2010 GTF Gun Rights Scholarship
Ohioans For Concealed Carry is proud to announce the continuation of our scholarship program for 2010! The $1,000 GTF Gun Rights Scholarship will be awarded to a student enrolled in an Ohio college or university who is a current member in good standing of an active on-campus student organization devoted to gun rights or a member of Ohioans For Concealed Carry!
On Friday night the City of Campbell's mayor started to play games, suggesting that the Young Americans for Liberty rally scheduled at the city center would be moved. By the morning of the event it was moved again, leaving the public, the news media, and the plethora of Campbell police officers in the park more than an hour before the event began all confused on where it should be held. The Mayor and police chief will be proud to hear that a number of people drove hours only to never find the rally.
That didn't stop over 100 people from showing up carrying rifles, handguns, and "Don't Tread on Me" flags. Despite demands for $2,000 in security, eventually negotiated down to $480, the city soon realized they didn't need to impose hard penalties on free speech. Like every other open carry rally this organization has been a part of or encouraged people to attend, nothing happened. If there was any proof that police were not needed it was the fact that they left immediately after formal activities ended -- while more than thirty people with rifles and handguns mulled around the the park for another thirty minutes.
Campbell, Ohio is suffering from small town politics well beyond this issue. Earlier in the week the Mayor suspended the finance director and employees were almost not paid on Friday night. Residents are calling for the heads of their elected officials, and change in Campbell government is imminent. Reports suggest that the city might repeal its gun ban on Wednesday assuming a quorum of council appears that evening. Unfortunately Ohioans For Concealed Carry had to bring litigation against Campbell to bring that legislation out of committee.
WFMJ Video Coverage - Includes footage of Varg Freeborn from YAL paying the police department $480 in cash for mandatory security, the going price of peacable assembly in Campbell.
Be sure to tune into Fox News Channel Saturday morning at 8:50am when Ohioans For Concealed Carry's Christopher Harben will be a guest on the cable news network's Fox & Friends show. Harben has been invited to react to comments made by Ashtabula County Common Pleas Judge Alfred Mackey last week. Mackey advised citizens to arm themselves in light of drastic cuts by the Sheriff's department that will leave one single deputy on the 720 square miles at any one given time.
After the interview on national television Harben will travel to Campbell, Ohio and join an untold number of protestors reacting to the City of Campbell's illegal gun ordinance, where he is scheduled to address the crowd. The city remains in political turmoil after the anti-gun Mayor suspended the Finance Director and has attempted to strong arm council into appointing an assistant director. By the end of Friday no employees were being paid their wages since the Finance Director is prohibited from signing those checks.
Today Ohioans For Concealed Carry filed a civil lawsuit against the City of Campbell, Ohio in the Mahoning County Court of Common Pleas (Case #50 2010 CV 01487) after months of attempting to convince the City Council that their gun ban ordinance violates Ohio Law. OFCC has learned that an effort to repeal the gun ban ordinance was tabled or "sent back to committee," supposedly at the request of the Police Chief. Ohioans For Concealed Carry has expressed to the City of Campbell on many occasions that the precedent in this matter comes from a case we already took to the Ohio Supreme Court with another obstinate municipality: Ohioans for Concealed Carry, Inc. v. Clyde
Immediately after the lawsuit was filed this letter was delivered to the law director of the City of Campbell requesting an agreement by the city that they publicly announce their intent to not enforce the law in light of this litigation.
Ohioans For Concealed Carry was invited, by the Young American Liberty group out of Youngstown State University, to attend a rally protesting the City's adoption of this legislation on Saturday, April 17th at 2:00pm. When OFCC began to advertise the rally the city demanded the YAL group pay $2,000 in law enforcement wages for their peaceful protest. There was talk of the rally becoming a protest, which caught the attention of the Youngstown Vindicator newspaper yesterday.
The Young American Liberty organizers have negotiated that down to a much more reasonable rate, and donations raised in this discussion thread allowed Ohioans For Concealed Carry to contribute $400 to the cause since it was our presence that nearly cancelled the YAL rally they so graciously invited us to speak at. Today we advised the Police Chief on the lawful act of possessing a firearm in public in this letter faxed to his attention.
Ohioans For Concealed Carry has worked tirelessly since 1999 on behalf of the interests of gun owners, and only takes these matters to court when extensive efforts to resolve these matters diplomatically go nowhere. Campbell has had ample opportunity to repeal this ordinance and as recently as yesterday implied they were justified in enacting this legislation, as well as implying in the Vindicator story above that the repeal will meet opposition. We need your help to continue working for your rights when elected officials thumb their nose to state law: Please join Ohioans For Concealed Carry, upgrade to a Patron Member, or make a financial donation today.
On Wednesday, April 14th the Ohio Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony from three people in support of Senate Bill 239. Ohioans For Concealed Carry recorded all of the testimony and we have posted the video of Ms. Barbara Holt to our YouTube channel today. Ms. Holt was the victim of an attempted robbery and abduction after she locked her pistol in her vehicle and went into a Pizza Hut to pick up a Pizza to take home. She had no intention of staying in the Pizza Hut and she locked up her firearm to comply with Ohio law.
As she walked back to her vehicle a man attacker her with a knife. When he realized she only had $4 in her pocket he demanded that she "Get In The Car!" and take him to an ATM for more cash. Knowing that could have been a deadly decision Barbara fought off the attacker. You can hear the entire story in her own words by clicking on the link above.
The Columbus Dispatch printed a story today as a follow up to the hearing: Senate rethinks concealed-carry ban at restaurants, bars - While the article is a very fair recap of the hearing and the legislation I find it odd that despite more than half of my testimony being about the FOP's biased and hypocritical position on this legislation, the dispatch said nothing of it. Read my testimony and the Columbus Dispatch article and judge for yourself:
On February 3, 1870, the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified to prevent any level of government from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude". Several states, not wanting to extend the right to vote to recently freed slaves and newly arrived immigrants, instituted a poll tax designed to serve as a financial roadblock to the right to vote. Finally, on January 23, 1964, the Twenty-fourth Amendment was passed prohibiting using a poll tax as a condition upon voting.
Fast forward less than fifty years and similar tactics are still being used to try to prevent citizens from exercising unwelcome rights.
This past weekend, the Ohio statewide rally for the upcoming Second Amendment March was held at the Ohio Statehouse. As the Ohio coordinator, I applied for an obtained an inexpensive permit to hold the rally on the West Plaza of the Statehouse. Had it just remained at that I would have had no issue with it. However, the permit which had been issued in July was suddenly in jeopardy two weeks prior to the event when I received a call from Statehouse security informing me that guns had been banned on Statehouse grounds, contrary to State law. Attempts were made to obtain an exemption from those rules so that attendees could exercise their Right to Keep and Bear Arms at the same time they exercised their Right to Peaceably Assemble.
