Buckeyefirearms.org: Top Ten News Items of 2015

On average, we publish two articles a day and 10 to 12 articles a week. Over the years, we have published approximately 11,000 articles, covering elections, legislation, and all manner of events and information of interest to Second Amendment supporters.

Over 1.3 million different people visited our website this year, creating over 3.5 million pageviews. This is an international audience with visitors from Canada, U.K, Australia, India, Germany, Philippines, Russia, Brazil, and France.

As content editor for BuckeyeFirearms.org, it's always interesting to look back over the year to see which articles captured the most interest. So here are the Top 10 news items on our site from 2015.

1. ATF Rules Against SIG SAUER MPX
2. Ohio sheriffs urge citizens to obtain concealed handgun licenses to protect against terror
3. Handgunlaw.us issues new Ohio reciprocity map to reflect HB 234 changes
4. Anti-Gun Group Wants Gun Owners Killed?
5. What HB 234 Means to You: Part II - Reciprocity
6. Survey: Which Republican presidential candidates own guns?
7. One of the reasons for the FBI's move to 9mm ammo just might surprise you
8. Caught in the Act: Anti-Gunners' Trick Photo Exposed
9. What HB 234 Means to You: Part I - NICS compliant background checks
10. Public university professor labels NRA a "murderous terrorist organization" & "threat to national security"

While progress on and passage of pro-gun rights legislation is always a popular topic (and this year was no different, with explanations about improvements due to passage of HB 234 in late 2014 taking three of the top ten spots), this year news about yet another bureaucratic gun control measure coming out of the Obama administration took the top spot.

The second most-read news article, published less than a month ago, documented efforts by two Ohio sheriffs to get more citizens to obtain concealed handgun licenses in the wake of the terrorist attack in a "no-guns" zone in San Bernadino, CA.

The Ohio sheriffs article was one of four Top 10 news articles to be involved in national (and in some cases even international) news coverage, joining the #4 article about the rabidly anti-self-defense Coalition to Stop Gun Violence became the latest gun control extremist group to advocating the "SWATting" of gun owners, the #6 article on which Republican presidential candidates own guns, and the #10 article (also published just a month ago) in which we broke news about a scandal involving Bowling Green State University faculty's use of taxpayer-funded resources to conduct anti-gun lobbying efforts.

(Other BuckeyeFirearms.org news articles which resulted in national news, but not our Top 10, included articles about the National Fraternal Order of Police's request that the NFL reverse its ban on concealed carry, news that 40 Ohio schools now have armed faculty to protect students, and our documentation and analysis of U.S. Senate candidate Ted Strickland's betrayal of gun owners upon moving to Washington D.C.)

What articles and topics will claim the top ten spots in 2016? What articles will make national (or international) news? Only time will tell!

Chad D. Baus is the Buckeye Firearms Association Secretary, BFA PAC Vice Chairman, and an NRA-certified firearms instructor. He is the editor of BuckeyeFirearms.org, which received the Outdoor Writers of Ohio 2013 Supporting Member Award for Best Website.