by Chad D. Baus The Dayton Daily News is reporting that Ohio Senator Joe Uecker (R) has introduced Senate Bill 60, legislation that would close the media access loophole that currently allows…
February sees 29.1% increase in firearms sales checks over same month last year; 33rd straight month over month increase
The February 2013 NSSF-adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figure of 1,634,309 is an increase of 29.1 percent over the NSSF-adjusted NICS figure of 1,266,344 in February 2012. For comparison,…
Buckeye Firearms Association Patriot Profiles: Sgt. Joyce
by Clint Lake
This is the first in a monthly series letting BFA supporters tell their unique and compelling stories about how they were introduced to firearms, how firearms and the 2nd Amendment effected their lives, and how they left their own personal impression on the American heritage of gun ownership.
My goal is to help those of us fighting the fight to never forget those that have come before us, to help invigorate our spirits and to learn from you. If you would like to have your story considered please email me at clake@buckeyefirearmsfoundation.org. All names can be kept confidential and only first names or alias will be used – which ever one you wish.
FYI, if you are a WWII or Korean vet and have a firearms story or a story about your service you will go to the front of the line.
MARCH PATRIOT PROFILE: SGT Joyce
SGT Joyce proudly served in the WACs during the later stages of Vietnam. She was a big fan of Dwight Eisenhower when she was 8 years-old, as pictured below holding her grandpa’s Remington .32-.20 that she shot for the first time when she was 13.
Cedarville University Student Marksmen (Chi Sigma Mu) 100+ students strong and growing
by Chad D. Baus
Cedarville University Student Marksmen, also known as Chi Sigma Mu, new to the Cedarville, Ohio campus, already boasts more than 100 student members.
After an NRA University meeting last semester, club advisor Sandy Yoder stated that they were told by the NRA that it had been one of the largest meetings to date.
Yoder says that the members of Chi Sigma Mu would like to be an encouragement to others that the shooting sports are not dying among today’s youth.
Following are three recent press releases covering the groups success in its first year on campus.
Northwest Ohio school employees join area law enforcement for 16 hour active killer training class in Williams Co. school
by Chad D. Baus
On the weekend of March 2 and 3, both Buckeye Firearms Foundation President Jim Irvine and I were privileged to attend an Active Killer in Schools training course in the Williams Co., OH community of Edgerton.
The training was conducted by the Tactical Defense Institute (TDI), a world-renowned training facility based in Adams Co., OH that is owned and operated by former SWAT Team commander John Benner.
There were more than 70 people in the 16 hour class. I didn’t take an official count, but I would estimate that somewhere north of half were school employees.
While TDI has been conducting active killer classes for quite some time, the focus has primarily been on the instruction of law enforcement. Benner said this class was the first which combined a large number of school employees/ educators along with area law enforcement officers.
According to Dr. Jamison Grime, superintendent of the Montpelier, OH school district that made international news when they became the first Ohio school to publicly announce plans to arm some employees, every district in Williams County received an invitation to attend the training.
While I don’t have the entire roster, I can report that at least six school districts had representatives who took the training. At least two Williams Co. law enforcement agencies, Edgerton and Edon, sent officers to take the training. Montpelier’s former police chief, who very recently retired, was also in attendance.
Four of the six schools who had employees in the training are fortunate to have Boards of Education which have, according to published reports, already authorized, or announced intent to authorize, some level of armed response inside the school – Edgerton, Hilltop, Montpelier and Stryker.
Firearms Industry Moves – Literally, Maybe
by Jim Shepherd
Nearly the end of February and there’s no respite in sight for Second Amendment supporters coast-to-coast. California, Colorado, New York, New Jersey, Maryland and Illinois have gotten the most ink, but only a few states don’t have some gun legislation being considered.
Those fights may prove considerably more costly than most anti-gun politicians seem to think. As is normally the course, of course, it will be the citizens who pay the fare.
[Recently], I spoke with senior company officers at more than a half-dozen companies that could be impacted – significantly – by proposed legislation.
[On February 27], representatives from at least six gun companies are visiting states that have rolled out their proverbial welcome mats. Tax incentives, fast-tracking of permitting, worker recruitment and job training and more are only a few of the carrots being dangled for their consideration.
These companies aren’t bluffing, they’re making contingency plans.
Owning firearms is a First Amendment exercise, too!
by Alan Gottlieb Following the hysteria generated by gun prohibitionists in the wake of the Sandy Hook tragedy, a nationwide rush on gun stores began as citizens bought semiautomatic modern sporting rifles,…
Foolish to think ‘It can’t happen here’
by Thomas Lucente
As the gun control debate rages on, I have taken some flak for stating, quite correctly, that the sole purpose of the Second Amendment is for the citizenry to protect itself from the government.
Period.
End of debate.
Of course, that leads to nothing but derision from leftist gun-grabbers.
The government, their argument goes, is not going to kick in your door. I suspect a few million German citizens were making that same argument in 1936.
But we don’t need to resort to Nazi analogies to make this point. Let’s just look at some developments here in the good old USA in recent years to determine whether the possibility of government agents kicking in doors is a real threat.
Consent of the Governed? Time for Long Look in the Mirror
by Paul Markel
It is no stretch of the imagination that the current political climate is more divisive than it has ever been in modern times. As a nation, we have always had competing parties in our government. However, like a family that argues amongst itself, when an external threat materialized, historically we put aside partisan issues and united. That was the way our parents and grand-parents were raised. Republican or Democrat, we were all on the same team, the same big family. When you are raised that way it’s hard to imagine or even conceive anything else.
Because of this innate belief that we are on the same team, regardless of which party is in charge, people assume that the business of the country, to include keeping it safe and the people free, will perpetually be addressed. To assert otherwise puts you in the paranoid or conspiratorial category.
Despite the current hard economic times, Americans live some of the most comfortable lives of any human beings on the planet. We’ve come to equate personal comfort with human rights. If I’m uncomfortable, someone is surely violating my rights. This comfort has led to slothful mental and physical lethargy. Far too many citizens are willfully ignorant of the world around them. They are woefully uneducated or “under-educated” regarding the founding principles of this nation, the original intent and the limitations of government. For far too many, the government is the great benefactor and arbiter of fairness.
Long Hard Look in the Mirror
Even a quick perusal of the pamphlets, letters, and documents put forth during the time United States was founded will affirm that it was the intent of those who fought, bled, and sacrificed all that those in government must operate only under the consent of the people. The term “consent of the governed” is laced through the founding documents, most notably, the Declaration of Independence.
If you consider yourself a modern patriot, a lawful citizen of the United States, and are genuinely concerned with the course this nation is taking, it is time for a long hard look in the mirror. You must ask yourself, are our current government bodies, local, state, and federal, operating within the “consent of the governed”? Put forth for consideration are a few facts to ponder as you formulate an answer.
If only our guns could talk…
by Larry S. Moore
Every antique gun has a story. Some of that story is recorded in various production and sales records. Far too often records, especially on our “Dear Elsie’s” (LC Smith Shotguns) are lost or destroyed. Much of that story rests with the owners who used the gun for hunting, the shooting sports or perhaps their job. Artifacts are perhaps left along with the gun to pique our interests. In far too many cases it is too bad the gun can’t talk. I’m sure the stories, even for the most humble shotgun, would be fascinating and great pieces of our history.
Such is the case with a trap gun that was purchased at the Ohio Gun Collector’s Association show last July. The LC Smith Collectors Association had a wonderful display at that show. It certainly seems over the last two or three years that more LC Smith guns surface in July than at any other show date. This particular gun is a trap grade and was offered along with a silver plate engraved “Frank Limpert, Hicksville Ohio”. So just who was Frank Limpert, where the heck is Hicksville Ohio, how good a shot was he to win this plate and when was it won?
While I didn’t buy the gun, another LC Smith Collectors Association member did purchase it. Since there was an Ohio connection to the gun, I began researching possible sources of information. I checked several old trapshooting publications, books on the Grand American Trapshoot and the “Road to Yesterday” which details the accounts of many of the great historical shooters. I also checked through the Amateur Trapshooting Association online records. I came up empty, which only increased my curiosity.