To My Fellow Second Amendment Brothers & Sisters,
My name is LINDA WALKER and I need your vote for the NRA Board of Directors.
When you receive the ballot, either in the mail or in your NRA publication, please cast your vote for me. HURRY! VOTING ENDS APRIL 10, 2011.
PLEASE DO NOT “DILUTE” YOUR VOTE. MARK YOUR BALLOT FOR ONE AND ONLY ONE CANDIDATE. Every other name you mark reduces my chances of being elected.
I need at least 65,000 votes to have a chance at a seat.
by Chad D. Baus
Another crime victim in Ohio has been protected from unwarranted legal expense and even prosecution thanks to Ohio’s Castle Doctrine law.
Pike Co. Sheriff Richard Henderson told the media that a property owner in Bainbridge interrupted a home invasion in progress this past Monday morning.
Editor’s Note: As we mark the 100th birthday of President Ronald Wilson Reagan, we remember a story that always seems to escape the attention of the establishment media. Reagan Was Hero To…
by Stacey Hess
What was once the subject matter of fiction is now ingrained in the minds of many as concrete history. Campus shootings and violence have become a genuine concern in the lives of students, faculty and citizens across our nation today. Only several weeks into the new year, this nightmare has already become brutal reality for various Ohio college campuses.
Over the course of two months, southweastern Ohio’s Wright State University has been the target of several armed robberies and assaults. A number of incidents have occurred between campus and its neighboring off-campus housing, while others have taken place on the campus itself. Fortunately, no victims have been seriously injured in these incidents. However, who’s to say the next armed robbery or assault will not be deadly?
Both chambers of the Ohio General Assembly have scheduled hearings next week on pro-gun legislation supported by Buckeye Firearms Association.
Tuesday, February 15:
1:30 pm, Statehouse Room 116 –
The House Committee on State Government and Elections, which is chaired by BFA “A” -rated Rep. Bob Mecklenborg, will hear proponent testimony on HB45, sponsored by Representatives Danny Bubp (R-West Union) and Terry Johnson (R-McDermott). This is the bill’s second hearing in the House.
4:30pm, Senate North Hearing Room –
The Senate Judiciary Committee on Criminal Justice, which is chaired by BFA “A+” -rated Sen. Tim Grendell, will hear sponsor testimony on both SB17 (sponsored by Senator Tim Schaffer [R] and SB61 (sponsored by Senator Jason Wilson [D]). This is the bills’ first hearing in the Senate, which passed identical bills last session by significant margins.
Wednesday, February 16:
9:00 am, Statehouse Room 114 –
The House Committee on Criminal Justice, which is chaired by BFA “B*” -rated Rep. Lynn Slaby, will hear sponsor testimony on HB54, sponsored by Representatives Ron Maag (R-Lebanon) and Jarrod Martin (R-Beavercreek). This is the bill’s first hearing in the House.
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The following letter, written by Buckeye Firearms Foundation Board of Directors member Gerard Valentino, was published on February 4 in response to an anti-gun column written by a professor at Ohio University.
To the Editor:
Richard Scamehorn’s recent anti-gun article that supposedly set the record straight on gun control was a one-sided hit piece hidden behind his academic standing.
Based on his own numbers, nearly 200,000 law-abiding Americans use a gun to keep from being killed each year. Apparently, Mr. Scamehorn is willing to sacrifice those lives to push his vision of an American anti-gun utopia.
Professor Scamehorn chose to use the lowest possible estimate for how many times guns are used to avert a violent crime. But even if we accept the number, when compared to the number of gun deaths in America, it is clear guns save lives.
Representative Danny Bubp and Terry Johnson presented sponsor testimony for HB45 to the House Committee on State Government and Elections, chaired by Rob Mecklenborg. Representatives from Buckeye Firearms Association and the NRA…
by Gerard Valentino
NBC News in Columbus is reporting that, while at the same time working to oppose the self-defense rights of his constituents and other Ohioans, Mayor Michael Coleman himself has used over $1 million in taxpayer funds to pay three police officers to protect him on a 24/7 basis.
From the report:
An NBC4 investigation finds that over the past four years, the City of Columbus has spent $1,008,198 to protect Mayor Michael Coleman, including nearly $250,000 in overtime paid out to three police officers assigned to protect the mayor on a full-time basis on weekdays, weeknights and weekends.
So, we have yet another rabid gun grabber who readily accepts armed guards while trying to ban the private ownership of firearms.
Coleman’s hypocrisy is matched by the likes of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, former Ohio Governor Bob Taft and noted anti-gun celebrity Rosie O’Donnell, who all actively work to destroy gun rights while using armed guards for protection.
Simply having his hypocrisy exposed isn’t going to stop Coleman’s crusade to destroy the private ownership of firearms, but it goes a long way in proving that his anti-gun words are hollow. By accepting armed protection, Coleman is admitting that guns save lives. He is also admitting that a gun in the right hands is a benefit to society.
NRA-ILA would like to draw your attention to pending federal legislation that needs your immediate action.
On Jan. 18, anti-gun U.S. Representative Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.) introduced H.R. 308, the “Large Capacity Ammunition Feeding Device Act.” The bill would ban the manufacture and importation of new magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition. Unlike the magazine ban that was in effect from 1994 to 2004, her new bill would also make it illegal for the tens of millions of Americans who already own these magazines to sell or otherwise transfer them, even through inheritance.
In a letter to her colleagues, Rep. McCarthy claimed, “The only reason for the existence of these devices is to be able to shoot as many people as quickly as possible.”
With H.R. 308, Rep. McCarthy is pursuing the agenda of banning guns and magazines that she brought to Washington 14 years ago. In 2003, 2005, and 2007, Rep. McCarthy introduced bills that, like H.R. 308, would have banned magazines that hold more than 10 rounds. Those bills would also have banned all firearms that were subject to the federal “assault weapon” ban of 1994-2004, and all firearms made specifically to comply with the 1994 ban. They would also have banned all semi-automatic shotguns, commonly-owned semi-automatic rifles that don’t use detachable magazines of any size, and other commonly-owned firearms. H.R. 308 would severely violate the fundamental, individual right to keep and bear arms for self-defense.
by Chad D. Baus
It took the editor of The Lorain Morning-Journal nearly seven years, but he has finally realized something Ohio’s pro-self-defense rights community has always known: “[C]oncealed carry is safe for the public in general.”
From Morning-Journal editor Tom Skoch, in an opinion entitled “Facts top feelings, change views on gun issues“:
After reading through reporter Taylor Dungjen’s “front page story today on the relatively trouble-free growth of concealed carry of handguns in Ohio, I have to admit I was wrong.
Back in 2004, when Ohio’s law allowing licensed concealed carry of handguns was adopted, I was among the opponents who thought it would make public shoot-outs common and fill the streets with blood.
The editorial goes on to explain that Skoch believes his background on guns played into his initial aversion to the idea of reforming Ohio’s concealed carry laws.
In part, my view was molded by the accidental gunshot death of a person I very much admired.
He was the guy who gave me my first newspaper byline, as a matter of fact.
We worked together on police beat when I was a reporting intern at The Cleveland Press one summer, and by the time I came back as a full-time reporter after graduation from college, he was gone.
Guns were not part of my city-kid upbringing, and all I saw of them as a young reporter on the police beat spelled trouble.
Noteably, Skoch goes on to credit pro-gun activists who took the time to write letters to the editor in response to his anti-gun editorials for having helped him realize the facts just weren’t on his side.