As a former newspaper journalist who ultimately went on to make a living in an honest profession, I occasionally smile when the Cleveland Plain Dealer serves up an unapologetically biased story. After all, that’s the way newspapers are today, and I’m just happy not to be involved.

But I wasn't smiling last Sunday.

The PD devoted a large swath of its front page to the dangers women encounter after leaving abusive men. The Aug. 15 article rightly points out that society now includes a roving horde of angry husbands-turned-stalkers who have brought the criminal justice system nearly to the point of midair stall. Their violent tantrums accounted for about 20,000 calls to 911 last year in Cleveland alone.

This time, though, the Plain Dealer didn't just set its tired liberal spin on a story. It spun right into the moral ditch reserved for frightened, impotent onlookers who shrink from helping an injured neighbor. As we might expect, PD reporters offered some obligatory suggestions to women who have just escaped from violent relationships: Check with the Domestic Violence Center of Greater Cleveland, or call the Legal Aid Society. But nowhere did they find the courage to mention that women have a right — some would say a responsibility — to physically protect themselves from violent males.

It’s certainly true that counseling, court orders of protection, battered women's shelters, and criminal prosecutions all can play a role in extricating a woman from domestic violence. Unless, of course, she's pinned against a wall with a steak knife pressed to her throat. Then we need another solution.

But the Plain Dealer doesn't help her. They dropped her off at the Legal Aid Society and yelled back, "Good luck, stay safe."

Sorry, but that's just not good enough. Women who are stalked, harassed or threatened by violent ex-partners need to know about a provision in Ohio's firearms law that was written largely for their benefit: the Temporary Emergency License to Carry a Concealed Handgun. A woman who has reasonable cause to fear a criminal attack can be issued an emergency carry license almost immediately (a background check still is required). The applicant need not fulfill Ohio’s handgun training requirement. An emergency license is good for 90 days, which allows enough time to complete training and obtain a standard five-year carry license through normal application procedures.

I'm not suggesting that a woman who’s trapped under the same roof with an abusive man bring a gun to that already volatile and desperate scenario. But once she has fled from her violent partner, the righteousness of going about her business cautiously armed becomes increasingly obvious.

All this explains why I wasn't smiling over the PD last Sunday. Victims of domestic violence deserve more from their city's newspaper than a half-baked story that deliberately excludes life-saving information as a consequence of that newspaper's political prejudice. Each year, scores of women might have preserved their own lives — and sometimes the lives of their children — simply by obtaining an emergency license and carrying a pocket pistol. But the Cleveland Plain Dealer suffers from an irrational fear of law-abiding armed citizens. Their readers are not to know of guns.

In the critical seconds of a sudden, dark encounter, I hope that all our mothers, daughters, and sisters (including those of the folks at the PD) will have something more to turn to than a speed-dial slot labeled "Legal Aid Society," or even  “911.” I know mine will, but it won’t be from reading the Cleveland Plain Dealer.