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Written by Jeff Knox
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Friday, 10 October 2008 |
The Knox Report
From the Firearms Coalition
(October 7, 2008) In 1981, Morton Grove, Illinois became the first town in the U.S. to pass a flat out ban on the possession of handguns within the town limits by anyone except police and active duty military during the performance of their official duties. In response, the town of Kennesaw, Georgia passed a gun law of their own in March of 1982. The Kennesaw law was almost the exact opposite to the Morton Grove ordinance. Rather than banning handgun possession, Kennesaw required every head-of-household to keep at least one firearm and appropriate ammunition in their home – with exemptions for those who had religious or philosophical objections to maintaining or using weapons. In other words, gun ownership was mandatory except for people who didn’t want to own a gun.
While Morton Grove became an instant media darling, Kennesaw became a pariah and a punch line. Pundits and “reporters” made jokes and wild predictions about the blood that would soon run in the streets of the small town a few miles North of Atlanta. The derision can still be heard occasionally from a late-night talk show host or a reflective news anchor, but all of the predictions of the “Wild West” and shootouts over fender-benders, simply didn’t pan out. Of course this lack of disaster was simply ignored by most in the media as were the actual results of this little comparative experiment.
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Written by Daniel White
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Thursday, 09 October 2008 |
BELLEVUE, Wash., Oct 09, 2008
The Second Amendment Foundation has reached an agreement with the City of New Orleans in a 2005 federal lawsuit that stopped the city from seizing firearms in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
The landmark lawsuit, a joint effort by SAF and the National Rifle Association, was filed in September 2005 after police and National Guardsmen began confiscating firearms without warrant or probable cause from citizens who were not suspected of committing any crimes. Under terms of the settlement, which now awaits a judge's signature, the city must try to return all firearms that were seized. Gun owners will be notified by mail within 30 days of the court's approval that they can retrieve their guns.
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Written by Daniel White
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Friday, 03 October 2008 |
The Attorney General's office has released the CHL statistics for the second quarter of 2008 showing it has been expectedly busy for Ohio sheriffs.
With the first batch of licenses issued in 2004 expiring this year (the law was changed in 2007 changing the term of licenses to five years), Ohio sheriffs renewed 14,007 licenses, on top of the 8,710 new licenses issued. This contrasts against the 2,706 renewals and 6,834 new licenses for the first quarter of 2008. In all of 2007, 22,103 new licenses were issued.
Click here to download the report |
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Written by Jeff Knox
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Thursday, 02 October 2008 |
The Knox Report
From the Firearms Coalition
(September 30, 2008) After four days, over 700 rounds fired and at least 2000 presentations from the holster, the folks at Front Site Firearms Academy outside Las Vegas asked me what I thought of their four-day Defensive Handgun course. I told them that I was impressed. I have been shooting for over 40 years. I’ve shot and trained with some of the most prominent firearms experts in the world, and I’ve been carrying and competing with the same Colt Combat Commander for over 24 years, but even with all of that experience, I learned a lot in 4 days at Front Sight.
I attended the course along with my brother Chris and my best friend Danny Tope. We all experienced dramatic improvement in our shooting skills and learned techniques for continued improvement. We found value in the classroom time as well. The lectures on the use of deadly force helped to give structure to what was previously a somewhat ambiguous thought process regarding when, where, and why I might use a gun. I found that the careful analysis of the moral, ethical, and legal issues surrounding the use of deadly force helped to crystallize my own philosophy and give me a better understanding of some of the emotional and legal pitfalls that are involved. Those lectures and that clearer understanding were worth the price of admission.
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Written by Daniel White
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Monday, 29 September 2008 |
Ohioans for Concealed Carry and the OFCC Political Action Committee are pleased to announce our endorsements for the 2008 General Election.
In the presidential race, we endorse the John McCain / Sarah Palin ticket. While we acknowledge that Senator McCain's support of closing the mythical "gun show loophole" has hurt his standing with some of our membership, the threat to gun rights that is posed by a Barack Obama / Joe Biden administration is too dire to ignore. Not only do we stand to lose support for gun rights in our nation's highest office, but the long term effects due to Federal circuit judge and U.S. Supreme Court justice appointments would be suffered for decades.
In Ohio, the big race is for Attorney General. OFCC was pleased to have the three candidates for Attorney General attend and speak at our annual members picnic last August. After careful consideration, we have decided to endorse Mike Crites for Attorney General. We also support Independent candidate Robert Owens, and we sincerely wish he was running for a separate office so we could endorse both candidates.
For the rest of our endorsements, please visit VoteYourGuns.com or click here to download our voter guide. |
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Written by Sean Culley
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Monday, 29 September 2008 |
Ohioans for Concealed Carry was pleased to accept an invitation from Dick
Stobbs for Congress, a candidate endorsed by OFCC, to attend the 2008
Sportsmen's Alliance Annual Ohio Rally this past Saturday.
The event, held at the Alladin Shrine Temple in Columbus, drew more then 1,200 second amendment supporters. The rally featured a keynote address by United States Senator and Presidential Candidate John McCain.
Though Senator McCain chose to stay in Washington to deal with the proposed economic bailout of failing mortgage institutions, he appeared at the rally via live satellite feed.
"Let there be no misunderstanding," he said. "If Senator Obama is elected president, the rights of law-abiding gun owners will be at risk."
Many items were auctioned off or raffled away in support of the U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance Foundation, including dozens of firearms and the grand prize - 20 acres of prime hunting land in Southern Ohio.
Dick Stobbs is a fellow concealed carry licensee and is very pleased to have OFCC's endorsement in the upcoming election. Joining Stobbs and OFCC Coordinator Sean Culley at the table, was Col. Tom Moe (USAF Ret.), who, like Senator McCain, was a POW in the Vietnam War and refused early release from the "Hanoi Hilton." Moe is also the Chair of Ohio Veterans for McCain. |
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Written by Jeff Garvas
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Monday, 29 September 2008 |
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Imagine the irony for readers of the Plain Dealer today who cheered when Cleveland resident Lawrence Hanson III was cleared of charges the day after he shot and killed an intruder in his home. Today, in a follow up story to our win in the Ohio Supreme Court, the Cleveland Plain Dealer has done a story not only on the right to carry openly, but the legal struggle of Greg Llewellyn. Llewellyn is now facing criminal charges for merely posessing a firearm in the open while doing nothing illegal. He spent a weekend in jail for simply posessing a firearm in Cleveland, Ohio. An act that was made completely lawful by HB347 and Ohio Revised Code 9.68. Ohioans For Concealed Carry became aware of Llewellyn's legal dealings shortly after he was arrested and immediately began investigating the claims, including a lengthy public records request that was submitted on August 25th. The City of Cleveland has failed to respond to that request with anything more than "we are still working on gathering the information". To this day Mr. Llewellyn doesn't even have a receipt for his improperly (if not illegally) confiscated rare firearm. |
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Written by Daniel White
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Friday, 26 September 2008 |
The editors of The Plain Dealer and the Toledo Blade are throwing virtual temper tantrums this morning over OFCC's win in Ohioans For Concealed Carry v. the City of Clyde in the Ohio Supreme Court.
According to the Blade, we're all a bunch of "gun-rights zealots" who won't let cities "safeguard their communities" by banning guns in parks or anywhere else they choose. They can't wrap their heads around the fact that the Ohio legislature moved to make gun laws uniform so that we could safeguard ourselves.
Comparing banning the Constitutional right to protect yourself (The people have the right to bear arms for their defense and security - Article 1, Section 4) to rules about park hours and dogs, as the Plain Dealer did, shows their lack of understanding of the concept of Rights. They might as well argue that since the park can require you to pick up after your dog they can also ban Muslim women from wearing a Burqa.
The primary complaint by the opposition is that private property owners can ban guns while public property "owners" cannot. I already debunked that concept in a previous article. Public property and private property are completely different animals. A private property owner can do a lot of things that a public property "owner" cannot. |
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Written by Jeff Garvas
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Wednesday, 24 September 2008 |
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Earlier this week Ohioans For Concealed Carry issued a cease and desist letter to the City of Independence in south-central Cuyahoga County, and on Tuesday afternoon we sent a request to the Village of Northfield in Summit County. Independence had a two year old park ban, and Northfield outlawed 'unconcealed' carrying of firearms, a first degree misdemeanor. These letters are just a few of many we've sent to communities all across Ohio this week seeking RC 9.68 compliance (local gun law repeals, park bans). On Wednesday night Ohioans For Concealed Carry president Jeff Garvas addressed the Northfield Council with respect to their aggressive open carry ban. We are pleased to announce that both cities appear to be moving in the right direction promptly. For the past two years we've been working to get Independence to repeal their ordinance and bring down their gun ban signs in parks and along State Route 21 near their historical society. In the past few months we began working with Independence Councilman Jim Crooks to negotiate legislation to repeal their ordinance, eventually choosing to wait for Clyde to be decided. Councilman Crooks is the only city official to ever communicate with us, let alone actively seek a resolution. He introduced the emergency legislation to repeal their park ban ordinance during a special council meeting September 23rd. |
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Written by Jeff Garvas
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Tuesday, 23 September 2008 |
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Plain Dealer Columnist Phillip Morris has done his usual eloquent analysis of this unfortunately use of force. UPDATE: WTAM 1100 and the Cleveland Plain Dealer are reporting that the City Prosecutor has ruled the shooting justifiable self-defense and the victim of the robbery attempt will not be charged. Update #2: We learned today that home owner may have detained two or three other burglary suspects at gun point in the past. Although initial news media reports are commonly misleading it appears that a resident of Cleveland's east side was involved in what may be deemed a justified use of deadly force. According to published reports the homeowner woke up to discover his house being burglarized. He picked up his firearm and investigated, only to find the burglar stuck in his fenced-in backyard, turn, and rush the armed homeowner. A confrontation that isn't entirely clear ensued, but the Plain Dealer is indicating that the shooter warned the advancing attacker that he was armed multiple times, and that he told police he was in fear of his life. Police did not arrest the man, but his firearm was confiscated. Ohio's "Castle Doctrine" law went into effect less than a month ago on September 9th and this may very well be the first use of deadly force to be tested by those changes in Ohio law. |
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