Author: Buckeye Firearms Association

by Dave Workman

As the history of slain gunman Wade Michael Page continues to surface in the wake of the Sikh temple shooting in Wisconsin, the Associated Press and Seattle Times are reporting some facts that will not help gun control proponents.

They are having quite a chat about this on the Seattle Times reader feedback site.

When he was living in North Carolina, Page reportedly obtained five pistol purchase permits in 2008 from the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department. This is something gun control advocates would like to see nationwide, short of a ban on private handgun ownership. Citizens would need to get permission from the police before buying a handgun.

Wade reportedly did not have a concealed carry permit. So much for any attempt to link this guy to the millions of law-abiding citizens, including more than 371,000 here in Washington, who are licensed to carry.

He used a pistol, not a so-called “assault rifle” that can be easily demonized. The murder weapon has so far been described as a 9mm pistol. Wade is said to have changed magazines several times, which demolishes any argument for banning so-called “high capacity assault magazines” as a preventive measure against such crimes.

by Chad D. Baus

The Cleveland Plain Dealer has a long history of fighting against Ohioans’ right to keep and bear arms for self-defense, a right enumerated not just in the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment, but in our Ohio Constitution as well (Article 1, Section 4).

In the years prior to passage of Ohio’s concealed carry law, The Plain Dealer often utilized the editorial page, as well as the front page, to denigrate gun rights advocates’ efforts. When the law did pass, they announced “it is this newspaper’s intention to obtain this information and publish it. Our readers deserve to know the identities of those who obtain permits to carry their guns in public. We hope other news organizations will do the same in their communities.” The paper followed through with their threat, and at least one person on the list died in an ambush-style attack just days later. One columnist at the paper – the wife of current anti-gun U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown – even won a Pulitzer Prize for commentary that, among other things, bashed Ohio CHL-holders in 2004 as “Dirty Harry wannabe’s.”

With each and every attempt to pass improvements to the law, The Plain Dealer has been there in opposition. They have twice been caught mis-characterizing proposals contained in pro-gun legislation, and in 2005 Plain Dealer editorial page editor Brent Larkin even admitted to me that they don’t always read gun legislation before writing editorials opposing it.

So with that background in mind, I was stunned to read deputy editorial page editor Kevin O’Brien’s latest op-ed, “Left’s reaction to Colorado shooting reprises the same, old misplaced fears.”