Toby Hoover falsely accuses State Representative and Sheriff of law-breaking
On April 16, 2004, the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence (Toby Hoover) issued a statewide press release, accusing Ohio State Representative Jim Aslanides, sponsor of House Bill 12, of violating Ohio's new Concealed Handgun License law.
"The Ohio gun lobby repeats the mantra, 'enforce the existing laws', and then the chief sponsor of the carrying concealed weapons law, Rep. Aslanides, breaks the law in obtaining his permit. I think this shows a serious lack of judgment and respect on the part of Rep. Aslanides, for the need to have sensible public safety measures in place," said Hoover.
"I think law enforcement, and the Attorney General's office should investigate how the CCW applicant system clearly broke down, and whether political influence or favors impacted the application system to benefit Rep. Aslanides."
Hoover's accusations were based on two sentences from a Columbus Dispatch story, indicating that Aslanides have been "issued" a license shortly after midnight on April 8, and that his background check was completed later that morning.
Had Hoover bothered to investigate further before publicly accusing an honored State Representative of breaking the law, she would have found out what every other reporter that called to investigate her claims learned:
Rep. Aslanides' license was physically printed at that time to reserve for him "License #1", an honor estended to him by his county Sheriff out of respect for his hard work as the sponsor of HB12.
But Aslanides tells OFCC he was NOT "issued" his license on April 8. In fact, he has still not even picked up his license - it is still waiting at the Sheriff's office.
Typically eager to reprint any claims Hoover makes, Ohio's liberal media did NOT reprint her story - obviously they too quickly learned her that charges were baseless.
Only one news source did: the Brady Campaign's Jointogether.org.
Let's hope the media keeps this in mind the next time they receive a press release from the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence, or reads a story at the Brady Campaign's Jointogether.com.
No credibility. None.
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Another day, another advocation of law-breaking by gun ban extremists
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