and without firearms -- increased between 1999 and 2016 in Ohio.
The Buckeye Firearms Association hasn’t endorsed in the Democratic primary but did endorse Attorney General Mike DeWine in the Republican primary. The association endorsed Cordray for Attorney General when he ran against DeWine in 2010.
April 9, 2018
Columbus Dispatch - Gun-violence research spotty, divisive
Another project is collecting information on a program through which certain pediatricians offer free lock boxes to gun-owning parents and guardians of 2- and 3-year-old patients. Information collected will help determine whether the project should be expanded, based partly on how many boxes are distributed and whether they are being used. Partners in the pilot program include the Ohio Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Buckeye Firearms Association, Black Wing Shooting Center and the Kiwanis Club of Columbus.
Gerard Valentino, co-founder and secretary of the Buckeye Firearms Association, said a problem with existing gun research is a lack of trust in its sources. Research pushed out by pro-gun groups is torn apart by the gun-control lobby, and research from gun-control groups is criticized by the gun-rights lobby.
“I want people to go look at the numbers that aren’t manipulated by either side,” he said. “Don’t listen to me; don’t listen to them. Go and look at the Justice Department numbers.”
April 5, 2018
Toledo Blade - WTVG, Blade to host town hall on school safety
Other guests expected to attend include Toledo Public Schools Superintendent Romules Durant, Joe Eaton from the Buckeye Firearms Association, Toby Hoover from the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence, and Wood County Sheriff Mark Wasylyshyn.
April 5, 2018
TalkingPointsMemo.com - Dennis The Menace Strikes Again: Kucinich Seizes On Guns In Ohio Guv Primary
Cordray had a warm relationship with Ohio gun groups during his stint as the state’s attorney general, earning an “A” rating from the NRA and getting the endorsement of the Buckeye Firearms Association in his last two elections.
April 4, 2018
WAKR (AM 1590) - "Jasen Sokol Show"
Buckeye Firearms Association President Jim Irvine was a guest on the "Jasen Sokol Show." Click here to download to the podcast.
April 2, 2018
Nishinippon Shimbun - School safety: Ohio Teachers immediate response
The Japanese newspaper Nishinippon Shimbun took an extensive look at Buckeye Firearms Foundation's FASTER Saves Lives Program. Click here for a Google Translate version of the article.
April 1, 2018
WCMH (NBC Columbus) - Columbus City Attorney, Buckeye Firearms Association co-founder discuss gun legislation, safety
In a special discussion, Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein spoke with NBC4’s Colleen Marshal to discuss the city’s proposal, and Buckeye Firearms Association co-founder Steve Loos sat down with NBC4’s Mike Jackson to talk about alternative ways to increase safety in Ohio.
March 31, 2018
WTVG (ABC Toledo) - 13abc and The Blade to produce live forum on school violence
March 30, 2018
WLW (AM 700)
Buckeye Firearms Association Director Sean Maloney was a guest on WLW.
March 29, 2018
The Kenyon Collegian - East Knox considers arming teachers; Mount Vernon won’t follow suit
The East Knox Board of Education passed a resolution this month that gives the superintendent the authority to allow staff members to carry weapons in school. The March 15 vote took place just over a month after 17 people were killed at a school shooting in Parkland, Fla. on Feb. 15.
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Under the new resolution, Larcomb will decide who will be allowed to carry a weapon in school. To qualify, staff members must have a concealed-carry permit, and experience handling firearms from hunting or military training. In addition, staff members will need to go through training with the Buckeye Firearms Association, a gun rights organization based in Columbus, OH that provides firearm training.
March 29, 2018
WOSU (NPR Columbus) - What Will March For Our Lives Mean For Ohio?
"Gun control doesn't work"
Those are the words of Jim Irvine, the board president at the Buckeye Firearms Association. His and other pro-gun groups are pushing back hard against what supporters call "common sense reforms."
March 28, 2018
Cleveland Plain Dealer - What the candidates for governor want you to know -- and what they don't
DeWine over his career has cast some moderate votes and has emphasized the value of compromise, but consistently has been a social conservative who opposes abortion and same-sex marriage. He has been endorsed by the Buckeye Firearms Association, the Ohio Republican Party and a number of county-level parties and law enforcement officials.
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Now that he's running in a Republican primary, he's emphasized that he will ban sanctuary cities and touted his endorsement from the Buckeye Firearms Association.
March 28, 2018
Cincinnati Enquirer - Ohio Democrat and his running mate can’t agree on assault weapons ban
DeWine and Husted now are unified in their support of gun rights, spokesman Ryan Stubenrauch said.
"Both of them have worked to advance and protect the Second Amendment rights of Ohioans; that's why Buckeye Firearms Association has endorsed our ticket for governor," he said in a statement.
March 26, 2018
WTVN (AM 610)
Buckeye Firearms Association President Jim Irvine was a guest on WTVN.
March 26, 2018
BBC Radio
Buckeye Firearms Association Director Sean Maloney was interviewed live on BBC Radio.
March 25, 2018
DailySignal.com - School Personnel in These Gun-Control States Are Trained in Firearms Use
Pennsylvania is one of a few traditionally pro-gun control states where school personnel have been trained by the Ohio-based FASTER Saves Lives program. The name is an acronym for Faculty/Administrator Safety Training and Emergency Response.
The program requires training that exceeds the level for Ohio state troopers as well as training to provide emergency medical treatment.
FASTER Saves Lives has trained about 1,300 public and private school personnel in 12 states, including Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, and New York. The program is sponsored by the Buckeye Firearms Association.
[Mark] Zilnskas, a teacher at Indiana Area High School in the city of Indiana, Pennsylvania, has been urging state lawmakers to allow school districts to make the decision.
“After Sandy Hook, I asked if we could do a similar program to what was going on in Ohio,” Zilnskas told The Daily Signal, referring to the Connecticut elementary school where a gunman killed 21, mostly young children. “I testified to the [Pennsylvania] House Education Committee. I took the course to be informed and wanted to be able to answer questions.”
According to a list compiled by the Buckeye Firearms Association on state laws authorizing firearms in school, Illinois, Michigan and New York prohibit “concealed carry” in K-12 schools, but allow authorization by individual school or school district.
A middle-school science teacher in western New York state, who requested his name not be used out of fear for his job, said he told his supervisor he went through the training.
“I don’t know who I would go to, the superintendent or the [school] board, about changing the policy,” the science teacher told The Daily Signal. “I don’t know. They might say this guy has been here for 17 years, but he may be a gun nut.”
The science teacher said he has been around guns for much of his life, but still learned much from the thorough training.
“I took the FASTER program just for the experience. I already carry on my own to protect my family,” he said. “I absolutely believe schools should implement the emergency first-aid training. Why wouldn’t you?”
A sheriff’s deputy working as an armed school resources officer stopped a gunman March 20 at a school in St. Mary’s County, Maryland.
In Maryland, concealed carry is prohibited in grades K-12. Local schools cannot choose to allow it except for designated security officials, or if a firearm is brought to a school for education or historical purposes, according to the Buckeye Firearms Association list.
John Rigney, a volunteer at a private school in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, recently testified before the Maryland House Judiciary Committee about a bill to authorize local school districts to allow trained teachers to carry firearms.
Rigney, who is also a firearms instructor in Maryland, said he thinks the St. Mary’s resource officer’s actions demonstrate the importance of quick action by school personnel.
“The resource officer should be a good example of how well an armed teacher could respond,” Rigney told The Daily Signal. “Do I see this coming to Maryland? I would hope the last attempt proves the positive effects of a training program.”
“Most people who initially oppose training for teachers change their mind once they understand it,” he said. “It’s not training schoolteachers to be police officers. The training is the same as [for] Ohio state troopers, and exceeds that training. Once they see the success of it, that it is not about guns, they will come on board.”
Michigan allows private institutions, such as a school or a church, to decide for itself on allowing concealed carry.
Julian Petzold, principal of Trinity Lutheran School in Clinton Township, Michigan, also has been through the FASTER training. But Trinity is still evaluating the policy.
“We are looking at the school, looking at the church, and looking at our early-childhood center,” Petzold told The Daily Signal. “To say teachers shouldn’t carry guns because they aren’t police officers is comparable to saying teachers shouldn’t drive because they aren’t NASCAR drivers. That’s why people are trained.”
March 24, 2018
Dayton Daily News - Area students join push to end school gun violence, but division remains
“Taking someone’s property without due process is wrong. It’s completely un-American,” said Jim Irvine, board president of the Buckeye Firearms Association. “Gun control is a failed idea. Continuing to push it is refusing to accept reality.”
March 23, 2018
New York Times - Arming Teachers
It was a blistering day in June 2015, and the sun beat down relentlessly. The only shelter was a small makeshift shed, hidden behind an overgrown embankment next to an almost inaccessible stretch of railroad tracks in a remote area of central Ohio. It was the kind of place that you’d never find without a detailed map, one I typically wouldn’t, as a woman, visit alone. But there were more than 20 women and men there when I arrived, all of them heavily armed.
It was Day 2 of a free, three-day gun training class in Rittman for K-12 public school employees offered by the Buckeye Firearms Association, an Ohio-based gun rights organization. Most attendees were from Ohio schools. Some worked for school districts that were already arming teachers; others hoped to persuade their schools to do so. Many were attending in secret and did not want their employers to know they were there. I was there as a co-producer of the forthcoming documentary film “G Is for Gun: The Arming of Teachers in America.” Over the past three years, I’ve met dozens of teachers, administrators, secretaries, custodians, bus drivers and school nurses in Ohio willing to carry a gun at work and respond with force against an active shooter.
March 22, 2018
WOSU (NPR Columbus) - Democratic Legislators Introduce 'Red Flag' Gun Bill In Ohio Senate
Dean Rieck, executive director of the Buckeye Firearms Association, says his group is fine with taking guns away from dangerous people. But he says there must be due process first.
“It sounds like what they are saying is, ‘Let’s take someone’s rights away and then figure out if we did the right thing,” Reick says.
March 21, 2018
Ohio News Service - New Poll: 4 in 10 Ohio Adults Have a Gun at Home
Melissa Wervey Arnold, CEO of the Ohio chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, added that nearly half of homes with children have a firearm.
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Arnold said the academy in Ohio is working with the Buckeye Firearms Association and other groups to encourage families to speak to their children about safety issues related to firearms. She said it's a conversation medical professionals can have in a non-confrontational or judgmental way.
"Just like when you’re saying, 'Make sure that your child's in a car seat, make sure that you don't leave a child unattended on a changing table when they're an infant,’” she said; “the same kind of dynamic in terms of making sure that parents are aware that keeping your guns stored safely away from kids is the best course of action if you're going to have a gun in the home."
March 21, 2018
WBNS (CBS Columbus) - Columbus city leaders propose "common sense" gun laws
The Buckeye Firearms Association says banning gun sales in residential areas doesn't make sense.
"The thought of taking gun stores out of residential areas I don't know how that's going to impact gun crimes to me that sounds laughable," Buckeye Firearms Association Secretary Gerard Valentino said.
The organization also cast doubts on how the city is trying to protect domestic violence victims.
Instead of giving victims a civil protection order, the group said the city should be encouraging them to get a gun.
"People who are victims of violence one of the best way to protect themselves is to have a gun to defend themselves," Valentino said.
March 21, 2018
Cleveland Plain Dealer - Democratic lawmakers propose 'red flag' gun law for Ohio
Jim Irvine, president of the pro-gun Buckeye Firearms Association, said he is concerned generally about laws that allow guns or other personal property to be taken away without due process.
"We are never going to solve criminal or mental health problems by violating someone else's civil rights," Irvine said in an interview.
Irvine said the bill's sponsors and supporters haven't made the case for restricting someone's Second Amendment rights.
"There is a way now to take the guns away from somebody who is an imminent threat, so I don't understand what this new legislation does that we can't already do," Irvine said.
March 21, 2018
Dayton Daily News - Gun control advocates push for ‘red flag’ law in Ohio
“Taking someone’s property without due process is wrong. It’s completely un-American,” said Jim Irvine, board president of the Buckeye Firearms Association. He added, “Gun control is a failed idea. Continuing to push it is refusing to accept reality.”
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Ohio Gov. John Kasich proposed six gun reforms, including a red flag law, to help prevent gun violence, such as school shootings. But such a law may also help prevent suicides: 924 Ohioans died by suicide using firearms in 2016.
Irvine, though, pushed back, noting that when actor Robin Williams used a belt to hang himself, no one said there is a ‘belt-violence’ problem in the United States. “Banning the guns will not solve the suicide problem,” Irvine said.
March 21, 2018
Columbus Dispatch - Hundreds of moms come to Statehouse to demand stricter gun laws
Questions about due process about such laws have been raised about such laws by some, including Jim Irvine, the board president of the Buckeye Firearms Association.
“Before you get to defend yourself or say anything, you should not lose your rights,” Irvine said in a previous Dispatch report. “It’s a violation of our Fourth Amendment.”
March 20, 2018
Columbus Dispatch - Columbus to introduce comprehensive proposal designed to curb gun violence
Jim Irvine, board president of the Buckeye Firearms Association, said local ordinances on gun control were ineffective before the state passed its law limiting what cities can do. He panned Columbus’ proposal, saying much of it already is addressed by other laws or existing channels. For example, Irvine said additional methods of reporting someone who has a gun but shouldn’t aren’t needed because anyone can call the police.
March 18, 2018
Columbus Dispatch - Republicans Mike DeWine, Mary Taylor run contrasting campaigns for governor
To counter some of Taylor’s themes, DeWine opens his remarks by stressing his “100 percent pro-life voting record” and his support for Second Amendment gun rights, backed up by an endorsement from the Buckeye Firearms Association.
March 18, 2018
Columbus Dispatch - States, not Congress, lead on gun issues
Jim Irvine, president of the Buckeye Firearms Association, a gun rights group in Ohio, said that despite the measure to arm teachers, Florida’s bill was “horrible.”
He said before the Parkland shootings, gun rights groups were working with Florida law enforcement to arm staff in the schools. “The whole thing is dead now because of the law,” he said, adding that the measure “just killed school safety that works in that district.”
Irvine said arming teachers should be a state or local issue — what works in Ohio might not work in California, for example — and should be voluntarily.
“You can’t order somebody to carry a gun,” he said. “It doesn’t work ... it has to be somebody who wants to do this.”
But he said fewer guns will only create more victims. Even “a stinking bag of money in the mall is protected by a guy with a gun,” he said.
“The idea that you should be afraid of that is nonsense,” he said. “I’ve never seen anybody ever running away from the guy with the Brinks truck saying, ‘Oh my God, it’s dangerous.’ They’re not afraid of armed security. It’s what keeps things safe.”
March 16, 2018
Xenia Gazette - Division of Wildlife license package bill introduced
The Sportsmen’s Alliance Protect What’s Right campaign includes Buckeye Firearms Association, Ducks Unlimited, League of Ohio Sportsmen, Ohio Conservation Federation, Ohio State Trappers Association, Pheasants Forever, Quail Forever, Safari Club International – Central Ohio Chapter, Greene County Fish and Game Association, and Columbiana County Federation of Conservation Clubs.
March 16, 2018
Dayton Daily News - Ohio lawmaker stands by gun-carrying students comment despite critics
Dean Rieck, Buckeye Firearms Association executive director, said the organization has not advocated for allowing students to carry firearms in schools and does not plan to introduce any bills to that effect.
March 12, 2018
Vice.com - This Ohio Group Has Trained More Than 1,000 Teachers To Carry Guns
While the White House moves forward with an initiative that would award federal grant money to school districts that want to arm teachers, the idea is nothing new to the state of Ohio, where teachers have been quietly arming themselves for years.
That’s thanks largely to “FASTER Saves Lives,” an organization founded in 2013, after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school left 26 dead, including 20 young children. It was created with the help of Buckeye Firearms Association, a second amendment group with long-standing ties to the National Rifle Association, and Ohio’s Tactical Defense Institute, which offers tactical training to law enforcement, civilians and military, led by a Vietnam veteran and 37-year former police lieutenant John Benner.
“The rest of the country is finally catching up,” said Joe Eaton, program director of FASTER, which stands for Faculty/ Administrator Safety Training & Emergency Response. “Same thing we saw after 9/11. Once we never would have imagined that we’d have armed pilots.”
After Sandy Hook, Buckeye Firearms Association Chairman Jim Irvine, a former pilot, wrote a blogpost titled “Our children are dying for our insanity; It’s time to emulate Israel’s successful efforts to prevent mass killings in schools.” In the post, Irvine, who has been the recipient of numerous NRA accolades including “Gun Rights Defender of the Year Award,” reiterated his long-standing belief that having more guns in schools would defer potential attackers and offer a first line of defense in the event of a mass shooter.
Irvine also wrote to Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, a Republican, asking him to clarify whether state law gives local school boards the authority to decide whether to arm teachers or not. “Ohio law does not prevent a local school board from arming an employee,” DeWine wrote in response. (The Buckeye Firearms Association donated $1,500 to DeWine’s campaign for reelection the following year).
When it first launched, FASTER’s pilot program offered training to 24 teachers and administrators from school districts across Ohio.
Today, the organization boasts that it’s trained upwards of 1,100 teachers from 225 school districts across 12 states.
In 2017, the state of Ohio allocated about $100,000 to FASTER activities for Fiscal Year 2018, and $125,000 to Fiscal Year 2019. That stipend, according to FASTER’S website, helps pay for training and trauma equipment including tourniquets, compression bandages and chest seals.
The Mad River school district in Riverside, Ohio, signed up to the program in 2016.
“Bottom line, FASTER was a great experience,” Mad River Superintendent Chad Wyen told VICE News in an email. “The simulations were as authentic as you could get and allowed for my staff to experience the mindset necessary to address/ confront a threat.”
Wyden said he heard about FASTER during the Ohio School Boards Association Capital Conference in the fall of 2015. Today, Wyden says that there are 32 members of staff across the district’s eight schools with access to firearms, which are “strategically placed” in safes in every building.
“When you have a resource officer, you only have one person that has the ability to confront a threat,” said Wyden. “Multiple people who are able to respond with the same level of training and ongoing training as a typical resource officer simply makes more sense for us.”
CBS News ran a segment in September about a FASTER training session. Principals, teachers and other school personnel are seen toting long rifles and pistols, navigating makeshift corridors, and firing at targets. They’re instructed how to take down a gunman, and then tend to wounded students. In the segment, one participant hit a target that represented a student.
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But for many school districts, arming teachers is also a more cost effective option to hiring a school resource officer, who don’t come cheap with an annual salary of about $50,000 a year.
“A lot of it is economics. Schools are cash strapped enough,” said Eaton. ”Every year they have to make decisions, like hire an English teacher or enhance safety.”
FASTER opened up shop in Colorado in 2017 through Coloradans for Civil Liberties, another pro-gun advocacy group, and held its first training session last summer.
But Laura Carno, who heads FASTER Colorado, says that teachers from about 25 school districts in the state participated in that training.
“We train teachers to have a firearm on their person, concealed, never seen by a student,” Carno said. “Some schools in Texas have their firearms in biometric safes. We think it takes too long to get to the safe, god forbid something happens.”
Carno says she’s not aware of any situations where a teacher who’d undergone FASTER training had to respond to a shooting — but she thinks at least it works as a deterrent. When asked how a potential shooter would be deterred by armed teachers if a school hadn’t publicized the fact, Carno responded that many schools put up signs saying “teachers may be armed.”
FASTER touts its high standards of training, which is 26 hours over three days, that they say “exceeds the requirements of the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy.”
March 12, 2018
Washington Post - Armed and safe? At Ohio schools, the security plan includes teachers and guns.
Sitting at a conference room table at the Premier Shooting and Training Center just north of Cincinnati, Joe Eaton says he hears the same questions from all of the teachers, bus drivers, cafeteria workers and administrators who take part in the gun and tactical training his organization provides to schools across Ohio.
“Am I going to be able to do this? Am I going to be able to perform? Am I going to be outgunned?”
The 52-year-old grandfather, IT professional and gun enthusiast says he also has a question for them: If the shooter is a student or a former student, as most school shooters are, will you be able to stare down the barrel of your gun and pull the trigger?
“The rules of engagement are, if someone is murdering people in your school, you kill them as soon as possible and stop the killing,” says Eaton, the program director for Faster Saves Lives, an emergency-response training program for schools created five years ago by the Buckeye Firearms Foundation, an Ohio nonprofit gun advocacy and training group.
According to Eaton, roughly 1,000 of the 1,300 participants in the Faster program have come from more than 200 Ohio school districts. Demand has never been higher.
When the program began, most participants were former law enforcement, military or hunters, Eaton says. But in the past two years, that has changed: More than half had never touched a firearm until their schools asked them to take part.
During a three-day course, participants study the history of active-shooter situations, engage in tactical drills and maneuvers, practice firearm skills, and work on trauma aid techniques.
So far, none of the Ohio teachers trained to use guns have been forced to do so in a school,Eaton says.
“We’re giving them simple, easy, clearly defined training and tools that they can use in the event of the worst day possible at their school,” he says.
One of the first Ohio districts to arm its teachers was Sidney, a rural community less than an hour north of Dayton. There, the training is extensive and participants are carefully selected, says Superintendent John Scheu, who launched the program five years ago.
March 11, 2018
Athens News - Dem governor candidate gets quizzed at OU event
CORDRAY WAS ASKED ABOUT his views on gun control during the meeting. He’s been under attack by opponent Kucinich lately for the support he’s received from the National Rifle Association and others (he received an “A” ranking from the NRA in 2010 for his position on gun rights; he’s also previously been endorsed by the Buckeye Firearms Association, although DeWine was endorsed by that group this year). Cordray also defended the state of Ohio when he was AG against a lawsuit by the city of Cleveland that challenged a state law prohibiting local assault-weapon bans.
March 11, 2018
Columbus Dispatch - Gun Rights Activists Rally at Statehouse Against Proposed Restrictions
DeWine spokesman Ryan Stubenrauch had this response: “Mike DeWine has done more to protect and expand Second Amendment rights in Ohio than any other candidate in this race and that’s why we’re endorsed by Buckeye Firearms Association — Ohio’s largest and most influential gun rights group.”
March 8, 2018
RealClearPolitics.com - In Many GOP Primaries, No Calls for New Gun Laws
“Reducing the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding gun owners or proposing new bans doesn't address the problems,” DeWine said. The Buckeye Firearms Association has endorsed him in the race, while Ohioans for Concealed Carry has backed Taylor.
March 7, 2018
Cincinnati Enquirer - Does my kid’s teacher have a gun?
Perhaps the best estimate we can offer is this: The Buckeye Firearms Foundation does a training for educators called FASTER, for Faculty/Administrator Safety Training and Emergency Response.
The training goes over guns, crisis management, trauma and medical training – anything an educator might need to respond to a crisis before law enforcement or EMTs arrive, said Joe Eaton, FASTER program director.
In the past five years, 1,300 school employees have taken the FASTER training, Eaton said, though it’s important to note that just because an employee goes through the training does not automatically mean he or she is carrying a gun at school.
Those 1,300 trainees include staff members from 225 school districts in 12 states, but the vast majority were from Ohio, Eaton said.
Statewide, he said, the Firearms Foundation has trained school employees from 76 of Ohio’s 88 counties.
“We’ve been running at the limits of our foundation for five years,” Eaton said. “The demand was high before Florida and Kentucky. But now it’s extremely high.”
March 6, 2018
WBAL (NBC Baltimore) - Maryland bills would allow for arming of teachers, churchgoers
A group called Faculty/Administrator Safety Training and Emergency Response (FASTER) Saves Lives trains school personnel.
"The bottom line with active killings (is) the timeline. We don't have the time to get our first responders to the building before too many of our children die," said Jim Irvine with FASTER Saves Lives.
March 6, 2018
DailySignal.com - How This Ohio Program Trains Teachers in 12 States to Carry Guns
Teachers and staff from 76 of Ohio’s 88 counties have received training from a program called FASTER Saves Lives, which also has trained school personnel in 11 other states. FASTER stands for Faculty/Administrator Safety Training and Emergency Response.
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Parents in Newcomerstown, near Columbus, asked for school personnel to be armed, Superintendent Jeff Staggs said.
“Training for the FASTER program is top of the line,” Staggs told The Daily Signal in a phone interview. “Some people try to say teachers are not qualified to handle guns. That’s insulting. I was obviously a teacher before I was a superintendent, and I wasn’t qualified to teach before I was trained.”
Staggs said some have tried to make the matter political, but locally it is viewed as keeping kids safe. He noted the rapid pace at which the gunman killed 17 in Parkland.
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“When you have a stopwatch of death, time is not a luxury,” Staggs said, adding:
Who is calling 911 when you’re running away from a shooter? It takes a minute to get a call through to 911. It would take 50 seconds for 911 to connect to dispatch and another minute for police to arrive. That’s why 17 people can be shot in three or four minutes.
In the past five years, the FASTER Saves Lives program has trained about 1,300 school personnel at public and private schools from 225 districts across 12 states. Sponsored by the Buckeye Firearms Foundation, the program will train more than 200 this year, Director Joe Eaton told The Daily Signal.
The organization has two training facilities in Ohio, one in the town of West Union near Cincinnati and the other in the town of Rittman near Akron. It operates a third training center in Denver.
Eaton stressed armed response is just one facet of the program, which also trains school personnel on crisis management and emergency medical aid.
All training is at no cost to the schools. The program survives through private, individual donations, he said.
Under the program, generally only the superintendent, principals, and a few others are aware who is authorized to use the firearms.
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Eaton, director of the gun-training program, said he isn’t surprised about opposition from some.
“It is human nature to think of the one person you wouldn’t want to be part of this program,” Eaton said.
But, he added, once the public learns about the level of training that school staffs go through, they generally support the idea.
Since the idea of arming teachers leaped back into the news, Eaton said, the program has averaged 10 inquiries per day from teachers and administrators.
The Trump administration hasn’t been in contact with the organization, he said.
“We were a nonprofit educational charity who previously worked with youth firearms safety [and] suicide prevention, and partnered with the American Academy of Pediatrics here in Ohio to encourage safe storage of firearms by parents of young children,” Eaton said.
The program began to do firearms training for teachers in 2013, in response to the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, where a young man shot and killed 20 children and six adults in December 2012.
“Five years ago, after Sandy Hook, we were contacted by schools wanting help to put together a safe and effective security plan,” Eaton said. “In short, we decided we were tired of watching our kids die in schools.”
March 6, 2018
NRANews.com - Sean Maloney: Disgraced Former AG Lied to Constituents
Former Ohio attorney general Marc Dann has penned an op-ed in the Cleveland Plain Dealer entitled, "Why I Regret Being in the Pocket of the NRA." He claims the NRA intimidated him into silence and inaction on gun control. NRA board member Sean Maloney of Buckeye Firearms Association says he never thought he would hear from the disgraced Democrat again. He resigned rather than be impeached, the first AG to plead guilty to criminal charges in state history. He just can't blame the NRA when was lying to his constituents. Sean says the majority of NRA and Buckeye Firearms funds come from our grassroots supporters - the same people who are ringing the phones of their elected representatives. Click here to view the video.
March 6, 2018
Associated Press - Former Ohio official now regrets bowing to National Rifle Association
‘I was reelected to the state senate and won an upset victory to become Ohio’s attorney general in large part because the NRA and Buckeye Firearms had ‘educated’ progun voters about my unwavering commitment to the Second Amendment,’’ he wrote.
March 6, 2018
Politifact.com - In GOP Ohio primary for governor, Mary Taylor said Mike DeWine flip-flopped on guns
...DeWine’s campaign spokesman sent PolitiFact documents showing his grades by the NRA, as well as from a state group, the Buckeye Firearms Association.
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When DeWine sought re-election in 2014, the Buckeye Firearms Association gave DeWine a B grade and endorsed him while the NRA gave him a C plus. DeWine’s campaign spokesman said as of Feb. 21 he wasn’t aware of any grade by the NRA for his current race.
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DeWine was endorsed by the Buckeye Firearms Association, and Taylor was endorsed by Ohioans for Concealed Carry.
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Taylor zeroes in on DeWine’s record from many years ago and omits that by 2014, he had clearly earned the support of the Buckeye Firearms Association when it endorsed his re-election.
March 5, 2018
TheNewAmerican.com - More Schools Allow Teachers and Staff to Arm Themselves
Those who take the FASTER (Faculty/Administrator Safety Training and Emergency Response) program offered by the Buckeye (Ohio) Firearms Foundation have testified to its effectiveness. Mason, a librarian, stated, “Time is of the essence. Standing by and waiting to be rescued will only cost lives,” while Julie, a secretary, pointed out that “FASTER isn’t just about firearms. It’s about being prepared before, during and after a violent event. I feel confident I am better prepared to save lives before, during and after. I am changed thanks to this training.”
March 5, 2018
Associated Press - NRA: Former Ohio attorney general who spoke out is ‘desperate’
“The bargain paid off. I was re-elected to the state senate and won an upset victory to become Ohio’s attorney general in large part because the NRA and Buckeye Firearms had ‘educated’ pro-gun voters about my unwavering commitment to the Second Amendment,” he wrote.
March 5, 2018
Statehouse News Bureau - Gun Regulations Playing Big Role In Democratic Primary
Cordray grew up in rural Ohio, and was endorsed by the NRA when he ran for re-election in 2010, but Cordray says he hasn’t taken any money from it. While he’s been described as a friend to gun groups such as the Buckeye Firearms Association, Cordray wouldn’t directly answer whether he’s a strong Second Amendment supporter. “I think we always have to balance constitutional rights against the needs of society. That’s what the courts do in these cases and that’s what the courts will continue to do,” Cordray said. “And I think that’s what reasonable public officials have to do as well.”
March 4, 2018
Cleveland Plain Dealer - Why I regret being in the pocket of the NRA: Marc Dann
How have the NRA and state-level accomplices like Buckeye Firearms managed to make assault weapons impervious to attack? Unlike other special interests that exert influence by making campaign contributions, the gun groups spend the blood money they collect from gunmakers to misinform and then motivate voters who care about a single issue: the sanctity of the Second Amendment.
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The bargain paid off. I was re-elected to the state senate and won an upset victory to become Ohio's attorney general in large part because the NRA and Buckeye Firearms had "educated" pro-gun voters about my unwavering commitment to the Second Amendment.
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My support for Substitute House Bill 347 made me realize I had taken the wrong path. The bill, passed in 2006 at the behest of the NRA and Buckeye Firearms, overturned assault weapons bans enacted in Cleveland and other Ohio cities. Along with making those cities less safe, the legislation was a slap in the face to local officials who had bravely taken on the gun groups. I voted for the bill, and joined the GOP members of the Senate in overriding Gov. Bob Taft's subsequent veto of the measure. Then, as Ohio attorney general, I fought Cleveland's leaders when they sued to overturn the law and reinstate the city's ban.
March 4, 2018
Cleveland Plain Dealer - Ohio wants to improve school security after Florida shootings, but officials have no plan yet
"There's no solid numbers on it," said Rick Kaleda, the northeast Ohio representative of the Buckeye Firearms Association, which has offered training to school staff. Districts, he said, often approve people to have guns in school as part of their state-mandated safety plans, which are not released to the public.
That organization estimated in November that its school training program called FASTER Saves Lives, short for Faculty / Administrator Safety Training & Emergency Response, has trained staff from about 200 districts from 76 of Ohio's 88 counties. Those include Cuyahoga and all surrounding counties.
March 3, 2018
MSNBC - MSNBC Live with Richard Lui
Buckeye Firearms Foundation's FASTER Saves Lives Program Director Joe Eaton was a guest on MSNBC's "MSNBC Live" with host Richard Lui.
March 2, 2018
Columbus Dispatch - Ohio lawmakers mull ways to take guns from those showing ‘red flag’ of danger
Critics of the proposed state legislation say it would violate an individual’s right to due process, by allowing the seizure of property before the gun owner has a court hearing.
“Before you get to defend yourself or say anything, you should not lose your rights,” said Jim Irvine, board president of the Buckeye Firearms Association. “It’s a violation of our Fourth Amendment.”
Irvine said individuals should, instead, be prosecuted on charges of menacing for making threats, rather than seizing their guns. The cost of an attorney and the associated fees to retrieve a gun often is more than the value of the gun itself, he said.
“That’s like seizing a car if they think you’re going to drive recklessly,” Irvine said.
March 2, 2018
Fox News - School shootings prompt more teachers to consider carrying guns
Gun rights advocates argue a teacher with a gun is not only a deterrent to a school shooter, but also the first line of defense in protecting students.
“The general public thinks that we’re just standing outside the doors of schools handing out guns,” Dean Rieck, the executive director of the Buckeye Firearms Association, told Fox News. “But we’re not trying to turn teachers into cops. We’re looking to give them the tools to save lives before the professionals arrive.”
Rieck and other pro-gun advocates noted the training teachers receive goes far beyond that of most local law enforcement agencies. The training includes not just basic gun skills and target practice, but everything from how to make a tourniquet and stanch a bullet wound to unorthodox shooting stances and SWAT team maneuvers.
Depending on the school district, teachers undergo between 40 and 150 hours of training before they can carry a concealed weapon on campus. They must also be able to hit a target with 90 percent accuracy. Most local police forces require only a 70 percent rate.
March 2, 2018
Gatehouse Media Ohio - Number of new concealed-carry permits declined in 2017
Jim Irvine, board president of the Buckeye Firearms Association, previously attributed 2016′s large increase to a changing perception about guns.
“It’s about safety, not just guns,” Irvine said. “Having a smoke detector isn’t about smoke detectors; it’s about safety. Wearing a seat belt is about safety. People are starting to see that, but with guns.”
Irvine also said the 2016 increase could have been due to fears that a Hillary Clinton presidency could result in tighter regulation of guns.
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The Buckeye Firearms Association previously estimated that more than 627,000 Ohioans — one in 14 adults — had obtained concealed-carry permits as of late last year. The attorney general’s office does not compile cumulative numbers of permits, which have been issued since 2004.
March 1, 2018
WOSU (NPR Columbus) - Gun Debate Hits Close To Home For Cincinnati Grandmother
President of Buckeye Firearms Association Jim Irvine says he feels the pain of those who lost loved ones in Florida and other mass shootings. He agrees teachers should not be made to carry guns if they don't want to. But for the few who do, he says: get them trained.
"There are a couple of people in every school building who are going to go to the scene on event day. It does not matter what the policy is. It does not even matter what the risk to their own life is. They will do whatever it is they can do, including die to save these kids."
He advocates the FASTER program, training school officials about the mindset of such a killer and teaching the hunt and ambush methods, as well as trauma care.
Irvine says, "We don't want feel-good things that pretend to do it. A sticker on the door that says we don't have guns in our building because the killer doesn't really care about that sign."
March 1, 2018
WTVG (ABC Toledo) - Hicksville schools talk safety and security with students, parents
Nearly 3 years ago, the school board unanimously approved a measure that would allow staff members to carry concealed weapons on school grounds.
But as Countryman explains, they need more than just a CCW.
"We require more," he said. "Each of those members train every year in Nevada and have gone through Buckeye Firearms Association training."
March 1, 2018
Akron Beacon-Journal - University of Akron to host town hall meeting on gun violence in schools
Speakers set to be on the panel include: Delia Owens, UA professor of school counseling; Nicole Diem, a teacher in Chardon Local Schools; Dale E. Gooding, assistant chief of the UA Police Department; Jim Irvine, president of the Buckeye Firearms Association; Casey Cipollone, a Westlake High School student; and Christine Hymes, a teacher in Jackson Local Schools in Jackson Township.
March 1, 2018
WKYC (NBC Cleveland) - Cutting ties with the NRA: Smart business? Or bowing to gun control pressure?
"Putting window dressing on things and not coming up with a solution is a disservice to people who die," said Jim Irvine of the Buckeye Firearms Association.
March 1, 2018
Dayton Daily News - After Florida school shooting, retailers weigh in on gun control debate
Joe Eaton of Buckeye Firearms Association said Dick’s Sporting Goods has a right to sell or not sell any products but that the policy won’t have any effect on mass shootings. He said firearms bans have failed time and time again, and won’t solve violence occurring in communities.
“It’s going to have no impact on violent crime in the United States,” he said.
Dean Rieck, executive director of the Buckeye Firearms Association, said the decision is about “about caving to political pressure. He encouraged gun owners to take their business elsewhere and support businesses that believe in all constitutional rights.
“Buckeye Firearms Association is deeply disappointed that Dick’s Sporting Goods has chosen to punish law-abiding gun owners by restricting sales of legal firearms based on the bad actions of a mentally ill individual in Florida,” Rieck said in a statement. “Dick’s sold a shotgun to the Parkland killer in 2017, and while that particular firearm was not used in the Florida tragedy, we believe Dick’s has made a cynical financial calculation that infringing Second Amendment rights will do less damage to their bottom line than protests and bad press.”
March 1, 2018
WBNS (CBS Columbus) - Domestic violence victim advocates, pro-gun groups react to Governor Kasich's proposed gun change
"We agree with a couple points that he made, we're not so sure about other points. The devil is always in the details when we're talking about Ohio legislation," said Dean Rieck, the executive director for Buckeye Firearms Association.
He says the domestic violence law proposal comes with questions, like how it would be enforced.
"No one wants violent people to have access to firearms, but when we're talking about legislation we always have to look at the language, so what exactly is he proposing," Rieck said.
March 1, 2018
Columbus Dispatch - Kasich unveils ‘unanimous’ proposals to curb gun violence
Jim Irvine, the board president of the Buckeye Firearms Association, said he opposes gun-violence protection orders, arguing the seizure of guns could violate individuals’ due-process rights. He also opposes mirroring federal laws prohibiting gun sales to those convicted of domestic violence, saying individual cases vary too much.
“The purpose of the Second Amendment is not buck hunting,” Irvine said. “It’s to protect us from an out-of-control government.”
March 1, 2018
Gongwer News Service - Kasich Calls For Protection Orders, Other Measures In Wake Of Gun Violence Incidents
Jim Irvine, board president of the Buckeye Firearms Association, said his group agrees with the plan to crackdown on "strawman" purchases. However, he said the BFA will push back on the other proposed policy changes.
"It sounds like somebody who either doesn't understand firearms or doesn't care about the peoples' lives," he said in an interview. "It's political grandstanding."
February 28, 2018
The Lantern - Gun violence expert, firearm association member weigh in on likelihood of stricter gun regulation in Ohio
For more than a decade, Ohio lawmakers have consistently voted to expand gun rights, a trend that Dean Rieck, executive director of the Buckeye Firearms Association, said is good for the state.
“We’ve made some progress over that period of time, not as fast as we would like, but that’s politics,” he said.
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BFA was formed in 2004 to fight for Ohioans’ right “to own and use firearms for all legal activities,” according to its website.
Republican Gov. John Kasich — who signed numerous laws expanding access to firearms taking office in 2011 — surprised many by recommending a ban on semi-automatic weapons Feb. 18.
Rieck said he’s disappointed in Kasich’s decision and attributes it to political posturing.
“He’s planning another run for the presidency,” he said. “It’s a calculated move on his part.”
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Rieck said banning any firearm hardware is a mistake that would only negatively affect law-abiding citizens.
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Rieck said policies that prohibit guns in certain areas make people less safe because criminals are more likely to target those locations — especially if those policies are announced.
“Somehow, that makes some people feel safer, but what it really does is it sends a signal to criminals, ‘Ah, this is a place where they can’t hit back,’” he said....
BFA offers a free service, FASTER Saves Lives, that trains teachers how to respond in active-shooter scenarios. Rieck said the program has trained more than 1,300 teachers and is known to reduce the amount of time a shooter can remain active, which would reduce the number of victims.
“These guys don’t go to a police station. There’s a reason for that. They know that they’re going to get stopped pretty fast. They go to a school because they know, in many cases, there’s no one there to effectively stop them. It’s the same reason they go to a church,” he said. “They’re looking for body count.”
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Critics have said the NRA has too much influence over politicians. Rieck, an NRA member, said the group’s influence comes from the support of voters.
“You can’t pass laws or you can’t have influence with politicians unless they think that voters actually support the issue,” he said.
Rieck said BFA estimates there are roughly 4 million gun owners in Ohio — about one-third of the state.
“That’s a big voting bloc,” he said.
February 27, 2018
Washington Times - Toward less gun control, not more
In Ohio the Buckeye Firearms Foundation got together with the Tactical Defense Institute to put on a three-day course teaching school staff how to shoot and how to protect students. TDI provides the instruction while BFF covers the cost. John Benner, owner and chief instructor of TDI says the program, labeled FASTER — Faculty/Administrator Safety Training and Emergency Response — has taught 1,300 school staff from 200 school districts in Ohio and is now receiving financial support from the state.
February 27, 2018
New York Daily News - Arming teachers can protect kids
After the murder of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, the Buckeye Firearms Foundation in Ohio founded “FASTER Saves Lives,” a training program specifically designed for armed school staff. (That stands for Faculty/Administrator Safety Training and Emergency Response.)
It has trained more than 1,300 Ohio school staffers in hundreds of schools in the past five years. In 2017, Coloradans for Civil Liberties brought FASTER training to their state. The Ohio and Colorado programs both raise private money to provide the school districts with training at no cost.
The Ohio and Colorado programs are taught by law enforcement officers, such as SWAT personnel, with experience responding to active shooters. Participants learn tactics, mobility, defensive cover and other lifesaving skills. Participants must pass a marksmanship test that exceeds the qualification course for some law enforcement officers.
The FASTER classes also contain a robust medical component. In mass-casualty events, medics have to wait to enter the school until after it has been cleared by law enforcement. Training school staff on site to stop the bleeding and stabilize the injured can save lives.
The FASTER program doesn’t make teachers into cops or doctors. The participants don’t learn about traffic enforcement, search and seizure, or the many diverse situations that law enforcement officers face. Instead, the participants are trained for the specific skills of stopping a killer on their campus and saving lives.
Of course, most teachers don’t want the extra responsibility of carrying a firearm. We agree that no one should be forced to do so. The FASTER program seeks volunteers only.
February 27, 2018
Cleveland Plain Dealer - Dennis Kucinich says Richard Cordray is the NRA's 'boy' as guns increasingly become an issue in governor's race
The Buckeye Firearms Association endorsed Cordray in both 2006 and 2010 - the year he faced now-Attorney General Mike DeWine, who could be his opponent this time around. DeWine recently received the endorsement of the Buckeye Firearms Association for the 2018 Republican gubernatorial primary.
February 26, 2018
WCMH (NBC Columbus) - Superintendent: Upper Arlington teachers will never be armed with guns
“What we need is to be able to provide layers of security in the schools,” said Buckeye Firearms Association Executive Director Dean Rieck.
The Buckeye Firearms Association has provided training in armed response, crisis management, and emergency medical aid to 1,300 Ohio teachers and administrators since the horrific Sandy Hook school shooting.
“Today, we have a waiting list of over 2,000 teachers and staff from all over Ohio,” he said. “The demand is overrunning us at this point.”
February 26, 2018
WBNC (CBS Columbus) - Hundreds pack Upper Arlington High School Auditorium to talk violence, gun safety
Dean Rieck, who is the executive director of Buckeye Firearms Association, said it is sad that Imhoff's mind is closed to finding out more information on how arming teachers could save lives.
Rieck said in Ohio, 1,300 teachers have gone through the training in 76 of the state's 88 counties. He said 2,000 teachers and staff are currently on the waiting list to receive training.
February 26, 2018
WVIZ (PBS Cleveland) - Ohio Program Provides Training for Teachers Who Want to Conceal and Carry
The mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, has renewed the debate over whether teachers and other school personnel should be armed. Although the policy discussion continues, Ohio teachers already can take classes to learn how to defend themselves and their students if a threat arises. The Buckeye Firearms Foundation provides free training to teachers through the FASTER Program -- Faculty / Administrator Safety Training & Emergency Response. Michelle and Chris Cerino, two of the program's trainers, join ideastream's Rick Jackson to talk about FASTER training and how one graduate of the program had to use it in a real-life situation.
February 25, 2018
WBNS (CBS Columbus) - "Face the State"
Buckeye Firearms Foundation Board Member Gerard Valentino was a guest on "Face the State" with host Scott Light. Click here to listen to the show archive.
February 25, 2018
WBNS 97.1 FM - "Columbus Perspective"
Buckeye Firearms Foundation President Jim Irvine was a guest on "Columbus Perspective" with host Dave James. Click here to listen to the show archive. Jim's segment begins at 15:20.
February 25, 2018
Sandusky Register - Governor candidates differ on gun control
The May primary includes Dennis Kucinich, who was rated as an “F” by the National Gun Association, and Bill O’Neill, also not considered a friend by the gun lobby. Their main rivals include two candidates favored by the Buckeye Firearms Association: state Sen. Joe Schiavoni, who got an A- rating from the group in his last campaign, and Richard Cordray, who was endorsed by the pro-gun group in his campaign for attorney general in a previous race.
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Republicans, meanwhile, have two candidates left: Mike DeWine, who’s received the early endorsement of the Buckeye Firearms Association, and Mary Taylor, whom the group considers a friend.
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The Buckeye Firearms Association endorsed Cordray when he ran for re-election as attorney general in 2010. “Cordray has exhibited strong support for the Second Amendment and for the rights of Ohio gun owners during his first term as attorney general,” the announcement said.
Dean Rieck, executive director of the Buckeye Firearms Association, said last week his group met recently with Cordray.
“We would consider him a friend. For a Democrat, he’s been very pro-gun,” Rieck said.
The Cordray campaign said the meeting with the BFA was in the context of a meeting with the Ohio Sportsmen’s Alliance.
The NRA and affiliates such as Buckeye Firearms, generally oppose any gun control legislation. The NRA, particularly, spends millions of dollars each year making campaign contributions to candidates it favors who share that view.
Last week, Cordray announced a package of proposals designed to curb gun violence, including expanding background checks, banning the sale of bump stocks, increasing support for school safety measures, creating local gun control task forces and naming a “gun violence prevention czar.”
The Buckeye Firearms Association endorsed Schiavoni in his 2014 race for the Ohio Senate, awarding him an A- rating.
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Rieck said his group has not rated O’Neill in the past, but that based on his proposal for registering semiautomatic rifles, he would probably rate an “F.”
The Republican primary’s candidates stress their support for gun rights.
The Buckeye Firearms Association Political Action Committee endorsed DeWine on Feb. 8.
"This was an easy choice for Buckeye Firearms Association because Mike DeWine has done more over the past few years to advance and defend the right to keep and bear arms than any elected official in Ohio," said Jim Irvine, chairman of BFA PAC.
Rieck said while his group backs DeWine, “We consider Mary Taylor a friend.”
February 25, 2018
Sandusky Register - Running mate: Mary Taylor ticket offers business experience
Many politicians and groups have been lining up behind DeWine as the presumptive nominee. The Buckeye Firearms Association, for example, endorsed DeWine on Feb. 8, although the group acknowledged Taylor is a “friend” who is strong on gun rights.
Estruth said he’s “not a politician” and doesn’t understand all the dynamics behind the group’s action, but added what the endorsement from the Buckeye Firearms Association appears to do is “coronate D.C. DeWine as the establishment candidate.”
February 24, 2018
National Public Radio - Educators Fear And Embrace Calls For Concealed Carry In The Classroom
At one training session to teach best practices in the small town of Rittman, Ohio, more than a dozen teachers stood in a line poised with guns in hand.
They were there as part of the FASTER program funded by the Buckeye Firearms Foundation. The state is also kicking in $175,000 dollars over the next two years.
For the past five years, FASTER has trained more than 1,300 teachers and staff across 12 states. Chris Cerino is a former police officer and law enforcement trainer who prepares teachers and staff in case of an active shooter.
"We teach them about target and backstop," Cerino says, "We give them good marksmanship skills. We talk to them about closing the distances and using cover. And we also talk to them about not shooting when they shouldn't or can't."
In Ohio, any school board can give permission to carry a firearm into normally gun-free schools. Those decisions are often made behind closed doors because they're part of a district's confidential safety plan.
The Buckeye Firearms Foundation's Jim Irvine says it's not just teachers with guns, it's principals, nurses, and maintenance people. And he says it's strictly voluntary.
"No one should ever be forced to carry a gun," Irvine says. "It's something you have got to want to do because if you don't want to do it, you're not going to embrace it with the right mindset and the right attitude to do it properly."
February 24, 2018
Akron Beacon-Journal - Ohio police chase rumors of threats amid hysteria and anxiety of Florida school massacre
Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones and the Buckeye Firearm Association offer to train teachers for free.
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Jim Irvine is the board president of the Buckeye Firearms Association, which trains educators for active-shooter scenarios through the FASTER program, which stands for Faculty/Administrator Safety Training and Emergency Response.
The free two- to three-day course on intensive gun handling and medical treatment helps teachers tap into a mindset of saving kids’ lives. It’s free, depending on available funds and whether the teacher’s school district allows educators to carry.
The organization, which has trained 1,200 people from more than 200 school districts across Ohio, doesn’t report which districts or educators have participated. Irvine said interest, as it did after Sandy Hook, has spiked again in the past week. All training slots are currently filled.
“When we first started, we never knew it would be like this,” Irvine said. “The schools care about safety of kids. What we do is show them that there is a different model [of defense], it’s proven, and it works.”
February 24, 2018
MSNBC - "MSNBC Live" with Aaron Gilcrest
Buckeye Firearms Foundation's FASTER Saves Lives Program Director Joe Eaton was a guest on MSNBC's "MSNBC Live" with host Aaron Gilcrest.
February 24, 2018
National Public Radio - Teachers Respond To Trump's Push To Arm School Staff
Zilinskas has gone through the FASTER (Faculty/Administration Safety Training and Emergency Response) Saves Lives program. The program, presented by the Ohio pro-gun group, the Buckeye Firearms Association, trains teachers and school staff on how to respond to an active shooter on campus. Part of their training involves learning how to use a firearm on school grounds.
"There are some of us that want to have the tools and the training and have the ability to [prevent] somebody from harming the kids," Zilinskas says. If teachers carry concealed weapons on campus, he adds, a potential shooter could be deterred from terrorizing that school.
February 23, 2018
BBC Radio
Buckeye Firearms Foundation President Jim Irvine was interviewed live on BBC Radio.
February 23, 2018
Yahoo.com - Should schoolteachers be armed?
In the wake of the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., last week, President Trump suggested that one solution that would prevent future shootings would be to arm teachers in the schools. Yahoo News anchor Stephanie Sy talks with Jim Irvine, chairman of the Buckeye Firearms Association and Foundation, and Mary Kusler, senior director for the National Education Association's Center for Advocacy, about the pros and cons of this proposal.
February 23, 2018
TheNewAmerican.com - Trump Proposes Teachers Carry; Opponents Push Back
As far as paying for the firearms and training goes, the Buckeye (Ohio) Firearms Foundation (BFF) has already used private donations to train about 1,300 school staff members in 12 states over the past five years. Other private institutions would no doubt join BFF using non-governmental monies to help defray those costs. Additional costs would properly be borne by the school districts to avoid further federal encroachment into the public education arena.
February 23, 2018
Cleveland Plain Dealer - Republican Ohio governor candidates support arming teachers to help prevent school shootings
DeWine has been endorsed by the Buckeye Firearms Association, while Taylor has been endorsed by another gun-rights group, Ohioans for Concealed Carry. DeWine won the group over during his tenure as attorney general after previously drawing its ire for supporting a federal assault-weapons ban as a U.S. senator in 2006.
February 23, 2018
The Post - Democrats Discuss: Thoughts and prayers are easier than gun control for GOP
The Buckeye Firearms Association endorsed Cordray in his race for Ohio Attorney General in 2010 over Mike DeWine, citing Cordray’s support for concealed carry reciprocity agreements and his filings in his first term as AG to protect Second Amendment rights. That was contrasted with DeWine’s status as one of the “Top 10 Anti-Gun Senators,” the only Republican to have made the list.
February 23, 2018
Sandusky Register - Rep. Arndt and challenger hold different views on gun laws
Arndt was endorsed by the Buckeye Firearms Association in his 2016 campaign, which awarded Arndt an “A” for his stances. Arndt voted for bills in the 2016 session and the current session to ease regulations on concealed carry gun owners.
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State Rep. Dick Stein, R-Norwalk, voted for HB 233 but state Rep. Bill Reineke, R-Tiffin, voted against it, according to a tally on the website of the Buckeye Firearms Association.
February 23, 2018
WSYX (ABC Columbus) - More Ohio school districts consider arming teachers and staff
Dean Rieck, executive director of Buckeye Firearms Association told ABC6 that through a safety training and emergency response program, they’ve instructed more than 1, 300 teachers and staff.
Here in Ohio, they have worked with educators from 76 of the states’ 88-counties.
“I don’t think there’s two sides to this. If we’re talking about active shooters, you’re going to have guns in schools. It all comes down to who’s going to have the guns. Are you going to have an active shooter come in and murder people who can’t defend themselves or you going to have guns in the hands of people who’ve been trained and approved by the school boards to stop violence and render medical aid,” said Rieck.
February 23, 2018
Columbus Dispatch - Arming teachers legal in Ohio, but not always popular
Since 2013, the nonprofit Buckeye Firearms Foundation has been offering free training specifically for educators, called FASTER, or Faculty/Administrator Safety Training and Emergency Response. The 26-hour class includes handgun training and tactical medical care, such as applying tourniquets and compression bandages.
The phone is ringing off the hook this week, said Jim Irvine, president of the foundation’s board.
Over the past five years, more than 1,300 teachers and staff members from 225 districts in 12 states have received FASTER training, including educators in 76 of Ohio’s 88 counties. An additional 400 educators are scheduled for sessions this year.
For the first time, participation in FASTER had to be limited this year to five staff members per district, Irvine said. Donations to pay for the instruction can’t keep up with demand, he said.
Some teachers and staff members wouldn’t be right for this role in an emergency, he said. No one should be forced to participate.
But he said the staff members who want the responsibility and can handle it should be given that opportunity to save lives in the minutes before police can arrive.
The FOP’s McDonald said that, in addition to concerns about inadequate training of armed teachers, first responders going into an active-shooter situation might not be able to distinguish the good guys from the bad if everyone is armed.
Irvine said there are ways to let police know what’s going on, including distributing staff members in the hallways to pass along accurate information to responding officers. But he said it’s an unavoidable fact that holding a gun is risky in that situation.
“We tell people in classes ... ‘If you’re volunteering for this, you’re volunteering to take a bullet for your kids,’” Irvine said.
February 22, 2018
Wall Street Journal - Some Teachers Already Have Guns
Some schools that incorporate firearms into their safety plans have received funding for training through Faster Saves Lives, a program sponsored by the Buckeye Firearms Foundation in Ohio. About 1,300 school staff in 12 states has received training through the program in the past five years, said program director Joe Eaton.
“The faster we stop the killing, and the faster we start medical aid, that’s how we save lives,” Mr. Eaton said.
February 22, 2018
Guns.com - Dems propose ‘assault weapon’ ban, state-run gun registry for Ohio
Gun rights advocates say the proposal falls flat. “It is an insane idea. It just doesn’t work and our kids deserve a solution that does work,” said Jim Irvine, president of the Buckeye Firearms Association.
February 22, 2018
WKYC (NBC Cleveland) - Where does Ohio stand regarding arming teachers in the classroom?
The Buckeye Firearms Association sponsors another program, FASTER Saves Lives. They've trained nearly 1,300 teachers and staff in 12 states including educators in 76 of Ohio's 88 counties. The training includes tactical active shooter training as well as emergency first response.
Member Chris Cerino says participants must compete CCW training before they can be accepted into the program which is free to schools although participants must pay travel, food and accommodations.
The next classes planned for June have already been filled.
February 22, 2018
WLWT (NBC Cincinnati) - Florida school shooting heightens discussion about guns among Ohio lawmakers
Sean Maloney, with Buckeye Firearms Association, a gun rights advocacy group, disagrees.
"Unfortunately, while all the politicians and everybody are screaming and yelling about gun control -- 'Ban 'em all' -- we're playing into the hands of the next person out there," Maloney said. "Our children are not political pawns."
Maloney favors allowing educators to carry guns quietly in classrooms, saying that's what the Buckeye Firearms Association's program, FASTER Saves Lives, promotes. FASTER stands for Faculty/Administrator Safety Training and Emergency Response. He said stopping a threat quickly is paramount.
"I want everybody that watches this and listens to this to think about what it must take for someone to go in and slaughter their own classmates," Maloney said. "How do you legislate against that? You can't legislate against that, but you know what we can do? We can make sure that, if that happens, there's someone there to stop that as soon as it occurs."
February 22, 2018
Pittsburg Tribune-Review - Trump's proposal to arm teachers would face legal, union opposition in Pennsylvania
In Ohio, state law allows teachers to carry weapons and a nonprofit organization called the Buckeye Firearms Association trains teachers and administrators in armed response, crisis management and emergency first aid.
"It's taken a while for this idea to catch on," said Dean Rieck, executive director of the association. "Some educators are skeptical. So we invite them to observe the training and see for themselves."
February 22, 2018
Miami Herald - Florida Senate president’s support for arming teachers sets up showdown on gun bills
Across the country, more than 1,300 teachers in 200 school districts across 12 states have undergone training to be armed, according to Jim Irvine, the president of the Buckeye Firearms Foundation, a nonprofit that has become a pioneer in such training.
After the Sandy Hook massacre, which left 20 kids and six teachers dead, he said he pitched offering training for free to teachers in Ohio.
“We were mocked,” Irvine said. “People said, ‘Teachers don’t want to carry guns. You think teachers want to sign up for your class?’ In a couple weeks, we had a thousand people apply to be trained.”
One of those people was Jeff Staggs, the superintendent of the Newcomerstown schools, a small, 1,100-student district in rural Ohio.
He said that after parents brought the idea to his school board, he and other staffers and teachers went through Irvine’s training. He would not say how many people now carry concealed weapons in the district’s four buildings, citing security concerns.
He said the teachers in the program undergo extra scrutiny year-round. They’re drug-tested multiple times a year, and he said that if administrators have concerns about them, the teachers are expected to answer “any questions of any type” about their personal or private lives.
“Your life’s an open book,” Staggs said.
Judd’s program, known as the “Sentinel Program,” goes further than even Irvine’s three-day training: extensive background checks, 132 hours of training and quarterly recertification. He touts that the people who go through the program are deputized, but they’re allowed to use their weapons only to confront an active shooter.
February 22, 2018
Tampa Bay Times - Florida Senate president says he supports arming teachers, setting up showdown on gun bills
Across the country, more than 1,300 teachers in 200 school districts across 12 states have undergone training to be armed, according to Jim Irvine, the president of the Buckeye Firearms Foundation, a nonprofit that has become a pioneer in such training.
After the Sandy Hook massacre, which left 20 kids and six teachers dead, he said he pitched offering training for free to teachers in Ohio.
"We were mocked," Irvine said. "People said, 'Teachers don't want to carry guns. You think teachers want to sign up for your class?' In a couple weeks, we had a thousand people apply to be trained."
One of those people was Jeff Staggs, the superintendent of the Newcomerstown schools, a small, 1,100-student school district in rural Ohio.
He said that after parents brought the idea to his school board, he and other staffers and teachers went through Irvine's training. He would not say how many people now carry concealed weapons in the district's four buildings, citing security concerns.
"It is not talked about a lot," Staggs said. "It's taken for granted that we have this layer of security."
He said the teachers in the program undergo extra scrutiny year-round. They're drug tested multiple times a year, and he said that if administrators have concerns about them, the teachers are expected to answer "any questions of any type" about their personal or private lives.
"Your life's an open book," Staggs said.
Grady's program, known as the "Sentinel Program," goes further than even Irvine's three-day training: extensive background checks, 132 hours of training and quarterly recertification. He touts that the people who go through the program are deputized, but they're only allowed to use their weapons to confront an active shooter.
...
And in an active shooter situation, police occasionally mistake plainclothes officers for suspects. Irvine, the Ohio trainer, said that he warns participants that they could be shot by police responding to an active shooter situation.
"That's the risk you take taking on this role, and you have to be comfortable with that risk," he said.
...
Irvine, the Ohio trainer, said he has mixed feelings about the debate over his program.
"I'm proud of the program and I'm proud of the people who work in it, but I'm disheartened that we need it," Irvine said. "It's an absolute failure of our society that we're even having this discussion."
February 22, 2018
BBC Radio
Buckeye Firearms Foundation's FASTER Saves Lives Program Director Joe Eaton was interviewed live on BBC Radio.
February 22, 2018
KNX (CBS Los Angeles) - "KNX In Depth"
Buckeye Firearms Foundation's FASTER Saves Lives Program Director Joe Eaton was a guest on "KNX In Depth." Click here to download to the podcast. Joe's segment begins at 15:30.
February 22, 2018
WSYX (ABC Columbus) - Educators, gun advocates mixed on president's suggestion to arm teachers
One local gun advocate believes school districts need to arm staff members.
"We use armed guards to protect our banks. We use armed guards to protect our casinos, yet, we don't give people the same opportunity at our schools to defend themselves," said Gerard Valentino with Buckeye Firearms.
While that debate rages on, Buckeye Firearms have already trained over 1,000 Ohio educators for these situations.
"To deal with and react to an active shooter, it is not just teaching them how to handle guns either," said Valentino.
Valentino said the training also involved trauma care and more.
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Buckeye Firearms said most districts they have worked with typically like to keep that fact confidential, adding that typically school boards make the decision to allow for this training.
February 22, 2018
Toledo Blade - Gun lobby has 2 pro-gun candidates leading race for governor
The leading Republican candidate for governor, Attorney General Mike DeWine, is a former U.S. senator whose votes put him on the opposite side of the NRA, and played a part in his defeat as a senator in 2006. Since then, Mr. DeWine has found his ways back into the good graces of the gun lobby and has won the endorsement of the Buckeye Firearms Association -
the main Ohio affiliate of the NRA.
February 21, 2018
CincyBeat.com - Cincinnati to get "March for Our Lives" event
Jim Irvine, president of the Buckeye Firearms Association, has called proposed legislation that would put a statewide ban on assault weapons in Ohio “an insane idea.”
That legislation, proposed by State Sens. Michael Skindell and Charleta Tavares, both Democrats, would ban automatic and semi-automatic weapons with magazines that hold more than 10 bullets.
“It just doesn’t work and our kids deserve a solution that does work," Irvine said, suggesting those worried about school shootings should focus on mental illness.
February 21, 2018
BBC News- 'Counting every school shooting so it never seems normal'
There are calls to arm teachers - with Ohio allowing individual schools to decide how staff might protect themselves.
Joe Eaton is a manager of a firm in Ohio that trains teachers how to use weapons. He says pupils are safer with armed staff in schools trained to stop a shooter.
Mr Eaton, programme director for Faster Savers Lives, does not accept the argument that guns should be kept out of school.
He says that in an attack, calling the police is asking someone else to bring weapons into school.
It's more effective, and will save more lives, he argues, if there is already someone there who is armed.
February 21, 2018
New York Times - An Armed Principal Detained a Campus Gunman. But He’s Against Arming School Staff.
An Ohio group, the Buckeye Firearms Association, has trained 1,300 school personnel in that state alone. The group’s program, called Faster Saves Lives, is spreading to 11 other states.
Dean Rieck, executive director of the association, said the idea for Faster Saves Lives began about five years ago, after Sandy Hook.
“In Ohio, people thought we were nuts to suggest this,” he said. But five years later, schools are contacting the organization asking for the training, he said. The group has held classes in 76 of 88 Ohio counties, he said, with some schools requesting only trauma first-aid training.
Participants in the gun training are school personnel who already have concealed-carry permits.
“It puts very well-trained concealed-carry people inside the school,” Mr. Rieck said. “If something happens, they’re able to respond faster. That’s the entire point of the program.”
February 20, 2018
WHK AM 1420 Cleveland - "The Bob Franz Authority"
Buckeye Firearms Foundation President Jim Irvine appeared on "The Bob Franz Authority" with host Bob Franz. Click here to listen to the podcast. Jim's segment begins at 31:50.
February 20, 2018
WKBN (CBS Youngstown) - ‘You’re not going to harm our kids:’ School leaders defend arming teachers
Jeff Staggs is the superintendent of Newcomerstown Schools in Tuscarawas County, where some of his staff carry guns.
“Someone tries to break into your home, you’re going to protect your children. That’s what we do here,” he said.
Staggs is going through the last hour of his last day of training at “Faster Saves Lives.”
After Sandy Hook, some of his employees went through the whole program — learning how to shoot, when to use force and how to identify a threat.
“Someone can walk in, wipe out an entire classroom in 40 seconds. It’s time. It’s eliminating the threat when we’re right there,” Staggs said.
Program director Joe Eaton walked through what a teacher would have to do in order to qualify. Over the course of three days, teachers learn how to fire from different distances, how to react in high-stress situations and how to hold onto their gun.
Their big message? It all comes down to time.
“If you have a kid that falls in a swimming pool and drowns, you don’t just call 911 and stand around and wait. You jump in the pool, you grab the kid, you pull them out and you pray someone knows CPR so you have a live patient when the professional gets there,” Eaton said.
He said a police officer has to pass this training at an 80 percent pass/fail rate. A teacher has to score at least 93 percent.
Eaton recommends teachers who do carry train several times a year. At this point, it’s up to the districts to decide just how often they have to requalify.
“What we know is they are more ready than they were before,” Eaton said.
Ready, they say, with one more tool in a situation where time is everything.
“Did we go into education to do this? No, we didn’t, but are we going to protect our children? One-hundred percent,” Staggs said. “You’re not going to harm our kids without us intervening and I want to give my staff a chance to live through that.”
February 20, 2018
Columbus Dispatch - Senate Democrats seek assault weapons ban, gun registration
Jim Irvine, president of the Buckeye Firearms Association, said the bill “would ban almost every semi-automatic firearm,” including handguns. “It would also be an enormous cost to taxpayers to copy failed ideas. This is not a hypothetical discussion anymore. Banning guns does not work.”
Many steps, including better mental health treatment and others, can reduce school shootings, said Irvine, who has called for more teachers to be armed to confront assailants. “Our kids deserve better than political grandstanding. They deserve safe schools and better results,” he said.
February 20, 2018
Cincinnati.com - Assault weapons ban in Ohio: Will John Kasich support Dems on AR-15?
"It is an insane idea. It just doesn’t work and our kids deserve a solution that does work," said Jim Irvine, president of the Buckeye Firearms Association. He suggested lawmakers improve mental health treatment and arm teachers instead.
February 20, 2018
BBC News - Six radical ways to tackle US school shootings
"If schools' only solution is to rely on outside help, it will never get any better than we saw at Sandy Hook," says Joe Eaton.
Eaton is from the Buckeye Firearms Association, a gun-owners' group in Ohio. After Sandy Hook, they set up Faster - a programme that trains teachers to respond to mass shootings.
The programme includes first aid, moving through crowds, and firearms training - that is, how to kill a school gunman.
So far, Faster has trained 1,300 school staff, mostly on three-day courses. "Teachers, administrators, superintendents, bus drivers, even the lunch lady," says Eaton.
Faster has trained staff from 225 districts in 12 states. Another 200 to 400 will be trained this year.
"Inside of every school, there are certain teachers who will willingly run towards the sound of gunfire," says Eaton.
"The schools identify these people, and tell them: 'Whatever tool and training you're comfortable with, we're going to give it to you'."
Eaton accepts that it's sad for teachers to need guns.
"When they started their teaching career, they never would have imagined carrying firearms to protect kids - or having their schools ask them to," he says.
"But I bet if you ask every airline pilot, they would have answered the same way until 9/11 happened [some pilots in the US carry guns].
"Sandy Hook was the teachers' 9/11."
February 19, 2018
Cleveland Scene - Dennis Kucinich Wants to Ban Assault Weapons Across Ohio
...[I]n the past, Cordray has said he would not support a statewide ban on assault weapons. Cordray is beloved by both the NRA and the Ohio Buckeye Firearms Association, who voted to endorse Cordray over Republican Mike DeWine for Attorney General in 2010. (DeWine won that election, and is also the Republican frontrunner in the 2018 governor’s race.)
“EVERY SINGLE OFFICIAL ACT Richard Cordray has ever taken,” wrote theBuckeye Firearms Association, in 2010, has been consistent with a vibrant support of your Second Amendment rights.” (All-caps in original.)
February 19, 2018
Dayton Daily News - NRA-endorsed Gov. John Kasich now says it’s time for gun restrictions
As a member of Congress, Kasich voted in favor of the 1994 ban on assault weapons — a move that earned him an F rating from the National Rifle Association. In 2009 he told the Buckeye Firearms Association: “I thought it might do good. I was wrong. It didn’t have any impact. I’ve been voting with the NRA and gun owners about 95 percent of the time and I’ve agreed with the NRA at times more than I’ve agreed with my wife.”
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Jim Irvine of the Buckeye Firearms Association advocates for training school personnel to respond to active shooters. “This has nothing to do with gun rights, it has to do with school safety,” he said. “We are sick of their way leading to the death of our children. How many more children must die before we accept reality and implement a better plan?”
February 19, 2018
Columbus Dispatch - Is Kucinich catching a gun control wave across Ohio?
Jim Irvine, president of the Buckeye Firearms Association, said, “I find it disgusting that politicians propose things that will fail to save the next kids’ lives. We need things that work, not failed ideas.”
The association advocates training qualified teachers to carry and use guns and confront school shooters, Irvine said. The group has trained teachers from about 225 school districts, although not all are permitted by their districts to carry guns in classrooms, he said. Irvine had no estimate on how many districts secretly have authorized teachers to carry guns in schools.
“The cops won’t get there in time. It’s a complete fallacy that police are going to stop that killer,” Irvine said. “We teach them how to ‘live’ for our kids and end the violence immediately.”
Dean Rieck, executive director, of the gun rights group, said gun owners become angry too when they see innocent kids killed in schools or church members gunned down, but contended it’s not gun owners who are preventing action.
“For goodness sake, stop demagoguing about guns and violence. Stop raising money for political campaigns with the blood of innocent victims. Stop blaming millions of law-abiding gun owners for the actions of a tiny handful of criminals and mentally ill people.
“It’s infuriating that the people who know the least about guns and violence are so quick to lecture those of us who know the most. We have practical, proven solutions. Why don’t you start listening to us?”
February 19, 2018
Cincinnati.com - John Kasich: Changing stance on guns draws fire - including from his No. 2.
Jim Irvine, president of the Buckeye Firearms Association, said he would prefer that politicians like Kasich focus on new solutions, such as training teachers how to use firearms in schools.
"To us, the thing that is not common sense is doing the same thing over again and expecting different results," said Irvine, whose group offers the classes. Kasich has not attended or promoted them. "We are going to implement things that work rather than offer political soundbites."
February 18, 2018
Armed American Radio
Buckeye Firearms Foundation President Jim Irvine was a guest on "Armed American Radio" with host Mark Walters.
February 18, 2018
3rdRailPolitics.com - A Free State: A Second Amendment Legal Tutorial
In light of last week’s horrific school shooting in Florida what is the state of the Second Amendment in America today? 3rd Rail spoke with Linda Walker, NRA Board Member, and Vice President of the Buckeye Firearms Association about this critical question.
"Anytime we have a tragedy such as in Florida you will see a knee jerk reaction. Federally it is always a chore. Thank God we have Donald Trump as President. Had Hillary Clinton been President it would be a gala. The left side never wants to let a good tragedy to go to waste.
We don't blame the gun for the action of the human behind it. Anyone who is intent on harming someone they will find the means to do it. It could be a knife a bomb or whatever. Us law abiding citizens are not the ones out there doing the criminal acts. It sounds like this young man had mental health issues. Why wasn't someone reporting this. The laws are on the books. If someone is adjudicated as mentally defective they need to be registered in the system. If whoever had been dealing with him in the past had adjudicated him as mentally defected he would never have been allowed to purchase a gun."
February 18, 2018
Dayton Daily News - Ohio firearms group says gun owners are ‘doing something’
Last week’s mass shooting at a Florida school that left 17 dead and even more injured has rekindled the debate on gun-control issues.
In Ohio, the Buckeye Firearms Association on Friday issued a release noting that a call “to do something” regarding the gun violence such as the Feb. 14 killings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. is ignoring ongoing action by that organization.
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Among the highlights in the pro-gun Buckeye Firearms Association’s statement:
-Gun owners “ARE doing something. We’ve been doing something for years,” according to Dean Rieck, its executive director.
-The BFA has various activities “to directly address violence in schools, reduce suicides, promote gun safety, and support enforcement of gun laws.”
-One program - FASTER Saves Lives - provides educators with intensive violence response and trauma first aid training. Funded by private donations, more than 1,300 teachers and staff, including educators in 76 of Ohio’s 88 counties.
-The association provides training to deter or stop mass murderers in schools and works with the Ohio Department of Mental Health to promote suicide awareness and prevention.
February 17, 2018
Dayton Daily News - Cop killings up so far in 2018; Westerville officers mourned
Joe Eaton, southwest Ohio spokesman for the Buckeye Firearms Association, said weapons charges are often used as a chip in plea bargains.
He supports strong penalties for people who violate laws against providing weapons to convicted felons, and said the firearms industry backs public awareness campaigns like “Don’t lie for the other guy,” a national campaign to prevent the type of “straw man” purchases that allowed Smith to get his gun.
“The people who are committing this deception need to realize there are severe penalties,” he said.
February 17, 2018
Lima News - Editorial: Changing attitudes key to solving school shootings
We should recognize efforts to protect our children, such as football coach and security guard Aaron Feis, who jumped in front of the shooter to shield the students. We should recognize the Buckeye Firearms Association’s FASTER Saves Lives program, which gives educators intensive violence response and trauma first aid training at no cost to the school district. We welcome some local district’s openness to discussing properly trained educators having firearms in their classrooms to help protect their students.
February 16, 2018
WLW AM 700 - "The Bill Cunningham Show"
Buckeye Firearms Foundation's FASTER Saves Lives Program Director Joe Eaton was a guest on "The Bill Cunningham Show." Click here to listen to the podcast. Joe's segment beguns at 80:25.
February 16, 2018
WVHU News Radio 800 - "The Tom Roten Morning Show" - Tom Hall - armed teachers can prevent tragedy
Buckeye Firearms Foundation's FASTER Saves Lives volunteer Tom Hall was a guest on "The Tom Roten Morning Show." Click here to listen to the podcast.
February 16, 2018
Gongwer News Service- BFA Touts Teacher Training
BFA Training: The Buckeye Firearms Association also waded into the debate, warning that "extreme voices" are calling for the repeal of the Second Amendment while also touting a program designed to train educators for intensive violence response and first aid.
"We provide training to deter or stop mass murderers in schools," Executive Director Dean Rieck said. "Do they? We work with the Ohio Department of Mental Health to promote suicide awareness and prevention. Do they? We support efforts to teach gun safety to kids and adults. Do they? We support the hiring of more police, strictly enforcing current laws, and keeping violent criminal locked up. Do they?"
February 16, 2018
WSYX (ABC Columbus) - U.S. senator on gun violence: We need more than thoughts and prayers
Joe Eaton, treasurer for the Buckeye Firearms Association and a Warren County resident, said school employees need concrete training to deal with emergency situations.
The Buckeye Firearms Associations has provided free training through its “Faster Saves Lives” program for five years to armed schools resource offices and staff.
That training has reached 1,300 school employees from 225 districts across 76 Ohio counties.
“Firearms is a part of it,” Eaton said. “But a lot of it is the crisis- and emergency-management training, skills, moving people from an area of danger to an area of safety, how do you deal with large crowds … and more importantly is the trauma medical training.”
Said Eaton, “The way that you save lives is first stop the killing as soon as possible, and second start rendering medical aid as soon as possible.”
Eaton said he agrees with Brown that he wants school shootings to stop.
School leaders “wake up every day needing answers to what they can do for those two, five, 10, 15 minutes should violence come to their school before the professionals get there,” he said.
February 15, 2018
PoliceOne.com - Rapid Response: 4 key takeaways from the Fla. high school shooting
Programs such as the Transportation Security Administration’s Federal Flight Deck Officer program or the Buckeye Firearms Association’s FASTER program have ably demonstrated how selected volunteers can be trained to provide a necessary layer of defense, and act as on-scene first responders, while more capable resources (the police) are summoned. Furthermore, such volunteers can act as force multipliers even if a School Resource Officer (SRO) is assigned to the school, and can fill in the gaps for those occasions when the SRO is not on campus.
We trust our teachers and school staff with our children’s welfare every day. We trust them to protect our childrenfrom dangers such as fires and natural disasters, so we should also be willing to train and equip the suitable volunteers among them to defend our children against armed violence.
February 15, 2018
Columbus Dispatch - Portman, other Ohio Republicans, have reaped about $3.5 million from NRA since 1990
Jim Irvine, president of the Buckeye Firearms Association, said political contributions are aimed at electing those who have supported gun rights — not trying to convince people to do so.
“It would never occur to me to give money to someone hoping they’d vote for me,” he said. “What happens is groups donate to politicians who agree with their position.”
February 15, 2018
WSYX (ABC Columbus) - Protesters frustrated after another school shooting; demand Sen. Portman to do more
Gun rights supporters said the Parkland shooting was upsetting for them as well.
"We're frustrated too," said Dean Rieck with the Buckeye Firearms Association. "Something like this happens and it makes it angry."
Rieck said he didn't think more gun regulations were the solution though.
"We have tons of gun laws on the books right now and passing more laws just isn't going to solve that problem," he said.
February 15, 2018
WJW (Fox Cleveland) - Florida high school shooting renews calls for armed staff at schools
In 2015, FOX 8 News went behind the scenes of a course training school staff members in using firearms and dealing with a gunman. The Faculty/Administrator Safety Training and Emergency Response program – or FASTER – is offered for free by the Buckeye Firearms Association.
Over the last five years, it has trained 1,300 staff members from 225 districts across 12 states, according to Rick Kaleda with the Buckeye Firearms Association.
“We've found that these killers are cowards, typically almost as soon as they're confronted, they surrender,” Kaleda said.
He said an armed school employee could potentially save lives before police arrive, though the organization is not aware of any of its trainees being put in that position to date.
“It prepares the people who are already on the scene so they are equipped to do exactly what needs to be done,” he said. “The killing needs to be stopped. Medical attention needs to be provided.”
...
...FASTER continues to gain popularity in light of school shootings.
“What we're trying to do is give them the tools to save the children's lives,” Kaleda said.
February 15, 2018
The Sean Hannity Show
Buckeye Firearms Foundation's FASTER Saves Lives Program Director Joe Eaton was a guest on "The Sean Hannity Show."
February 14, 2018
WKRC (CBS Cincinnati) - Local school district hoping armed teachers can prevent tragedy
The Georgetown teachers went through Joe Eaton’s "Faster Saves Lives” training, combining the gun portion with medical, crisis, and emergency management skills. The trainees shoot the same handgun qualification that every police officer in Ohio is required to pass on a yearly basis and then surpass it.
“The sooner that you stop the killing and start rendering medical aid, the more lives which are saved,” Eaton said. “Ohio police officers are allowed an 80-percent pass-fail line. We hold the school staff to a 93-percent pass-fail line.”
Eaton goes to different school boards to offer the training, saying that it's sad that we're even at this point of arming teachers, but that school shootings are now a national reality.
“The way that you save lives is by first stopping the killing as soon as possible and the second is by providing medical aid as soon as possible,” Eaton said.
February 14, 2018
Armed American Radio
Buckeye Firearms Foundation President Jim Irvine was a guest on "Armed American Radio" with host Mark Walters. Click here to listen to the show archive. Jim's Hour 1 segment begins at 5:40.
February 12, 2018
WRGT/WKEF (FOX/ABC Dayton) - FOX 45 Investigates: What's being done to stop "straw buying" of guns
"Straw purchases in the industry is a huge problem which gets very little attention unfortunately until a horrific crime like this," said Joe Eaton with Buckeye Firearms Association.
The association advocates for second amendments, but even Eaton admits some legal gun purchases can be flawed.
"I don't think that his friend was an unknowing participant in this crime," Eaton said about Lawson's involvement.
"It becomes a crime if you knowingly purchase a firearm for someone who can't possess it," he continued, "and you're knowingly purchasing it for them to get around the background checks."
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"Just the totality of the situation is heartbreaking," said Eaton.
February 8, 2018
Ohio Public Radio - Ohio gun groups split over endorsement of Republican candidates for governor
Ohio’s gun rights groups are splitting their backing of Republican gubernatorial candidates. The Buckeye Firearms Association is endorsing Mike DeWine for Governor while Ohioans for Concealed Carry are backing Mary Taylor. The two groups split in 2004 over a philosophical disagreement. Both groups have successfully sued Ohio cities that have tried to pass anti-crime gun restrictions.
February 8, 2018
Toledo Blade - Estruth impressive in rookie run
Clearly Mr. DeWine has made up with the gun lobby because this week he picked up the endorsement of the Buckeye Firearms Association, which calls itself “Ohio’s largest and most active group working to defend and advance the right to keep and bear arms.”
February 7, 2018
Gongwer News Service - Buckeye Firearms Backs DeWine
The gubernatorial campaign of Attorney General Mike DeWine has won the backing of the state's largest gun-rights group.
The Buckeye Firearms Association announced on Wednesday that it is supporting Mr. DeWine and his running mate, Secretary of State Jon Husted, in the Republican primary against Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor.
"This was an easy choice for Buckeye Firearms because Mike DeWine has done more to advance and defend the right to keep and bear arms than any elected official in Ohio," BFA President Jim Irvine said. "BFA supports candidates who will fight for our rights and win battles, not just those who answer surveys every four years. Mike DeWine and Jon Husted have both fought and won battles for our rights and we are proud to support them."
Added campaign spokesman Ryan Stubenrauch: "We're thrilled to receive the endorsement of Ohio's largest gun rights organization. Conservatives and grassroots leaders across Ohio recognize that Mike DeWine and Jon Husted are the conservative choice to fight for their rights and build a better future for Ohio."
February 7, 2018
Cleveland Plain Dealer - Republican governor candidates Mike DeWine and Mary Taylor announce dueling endorsements from gun-rights groups
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The two Republican candidates for Ohio governor are touting dueling endorsements from major gun-rights groups.
The Buckeye Firearms Association on Wednesday endorsed Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, saying he has fought for gun owners since becoming Ohio's top law enforcement official in 2010. The group's endorsement is notable in that it was vociferously opposed to DeWine when he first ran for the job.
"He's done a lot more than do his job," Buckeye Firearms Association President Jim Irvine said of DeWine. "He's been pro-active. He's been the best attorney general we've ever worked with."
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Since he's become attorney general, DeWine helped increase the number of states whose concealed-carry permits are valid in Ohio and vice-versa, Irvine said. Irvine said DeWine also advocated for Ohio updating its background-check system to more quickly check whether someone is legally allowed to buy a gun, and in the aftermath of the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shooting, encouraged local school districts to consider arming school employees.
The DeWine campaign released a web video of Irvine explaining his endorsement:
The Buckeye Firearms Association and Irvine previously had repeatedly excoriated DeWine for his record on guns, including DeWine's vote as a U.S. senator in 1999 to require background checks at gun shows. DeWine's record resulted in him landing an endorsement from the Brady Campaign Against Gun Violence, a gun-control group, in 2006.
Irvine said he believes DeWine had a change of heart after he left the U.S. Senate in 2006. After moving back to Ohio, DeWine reconnected with friends and family who hunt and fish, Irvine said.
"I think like a lot of other people, he lost his way in DC in the swamp there. But he came home and reconnected with his roots, and he's been outstanding to work with," Irvine said.
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The Buckeye Firearms Association and Ohioans for Concealed Carry have a common history, but the BFA splintered off in 2004 over a philosophical disagreement. Both groups have successfully sued Cleveland, persuading courts to strike down efforts by local officials to pass gun restrictions in an effort to reduce gun-related crimes.
February 6, 2018
"Lock N Load with Bill Frady"
Buckeye Firearms Association attorney Ron Lemieux was a guest on "Lock N Load with Bill Frady." Click here to listen to the show archive. Ron's segment begins at 3:30.
February 6, 2018
WOSU (NPR Columbus) - "All Sides with Ann Fisher"
Buckeye Firearms Foundation's FASTER Saves Lives Program Director Joe Eaton was a guest on "All Sides with Ann Fisher." Click here to listen to the show archive. Joe's segment begins at 41:00.
February 1, 2018
TheNation.com - Teachers Are Being Trained to Shoot Their Students
One example of the trend is the Buckeye Firearms Foundation’s funding of so-called “Faster” programs, three-day training sessions for teachers from around the country. In addition to target practice, one day of the training is devoted to “mindset development,” or bolstering teachers’ preparedness to shoot after split-second assessments. Trainees are asked “to close their eyes and imagine the student entering the classroom with a gun” and then are taught how to command the grit necessary to kill that student. One teacher from Colorado told the BBC that “she decided to picture her favourite student during the preparation exercises, in an effort to harden herself to the worst possible eventuality.” A Faster instructor was quite encouraging of such resolve: “if we can have them win in their minds first, against that student, then when it comes to the actual incident they will prevail.”
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And yet… Faster’s training does map rather neatly onto America’s romance with redemptive vigilantism.
January 25, 2018
Cincinnati.com - Bellevue PD says Dayton officer responsible for unattended gun
Joe Eaton with the Buckeye Firearms Association said while gun users should always maintain control of their weapons, he doesn't believe this was a dangerous situation.
"I don't think there was any immediate danger," Eaton said.
Eaton said it can be difficult to work with suspects when handling a long gun, which might explain why the officer set it down.
He said leaving the weapon behind isn't a police policy they would recommend. Eaton said he believes that the gun is an AR-15, which is a standard patrol rifle.
Eaton said it's a good thing that members of the community are having a conversation about gun safety after the incident. He said education about gun safety and proper handling of firearms is a key part of their organization's mission.
"That's how you develop a safer community," Eaton said.
January 24, 2018
Dayton Daily News - Greene County loosens CCW restrictions for government buildings
Senate Bill 199 went into effect in March 2017, and among its provisions is allowing local governments to pass new policies that permit concealed-carry licensees to carry concealed handguns into government buildings, according to the Buckeye Firearms Association.
“There was a blanket restriction on any government-owned building,” said Joe Eaton, BFA Southwest Ohio spokesman. “Several cities were looking for ways to allow employees to carry … Judges for instance didn’t fall under the law enforcement exemption.
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For Larry Moore, a Buckeye Firearms Association regional leader in Greene County, the change in law was necessary because people who went through the process of becoming licensed to conceal a firearm were being prevented from protecting themselves. Moore said that was especially true for women going through a divorce or other domestic dispute in which the other party would know when they would be armed and when they wouldn’t.
“We are the background-checked people that have applied through the sheriffs to get concealed-carry licenses, so we’re drug-free, we’re not felons … why limit the rights of a private citizen who’s gone through the hoops to prove they’re law-abiding?” Moore said. “Sadly, in today’s social environment, we can run into issues at lots of places now. Having the ability to have it in your car … it’s a good thing.”
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