Will the Ohio Republican Party cement their minority status by backing anti-gun Mike DeWine for Attorney General?

Posted on by Buckeye Firearms Association
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
– George Santayana, The Life of Reason, Volume 1, 1905

By Chad D. Baus

In 2006, the Ohio Republican Party employed a strategy of supporting candidates with state-wide name recognition (and anti-gun records) over pro-gun candidates that were less well-known.

The state party, under the control of then-Chairman Bob Bennett, backed anti-gun Jeanette Bradley over pro-gun Sandy O’Brien for Treasurer, and anti-gun candidate Betty Montgomery over pro-gun candidate Tim Grendell for Attorney General.

Believing that “O’Brien can’t win” in November, party leaders sunk the party’s resources into Bradley. Despite having earned statewide name recognition while serving as Lt. Governor in the Taft administration, and despite her opponent having almost no resources (in comparison to the Ohio Republican Party-backed candidate), pro-gun Sandy O’Brien defeated anti-gun Jeanette Bradley in the primary.

Betty Montgomery, meanwhile, who once infamously told Buckeye Firearms Association Chairman Jim Irvine she would “never be the candidate of the NRA”, won her primary, but was defeated in November – by a far lesser known and less well-funded (but pro-gun!) Democrat.

Is history about to repeat itself, just one state-wide election cycle later? Will the Ohio Republican party, under the new leadership of Chairman Kevin DeWine, continue the failed strategy of supporting candidates with name recognition over those with a record of strong support for gun rights?

The 2010 race for Attorney General is shaping up to be an excellent bellwether.

Buckeye Firearms Assoc. Chairman Jim Irvine featured in Ohio Rifle & Pistol Assoc. member newsletter

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The following interview was published in the June-July 2009 issue of Gunsmoke, the membership newsletter of the Ohio Rifle and Pistol Association (ORPA).

By David Johnson

We’re starting a series of articles about some of the other fine organizations that promote the shooting sports, hunting, and firearm rights in Ohio. This month, we asked a few questions of James Irvine, Chairman of the Buckeye Firearms Association and President of the Buckeye Firearms Foundation.

Use First Amendment freedoms to debate Second Amendment issues

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By Gene Policinski

Nobody wants to encourage or invite another campus killing spree like the one in 2007 at Virginia Tech University, in which 32 people died and 17 were wounded.

But does that reasonable concern extend to prohibiting a rally or a flier that promotes the idea of allowing students to carry firearms on campus in self-defense?

You and I may consider the idea of armed undergraduates as either inspired or wacky — but that’s not the First Amendment point, which seems to be lost on at least a few college administrators.

In Pennsylvania, the Associated Press reported, Community College of Allegheny County officials stopped distribution of promotional material for the group Students for Concealed Carry on Campus. In Texas, AP said, Tarrant County College administrators refused to allow an “empty holster” protest on campus — even in the college’s free-speech zone. A spokesman for Tarrant was quoted as saying the holster protest would be “disruptive to the campus environment.”

Allowing a demonstration or a flier advocating guns on campus is not tantamount to approving gun-toting by students (or faculty and staff, for that matter). Rather, it would seem a good starting point for discussion of a serious topic — campus safety — that would permit both advocates and critics of such plans to air their views.

Coming next the U.S.A.: Knife Control?

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Editor’s Note: Although this does not concern firearms, it will most definitely be of interest to many self defense-minded people who carry a firearm (and possibly also a knife).

By Jim Shepherd

…The Customs and Border Patrol is proposing revocation of an earlier interpretation of what constitutes a switchblade knife. If their revocation goes through, many of us who carry one-hand opening pocket knives might find ourselves breaking the law should we cross a state line. Interstate trafficking in switchblades is illegal.

See where this is headed?

If it weren’t for the method CBP used to try and sneak this proposal through their public comment periods, it would look like another proposal from a bureaucrat. Instead, it looks like the first step toward what could be an attack on knives. Sounds silly until you realize that the United Kingdom and other similarly “enlightened” European nations have basically outlawed carried knives for any purpose.

Division of Wildlife budget in crosshairs: An Interview with Sen. Tim Grendell

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Editor’s Note: The following is a follow-up to an op-ed we published earlier this week, entitled “Senate Republicans take aim at Ohio Division of Wildlife.”

By Larry S. Moore

After publishing my first op-ed on the subject of budget changes impacting the Ohio Division of Wildlife, I contacted Republican Senator Tim Grendell’s office to get his position regarding the free landowner deer permits that are a sticking point in the budget bill.

Before I relay my conversation, it is incumbent upon me to say that gun owners should recognize Senator Grendell as a staunch conservative supporter of our rights.

Sandy O’Brien announces run for Secretary of State

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Pro-gun Sandy O’Brien has officially announced that she is running for Ohio Secretary of State in 2010.

O’Brien, who earned the endorsement of Buckeye Firearms Association in 2006 and won an upset victory over her anti-gun opponent in the Republican primary, is a loving wife, mother, and grandmother with energy to burn.

She supports hunting and Second Amendment rights because she has enjoyed them her whole life. Her children have enjoyed them. She has a passion that matches ours in her desire to see Ohio pass real firearms reform.

Cleveland refuses to obey state law … refuses to obey the courts … and spits on the Constitution. And we’re fighting back!

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Not long ago, Buckeye Firearms Foundation filed a lawsuit to stop the City of Cleveland from prosecuting law-abiding gun owners under local ordinances that restrict gun ownership and concealed carry. The lawsuit also asked the Court to declare 20 local ordinances unconstitutional on the grounds that they conflict with state preemption of firearm laws.

So what is Cleveland’s response? A callous shrug.

Pro-gun gay groups seek to add nationwide CCW reciprocity to Kennedy’s ‘hate crimes’ bill

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The Washington Independent is reporting that, one month after successfully tucking an amendment into the credit card reform bill that expanded gun rights, a small number of Senate Republicans are looking at the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act as another chance to score a victory for the Second Amendment.

This time, the goal would be to establish nationwide reciprocity for concealed carry laws.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: The Impact on Private Gun-Ownership in America

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By Michael P. Farris

“The spread of small arms creates a serious global problem and requires an equally urgent response because the lives and futures of children are at stake. These weapons have extinguished more young lives than they have protected.”
– Carol Bellamy, Executive Director, UNICEF

The vast majority of Americans, regardless of their opinions on the increasing scope of international law, agree with the proposition that children should not be used as soldiers. Accordingly, much of the UN literature that addresses children and guns deals with this military-related issue.

However, a second theme is quickly found in virtually all UN pronouncements about child soldiers and weapons. UN child’s rights advocates believe, teach, and promote the idea that all private gun-ownership is dangerous for children, and that children have the right to grow up in a community that is free from all guns.

As the campaign to seek ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child intensifies, it is important for all Americans to understand the application of this children’s rights treaty to the issue of private gun ownership by American citizens.

OOPS: Brady Campaign president admits people are the problem, not guns

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By Chad D. Baus

The Akron Beacon-Journal recently reported that Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence president Paul Helmke addressed the Akron Roundtable on May 21.

The story notes that Helmke delivered his usual misleading statistics and hyperbole to the not-for-profit speakers’ forum…along with a couple of accidental admissions that point to the fact that his organization’s gun control strategy can never succeed.

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