Author: Buckeye Firearms Association

2012 SHOT Show – A look into the Firearm Industries Trade Show from the perspective of two new members

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by Aaron Kirkingburg and William Harn

Sunday – Flying out

We checked our concealed carry firearms at the Southwest Airlines baggage counter, and prepared to board our flight to Las Vegas. Though firearms are prohibited from the show itself, we would have them for any other circumstances. Neither of us having ever attended the SHOT Show, we had a four hour flight to contemplate the possibilities that lay ahead. An uneventful flight, a shuttle bus to the hotel, and a quick meal before calling it a day … morning would come all too soon.

Fireworks Expected This Week…But No Celebration in Wake of Fast & Furious Scandal

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by Jim Shepherd

[This] week, Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, will once again question United States Attorney General Eric H. Holder about Operation Fast and Furious. F&F was the fatally flawed 2009 DEA anti-gunrunning operation supposedly designed to trace illegal firearms to Mexican drug lords.

Instead, it went tragically out of control, resulted in the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, and has subsequently pointed an incriminating finger at the ATF and Justice Departments for mistakes that have cost lives on both sides of the border.

It’s a meeting that’s not shaping up to be one of cordiality. In fact, civility may be in short supply, despite the normal formalities of government.

That’s because Patrick J. Cunningham, chief of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Phoenix, exercised his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination and refused to testify before Issa’s committee on January 24.

In reponse, a boiling mad Issa made it clear to AG Holder that Cunningham’s decision “is a major escalation of the (Justice) Department’s culpability” in the ongoing gun trafficking battle.

A blunt two-page letter from Issa to Holder says “Without Mr. Cunningham’s testimony, it will be difficult to gauge the veracity of some of the Department’s claims.”

2011 was a year of successes for gun owners, but there is plenty of reason to stay vigilant

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by Joe DeBergalis

With all the success of the gun rights movement in recent years, this might sound like a broken record, but 2011 was a banner year for gun rights. From the halls of Congress to state assemblies across the country, lawmakers heard the voices of gun owners loud and clear and enacted the legislation we were looking for.

In the state legislatures, the biggest win was the culmination of over a decade’s worth of unrelenting work in Wisconsin, making Wisconsin the 49th state to allow its citizens some form of concealed carry. The victories kept coming throughout the year in Wisconsin with the passage of two pro-hunting bills and castle doctrine legislation.

Not to be left out, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Pennsylvania also passed castle doctrine bills. In Ohio a law respecting the right to carry in restaurants serving alcohol was enacted. And it became legal to use suppressors for certain types of hunting in Montana, while Washington fixed a longstanding error in its laws, which until now had allowed suppressors to be possessed but not used.

Florida added teeth to its preemption law which has been on the books since 1987. Local violators of the state preemption law now face fines for willful violations. The result has been wholesale repeal of unlawful firearm ordinances across the state.

Additionally, several states enacted laws making it easier for their residents and residents of other states to make out of state long-gun purchases. 2011 also saw a number of states pass laws respecting Right-to-Carry in new places and respecting the right of permit holders to store firearms in their vehicles in employers’ parking lots.

Even Illinois passed pro-gun legislation, protecting the privacy of Firearms Owner Identification card holders from state public records requests.

Four months later: Columbus Dispatch writes more about restaurant carry fears instead of facts established since law took effect

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by Chad D. Baus

On January 23, 2012 The Columbus Dispatch published an article by reporter Dean Narciso, entitled “Guns not welcome in some bars, restaurants.” While filled with speculation on the terrible things that opponents still predict will happen under Ohio’s restaurant carry law, the article is curiously absent of any recognition of the fact that the law has already been in place for four months, and that none of those predictions have come to pass.

From the article:

While gun owners hail a new state law that allows them to carry firearms into restaurants and bars, as long as they don’t consume alcohol, some business owners feel that they’re losing their right to a weapon-free zone.

In response to Senate Bill 17, some businesses are using signs and door stickers — “Do Not Patronize if Armed” — to turn away gun-toters.

Jake’s Restaurant in Mount Vernon put up its sign in the fall, a few weeks after the law took effect in August. It reads: “All weapons including concealed firearms are prohibited on these premises.”

“We felt the need to say, ‘Hey, we still don’t see the need to bring weapons in,'” said Amy Baldner, general manager.

“We just want people feeling comfortable bringing their families here,” Baldner said. “A restaurant with alcohol in it is just not the place for guns.”

…”I’m a bar that serves food,” said Kim Rowe, the owner of Final Score Sports Pub in Delaware. “Ninety-five percent of the people who walk in here are going to drink.”

Allowing guns is “a recipe for disaster,” she said. “There’s a reason they didn’t allow it in the first place.”

If you are having a strong sense of déjà vu, you’re not alone. The entire article is written in such a way that, as I read it, I literally had to double-check the date of the article to make sure it wasn’t something that had been published four months ago, when the new law first took effect.

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