Bid On Ruger SR9c Compact Pistol Black Finish

Buckeye Firearms Foundation

Ohio --(Ammoland.com)- About 200 people have already signed up for this year’s Bash. We have a few seats left, but time is running out.

This coming Sunday, we’ll close registration and stop selling tickets. So this is your LAST CHANCE to sign up. We will not be selling tickets at the door. Once registration is closed and our attendance count is set, that’s it.

Please check your calendar right now. If you’re free the evening of February 11, why not join us for a gathering of Ohio patriots? Enjoy a great meal. Bid on guns and gear. Hear former NRA President Sandra Froman. Enter our “your choice” Ruger SR9c / SR40c raffle.

It’s going to be a fun and festive evening with your fellow Second Amendment supporters and an important fundraiser for Buckeye Firearms Foundation. The Foundation has worked hard for you over the years, even participating in two victorious U.S. Supreme Court cases. Can you spare just one evening to support the Foundation?

And speaking of Supreme Court Cases, we’ll be auctioning off an original copy of the Amicus Brief from Buckeye Firearms Foundation and the United States Concealed Carry Association that helped strike down the Washington D.C. gun ban and affirm an individual right to own firearms – the justice’s first major pronouncement on gun rights in U.S. history. A VERY limited number of these documents were ever printed. It’s your chance to own a piece of American history.

CLICK HERE to see some of the guns and other items we’ll be auctioning off, and to reserve your tickets.

About:
Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots political action committee dedicated to defending and advancing the right of Ohio citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities. Visit: www.buckeyefirearms.org

Top Threats To Gun Rights In 2012 & It May Be You

Buckeye Firearms Foundation

Ohio --(Ammoland.com)- Every January, Buckeye Firearms Association identifies the top 10 threats to our gun rights for the upcoming twelve months.

Historically, the list includes an ever changing line up of anti-gun personalities including the likes of Sarah Brady, Toby Hoover and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

One of the people included on the list more times than any other, however, is the apathetic and uninformed gun owner.

Few individual threats pose more danger to the right to bear arms than the self-proclaimed gun-rights advocate who doesn’t support the latest pro-gun reform, or who refuses to take their business elsewhere when a company discriminates against gun owners.

During 2011, the anti-gun gun owner was front and center during the debate over allowing legal concealed carry in places that serve alcohol. Despite the fact that the reforms proposed in SB17 were already law in every state that surrounds Ohio, the mainstream media didn’t have any trouble getting self-proclaimed die-hard gun owners to claim allowing legal concealed carry in bars was a crazy idea.

In many cases, the offending gun owner opened their anti-gun statement to the media by claiming to be an ardent supporter of gun rights, and often used their membership in the National Rifle Association as proof. Few things sound sweeter to the anti-gun establishment media than hearing someone with ties to the NRA, or another gun rights group, who then claims to oppose the latest pro-gun reform.

Just to be clear, that isn’t an indictment of the NRA, or any other gun group. Instead, it is an indictment of the individual gun owner who is willing to be a mouthpiece for gun-control.

Since 2012 is a presidential election year, the ability of the mainstream media to misrepresent members of the gun community as supporters of President Barack Obama has serious implications. If President Obama returns to the White House, he will be free to pursue anti-gun policies without fear of alienating the electorate, and he is likely to claim a mandate to attack the right to bear arms.

A mandate he will claim demands the appointment of another anti-gun activist judge to the United States Supreme Court.

Such a viewpoint wins President Obama and his campaign staff a spot on the 2012 list.

In the last 10 years, the anti-gun lobby has failed to win a single vote in Congress, or in the Ohio legislature. So, putting the likes of Toby Hoover, or anyone else connected to the Ohio anti-gun lobby on the list is a waste of time. After all, before we can call her a threat to gun-rights, she has to become relevant.

The same holds true for anti-gun Ohio legislators like Bill Patmon (D-10), who is so blinded by a hatred of guns that he is willing to use falsified statistics, misquotes and fabrications as a means to push his misguided agenda. Sadly, it appears only like-minded anti-gun zealots, his legislative staff and mainstream media sycophants fail to see just how impotent Representative Patmon appears to everyone else when espousing one transparently false statistic after another.

His best anti-gun effort remains one of the pro-gun community’s best assets. We can only hope nobody lets Representative Patmon in on the joke.

That means for 2012, we are left with only two true threats to our gun rights:

• Number TWO: President Barack Obama and his campaign staff – Everyone expects him to aggressively pursue an anti-gun agenda if elected to a second term as president. So, it is vital to the pro-gun community that every possible effort is made to see that he fails to win reelection.
• Number ONE: The Apathetic, Misinformed, or Anti-gun Gun Owner – A united pro-gun community can easily defeat President Barack Obama, just as a unified gun community defeated former Democratic Presidential candidates Al Gore and John Kerry (D-MA). Sadly, there were just enough gun voters tricked by Barack Obama during the 2008 campaign that he was able to carry Ohio and therefore win the presidency.

A situation that can’t be allowed to repeat itself in 2012.

Gerard Valentino, a former military intelligence analyst, is a member of the Buckeye Firearms Foundation Board of Directors and the author of “The Valentino Chronicles – Observations of a Middle Class Conservative,” available through the Buckeye Firearms Association store.

About:
Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots political action committee dedicated to defending and advancing the right of Ohio citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities. Visit: www.buckeyefirearms.org

Buckeye Firearms Foundation

Ohio --(Ammoland.com)- Last week, anti-gun New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Joyce Foundation-funded gun control group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG), staged a press conference to hype the group’s latest effort to institute a new level of gun control on law-abiding citizens. But while he supports the gun control efforts, even the City of Cleveland’s Public Safety Director admits the proposed legislation wouldn’t stop illegal sales.

According to The Washington Post, billionaire Bloomberg spent $290,000 of New York City taxpayers’ money on yet another “undercover investigation” staged far beyond the borders of his city.

In local coverage, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, citing a MAIG press release, reported that “investigators” contacted 27 “unlicensed dealers” in Ohio and found that 10 agreed to sell guns to prospective buyers who said they would likely fail a background check.

Investigators reportedly asked to meet five of the 10 sellers in person, and bought four handguns and an “assault rifle” with cash.

MAIG is using the “investigation,” which was not conducted by law enforcement but rather by private investigators, to argue for passage of legislation which would require background checks for any firearms transaction, even those between private individuals, family members, etc.

From The Cleveland Plain Dealer:

But at least one gun rights advocate in Ohio doesn’t support the legislation.

Jim Irvine, chairman of the Buckeye Firearms Association, said he doesn’t trust Mayors Against Illegal Guns and believes its ultimate goal is to outlaw private gun sales, and eventually ownership, altogether.

Irvine said the Fix Gun Checks Act would simply drive up the cost of gun sales without reducing crime.

“The criminals steal their guns,” he said. “That’s the number one way a criminal gets his gun.”

And as for the gun sellers, if 62 percent of the 125 unlicensed dealers contacted in the investigation are willing to break the law now, who’s to say they won’t still be willing to do so if the law changes, he said.

“They’re still going to sell guns to criminals if that’s what they’re doing,” Irvine said.

Indeed, even as he argued for passage of mandatory background checks, Cleveland Public Safety Director Martin Flask admitted to The Plain Dealer that “a more extensive background check requirement won’t stop street corner sales.”

There are a number of concerns about the latest MAIG press stunt:

• We’ve seen lots of incorrect information about guns coming from Mayor Bloomberg and MAIG, so how can we have confidence in anything they say/do?
• They claim that 62% of people agreed to sell guns to criminals. Was this a representative sample or did they pick people known to be likely to break the law?
• Taking their information at face value – what now? How does their proposed legislation impact violent criminals? We know most criminals steal their guns (not buy them at gun shows or online) so how is does their “solution” solve the crime problem? It does not. It simply drives up the cost of gun ownership.
• Lots of laws are broken in cars too. If we made every private sale go through a registered car dealer, would that reduce DUI’s, vehicular homicide, speeding, running red lights, failure to maintain assured clear distance? No. It would do nothing to solve “gun crime” either.
• Gun dealers can only do checks on people to whom they are selling guns. They are in the business of selling guns. Why would they want to pay an employee to stop taking care of paying customers and pay for background checks on a private sale that is potentially taking away a customer?

Instead, this legislation would serve to produce the same results we always get from Bloomberg and company proposals – driving up costs of gun ownership through red tape, hassles, and bureaucracy. The ultimate goal is fewer citizens owning guns. If Bloomberg truly wants to solve the crime problem, he should be looking at criminals.

Indeed, we have some problems with guns and crime in Ohio too – so much so that Attorney General Mike DeWine has formed a task force to address it. DeWine has repeatedly told the committee he wants them to go after the criminal, not the tool. As such, it is likely that whatever comes out of that committee will make a lot more sense, because unlike Bloomberg, DeWine’s stated goal is to reduce crime, not gun ownership.

While the tactics Bloomberg uses are bad enough, it is his hypocrisy that really takes the cake. In a December 7 blog post entitled “Bloomberg’s Private Army,” the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre noted that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg “may have revealed the depth of his ego when was speaking to students at MIT recently.”

During the speech, he proclaimed, “I have my own army in the NYPD, which is the seventh biggest army in the world.”

Maybe the mayor really believes that, but the officers of the NYPD take an oath to the Constitution and the laws of New York, not an oath of fealty to the power-hungry occupier of City Hall. Bloomberg should also remember that a “ruler” (which is what he seems to think he is) who denies the people their Right to Keep and Bear Arms while maintaining a large “army” is apt to be viewed as a petty tyrant, not a benevolent and wise leader.

Bloomberg seems to think that it’s all about him when it comes to the idea of Right-to-Carry holders on college campuses, as well. In that same speech to MIT students, he told them that when he was in college, he and his fellow students were too “smoked up and drunk” to responsibly carry a firearm. Maybe Bloomberg didn’t realize that MIT has one of the finest collegiate rifle programs in the country, as well as an intercollegiate pistol team and a campus Rifle and Pistol Club. Clearly, the mayor should spend less time pontificating about what he thinks about the world, so he could learn something from his audience.

Jim Irvine and Chad D. Baus are the Buckeye Firearms Association Chairman and Vice Chairman.

About:
Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots political action committee dedicated to defending and advancing the right of Ohio citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities. Visit: www.buckeyefirearms.org

Buckeye Firearms Foundation

Ohio --(Ammoland.com)- When Ohio’s concealed carry law passed in 2004, then-Governor Bob Taft made sure to insert poison pills designed to make it nearly impossible for a citizen to carry legally.

It took nearly seven years, but as of, September 30, 2011, the onerous car-carry restrictions that Taft created and that made countless honest Ohioans into felons are being relegated to the political scrap heap.

Ohioans will also be able to carry in restaurants that serve alcohol for consumption, as long as the license holder does not drink and is not under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Attorney General Mike DeWine (R) has created a new 2011 Concealed Carry Laws Manual that lay out the changes that go into effect.

Please take the time to read the updated information so you understand the changes and can avoid running afoul of the new law. Anti-self-defense groups are waiting for license holders to screw up, thus “proving” we don’t deserve our rights. Such problems by any license holder make it difficult to continue to improve our laws for all license holders. A yearly review of firearms laws is a good way to make sure your daily habits are in line with current law.

Buckeye Firearms Association doesn’t anticipate problems, but as with any change in the law, getting the information out to the officer on the street takes time. Please keep that in mind and remember that law enforcement is adjusting to the new law, just as we are. A good attitude and a cooperative demeanor will go a long way toward educating any LEO who has not been properly briefed, and continue to build on the good relationships between law enforcement and citizens who carry firearms for lawful purposes.

The changes that go into effect today are a huge win for the concealed handgun holder. Our laws regarding carrying in an automobile are now consistent with the rest of the country, and the laws regarding carrying in restaurants are similar to the law in over 40 other states. We are given a bit more leeway about the establishment we may carry into, but have a zero consumption rule that most states do not employ. We penalize violations with strict felony provisions, which few if any other states do. Despite the anti-gun zealots promises of “drunks with guns” and a rash of dead police officers, the new concealed carry provisions are reasonable and prudent.

Ohio’s restoration of rights statue has been modified so that it finally meets federal requirements so that people whose rights have been restored in Ohio are no longer under a federal firearms disability. In addition, another change relieves people with non-felony drug convictions from firearm disabilities under Ohio law. Persons with a minor misdemeanor drug charge, but no felonies or criminal record, are now permitted to own guns, but still are not eligible for an Ohio concealed handgun license.

(They may still obtain and fully use other states’ concealed carry licenses, so long as that state does not impose a drug conviction disqualifier.)

The positive changes would not have been possible without the support of the grassroots, otherwise known as average citizens who contacted their elected officials and requested that our laws changed. As we continue our fight to restore rights to all lawful persons, citizen involvement will be key to helping legislators understand how important the changes we seek are to their constituents.

We have received many requests for gatherings with fellow gun owners to commemorate the change in the law. Buckeye Firearms is not sanctioning these events, but several of us will be participating at various locations. Individuals can network with others for friendly locations to enjoy dinner and spend some money on our forums:

http://forums.buckeyefirearms.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=12410

Ohio 2011 Concealed Carry Laws Booklet

Jim Irvine is the Buckeye Firearms Association Chairman. Gerard Valentino is a member of the Buckeye Firearms Foundation Board of Directors.

About:
Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots political action committee dedicated to defending and advancing the right of Ohio citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities. Visit: www.buckeyefirearms.org

Buckeye Firearms Foundation

Ohio --(Ammoland.com)- It looks like we’re going to have a record crowd at this year’s Bulletproof Mind event with Dave Grossman.

At this point, there are only 35 seats remaining. When they’re gone, we must close this event. So if you’ve been waiting until the last minute to sign up, this is it.

NOTE: In addition to Dave Grossman, we will be joined by representatives from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (to answer your gun-related questions on hunting and outdoor activities) and Black Wing Shooting Center (who will hold drawings for range passes and a special membership package).

Plus, we’ll have books at LOW prices (including the 50 state traveler’s guide and the new Ohio firearm guide). Ken Hanson, our legal expert, will also explain the new restaurant carry and restoration of rights laws that will go into effect in about 3 weeks.

And if that isn’t enough, we’ve created about 50 special “Sheepdog” shirts in honor of of the event. Bring some extra cash.

CLICK HERE to read more about this extraordinary event and register NOW!

About:
Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots political action committee dedicated to defending and advancing the right of Ohio citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities. Visit: www.buckeyefirearms.org

Buckeye Firearms Foundation

Ohio --(Ammoland.com)- World history tells us of tyrants and dictators that have deprived the populace of their God given rights, especially the right to keep and bear arms.

The Jewish Defense League (www.JDL.org) has advised that everywhere in World history where genocide has been committed, the genocide was always preceded by disarming the population.

The party or government responsible for disarming may not always be the same party or government that committed the genocide, nonetheless, genocide was committed on the disarmed and defenseless.

There are even certain modern evils in the United Nations that must be monitored with vigilance lest the sovereignty of the United States and our Constitution become compromised. Many people have been ill informed or unaware of our own American history and the criminal element dictating laws that prevent honest men and women from their constitutional right to keep and bear arms. The “Tell”, or verbal history along with recorded documentation, has been told before. Some have forgotten, and others may never have known.

Herein is a reminder: “Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance; they are the peoples’ liberty’s teeth.” ~ George Washington

LAW BY CRIMINALS, FOR CRIMINALS
Oath keepers such as professional law enforcement officers should be especially aware of the American historical foundation of gun control promoted by criminals. The criminal precedent is of course the 1911 Sullivan Act in New York, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sullivan_Act).

Today, this and other evil laws like it are still in effect, thanks to quasi-criminals and or politicians that violate their oath of office by failing to support and enforce the constitution of the United States of America, which of course, includes the second amendment.

TIM SULLIVAN, CRIMINAL AND POLITICIAN
A near giant of a man, Big Tim Sullivan, was a notorious Irish gangster, (Mike Hudson www.niagarafallsreporter.com/column357.html). His mob controlled New York City south of 14th Street around the turn of the 20th century. This dangerous street thug and politician became an influential figure in the corrupt Democratic machine there known as Tammany Hall. He made the transition from thug and political ward heeler to New York state senator in 1894. Sullivan represented New York’s Red Hook district, (Patrick Sperry http://tiny.cc/algmb), sometimes referred to as “Hells Kitchen.” Sullivan served a six-year term in the U.S. House of Representatives, and returned to the New York state legislature in 1909, complaining that he “lacked the juice in Washington that he had grown accustomed to on his home turf.”

In 1911, Sullivan’s constituents, (Irish and Jewish mobsters who put him into office), shared a growing problem with him. Immigrant Italian mafia members were horning in on what had once been their exclusive area of criminal operations. Commercial travelers passing through the district would be relieved of their valuables by armed robbers. Naturally, in order to protect themselves and their property, honest travelers began to arm themselves.

Gunfights in what was to become Little Italy became more frequent. This both raised the criminal’s risk while conducting armed robbery, and reduced the gang’s profit. Sullivan’s criminal constituents then “lobbied” Sullivan to introduce a law prohibiting concealed carry of pistols in order to reduce the risk to his criminal constituents while robbing honest people. That Sullivan was successful in passing a law disarming honest citizens so as to aid and abet other criminals is well documented.

THE EFFECT OF THE SULLIVAN ACT
The criminals responsible for enacting this law had no intention of being deterred themselves by the Sullivan Act from their business of armed robbery. Thus, the effect of the Sullivan Act was precisely what the criminals intended, whereby they could be armed and the law abiding could not. Having a seriously unfair tactical advantage over the law abiding made their criminal life of crime much safer and easier.

Blogger NTCNoob, (http://tiny.cc/ivegi March 28th 2011), offers a link to a legal brief which in part discussed the history of the Sullivan Act (www.longislandfirearms.com/LIF_Briefs/LIF_Brief.pdf) and his favorite part of the brief is this section which affirms Professor John Lott’s (www.johnrlott.blogspot.com) research that “more guns equal less crime”:

As one scholar concludes: “It didn’t take long for those hopes to be dashed: within twelve months of the passage of the Sullivan Law, New York City’s murder rate increased 18 percent.” In the year after enactment, New York City experienced “a crime wave unequaled in its history.” in 1912 presidents of fourteen burglary insurance companies called for repeal of the Act, arguing that burglaries and robberies had increased by 40%. The following year, an insurance industry publication argued that in practice the law restricted only the “honest man” and that a criminal would “carry his pistol, law or no law.”

CRIMINAL EMPOWERMENT ZONES
Criminal and Killer Empowerment Zones, (www.spartancops.com/killer-empowerment-zones/ and www.buckeyefirearms.org/archive/story/2010/9/20) are commonly known as “Gun-Free” zones only by the “Reality-Challenged.”

“Gun-Free” is a misleading term. To the armed criminal, it means both a victim rich environment and profit. The honest citizens however, are in peril from the killers, rapists and armed robbers when they obey the law, yet may be subject to arrest when exercising their 2nd amendment right to keep and bear arms. The consequences can and has proved deadly to the law abiding innocents.

We are told that any harm that comes to good people because of criminal empowerment zones is unintended. Unfortunately for honest folk, considering the criminal history of gun control, the actual reality consequences, facts, common sense, and the truth would all suggest otherwise.

YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN
Empowering criminals by the process of disarming honest men and women is similar to “Killer Empowerment Zones”, where only the criminal’s health, welfare and safety is almost guaranteed, while the defenseless innocents are an afterthought, leaving them totally on their own. The result is the same whether the criminal empowerment zone is a school, workplace, restaurant, church, shopping mall, drugstore, island, roller rink, city, an entire state or country. The law abiding are denied a level playing field.

HURRICANE KATRINA AND MODERN UNLAWFUL DISARMING OF CITIZENS
New Orleans Louisiana was hard hit by Hurricane Katrina and flooding. There were many problems and failures. For a variety of reasons, many people elected to remain in their homes. Roving gangs were a threat to honest citizens and law enforcement there admittedly was unable to protect their own citizens. Looting and a myriad of crimes against persons and property were committed.

The honest law abiding and God fearing citizens that possessed firearms at least had a chance at protecting themselves. That was until New Orleans Mayor Nagin, (who fled to Baton Rouge), unconstitutionally ordered that his remaining citizens be disarmed.

P. Edwin Compass III, superintendent of police, stated “No one is allowed to be armed. We are going to take all the guns.” (www.reason.com/archives/2005/09/10/defenseless-on-the-bayou)

The mayor and law enforcement officers there all violated their oaths when they went door to door confiscating legally owned firearms.

CRIMINAL RISK – BENEFIT ANALYISIS
We are reminded of the phrases “Who benefits?” or “Follow the money!” Clearly criminal empowerment zones reduce the risk to criminals pursuing their trade. Criminal empowerment zones allow their crimes to be profitable, (or murderous, depending solely on the criminals whim). Are criminal “Lobbies” still behind unconstitutional restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms? Do some politicians still intentionally aid and abet crime as the Sullivan Act does, or are they merely clueless as to the potential harm? We suggest, you readers decide!

CONCLUSION
Word history shows us that genocide has been a byproduct of disarming the law abiding. American history has shown us that early gun control has been introduced by criminal politicians to benefit their criminal constituents. For the non-criminals, the Utopian intent of any “Gun-Free” area is of course, a delusion that laws or warning signs at a public facility will be sufficient to protect the public. The otherwise perfectly legal, concealed weapon civilians are disarmed and rendered as defenseless as everyone else.

While this Utopian theory has no validated tracking history of success, it certainly has a documented record of failure. Even if we concede that the Utopians might deserve an “A” for “good intentions,” they certainly have also earned an “F” as in FATAL for actual results.

For example:

“All the multiple victim public shootings in the U.S. – in which more than three people have been killed – have all occurred in places where concealed handguns have been banned.” – Professor John Lott Jr. author of “More Guns, Less Crime”

Anyone with enough interest to do the research will find that factually, of cities with similar demographics, those which unconstitutionally restrict the right to keep and bear arms have a significantly higher crime rate than those that do not. These are factual clues.

The foundation of American “Gun Control” was sponsored by and promoted by criminals. The criminal element benefits from most laws that violate the constitution. Politicians that propose laws that violate the 2nd amendment also violate their oaths to support the Constitution.

“Gun Control” is a façade for a hidden agenda. “Gun Control” is a silly theory alleging that it protects the public. In reality there is no evidence of gun control protecting the public. In fact, it is quite evident that everywhere oppressive gun control exists crime is significantly higher than areas where honest citizens are permitted to keep and bear arms.

If gun control and gun free zones were effective deterrents, we would be applying their success as countermeasures to crimes “A through Z.”

For example:

• Arson Control/Arson free zones
• Burglary Control/Burglar free zones
• Drug Control/Drug free zones
• Rape Control/Rape free zones, and so on

Anyone honest with themselves can understand the analogy here, the clarity being that none of these efforts would have an effect on the intended criminal element target.

One is tempted to think about the analogy of sovereign nations signing a treaty on nuclear disarming and President Ronald Reagan’s quote about “Trust but verify.” Unfortunately, criminals are not sovereign, any agreement signed by them would certainly not be trustworthy, and because of their unlawful and shadowy methods, there is no reliable way to verify they are not carrying firearms. This leads us back to square one, where gun control both effects, and punishes only honest citizens.

The most recent and aggravated example is the gun confiscation in New Orleans, LA. The citizens were clearly on their own as police were unable to protect them. Then the police unlawfully confiscated legally owned firearms from people’s homes, literally robbing them of the ability to protect themselves. When civilization returned, and the citizens used the courts to get their firearms back, the court commanded the return of their firearms. The police department refused orders from the court and would not return the stolen property until sued by the National Rifle Association and the Second Amendment Association.

How could this happen in America?

About the author: After a three decade police career, Ron Borsch is semi-retired. While retaining a police commission as a consultant-trainer, he manages and is the lead trainer for SEALE Regional Police Training Academy, a post-graduate facility in Bedford Ohio. SEALE Academy has specialized in tactically training 1st responders since the year 2000. Their current evolution of active killer countermeasures is SOLO, “Single Officer Lifesaving Others”©. Ron has presented various subjects in several different states to fellow officers, Chiefs of Police, national and international instructor audiences.

About:
Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots political action committee dedicated to defending and advancing the right of Ohio citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities. Visit: www.buckeyefirearms.org

Buckeye Firearms Foundation

Ohio --(Ammoland.com)- Having failed in their apparent goal of creating demand for gun control legislation by allowing thousands of guns to “walk” into Mexico, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney announced on Thursday, July 7, that the Obama administration is set to impose a series of gun control “reforms”via executive order.

From The Huffington Post:

The reforms, which are being crafted by the Department of Justice, come after a series of meetings with relevant stakeholders in the Second Amendment debate. But in a nod to the difficulties of getting legislation through a Republican-run House of Representatives, only executive orders or administrative actions — and not an actual bill — are expected to be handed to Congress.

Administration officials were coy on the specifics, from the reforms the Department of Justice would recommend or when it would actually make those recommendations.

“The president directed the Attorney General to form working groups with key stakeholders to identify common sense measures that would improve American safety and security while fully respecting Second Amendment rights,” Carney said at Thursday’s briefing. “That process is well underway at the Department of Justice with stakeholders on all sides working through these complex issues and we expect to have more specific announcements in the near future.”

Just how near? Carney would only say “not far in the future.” Another administration official said weeks would be an appropriate measurement.

According to Fox News, what still remains unclear is just how far out on a limb the president is willing to go on gun control. “If he goes too far,” the report says, “the Second Amendment debate could reach great heights as the president battles for his re-election. If he doesn’t go far enough, some in his base may view him as weak on gun laws.”

The Huffington Post cheerily notes that “when the recommendations do come, it will represent the most comprehensive move on the gun control front from this administration to date,” and concludes by observing that “executive actions offer something that legislation doesn’t: guaranteed results.”

Chad D. Baus is the Buckeye Firearms Association Vice Chairman.

About:
Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots political action committee dedicated to defending and advancing the right of Ohio citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities. Visit: www.buckeyefirearms.org

Buckeye Firearms Foundation

Ohio --(Ammoland.com)- The Code of Ethics for the Society of Professional Journalists states that “Journalists should be free of obligation to any interest other than the public’s right to know,” and specifies that:

Journalists should:

• Avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived.
• Remain free of associations and activities that may compromise integrity or damage credibility.
• Refuse gifts, favors, fees, free travel and special treatment, and shun secondary employment, political involvement, public office and service in community organizations if they compromise journalistic integrity.

A series of articles written by Theodore Decker and published last week in The Columbus Dispatch ignores these principles, taking advocacy journalism to a level even the founders of the SPJ probably couldn’t imagine when they adopted their first code of ethics in 1926.

The three-part series is entitled “Overrun by guns”.

In his first article, Decker cites “a Dispatch analysis of state records” which “found that in 2009 alone, law-enforcement officers in Ohio investigated 12,550 incidents in which a gun was present,” or “about 34 per day.” The analysis also reportedly found that “guns were used in 62 percent of all Ohio homicides in 2009…; 41 percent of robberies; and 24 percent of aggravated assaults, which include shootings…”

“Add to that toll the enormous medical costs,” Decker continues. “The cost of tending to the injured in Ohio averages about $37 million in inpatient hospital charges a year…”

Of Ohio’s 502 slayings in 2009, 62 percent were gun homicides, according to the FBI. …

Guns were used in 75 percent of Columbus’ homicides during the past five years, when 360 lives were snuffed out with the pull of a trigger.

The potential for use of a firearm for self-defense is not mentioned even once in any of Decker’s five articles, let alone quantified.

Gun rights activists have long-complained of the presence of an anti-gun bias in the media. They’ve always assumed that this was simply the result of the reporters’ personal bias infecting their reporting (despite the fact that the SPJ Code states that journalists should “Support the open exchange of views, even views they find repugnant.”)

But a small note at the bottom of Decker’s articles suggest there is more at work than a simple lack of professionalism from yet another anti-gun reporter….

Read the Entire Article: http://tiny.cc/5uwpn

About:
Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots political action committee dedicated to defending and advancing the right of Ohio citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities. Visit: www.buckeyefirearms.org

Gun Talk Radio

MANDEVILLE, LA --(Ammoland.com)- Fact-checked, unbiased, honest news is sometimes hard to find in today’s world. Tom speaks with two writers about media bias against firearms, this Sunday on Tom Gresham’s Gun Talk (R) Radio, the nationally-syndicated radio talk show about guns and the shooting sports.

Kevin D. Williamson writes for the National Review – “America’s most widely read and influential magazine and website for Republican/conservative news, commentary and opinion”.

Williamson recently wrote an article discussing the misconception of how easy it is to obtain a “fully automatic assault rifle”. He’s visits Gun Talk to talk about how wrong some in the media get it, and possible motives behind such reporting. More info can be found at www.nationalreview.com.

Also on Gun Talk this week, Chad Baus, Vice Chairman of Ohio’s Buckeye Firearms Association. In his most recent online article on www.buckeyefirearms.org, Baus examines a three-part series of articles titled “Overrun by Guns”, published last week in The Columbus Dispatch. The problem Baus and many others have with these articles written by a Dispatch journalist is that they were paid for – and paid for by The Joyce Foundation, a notorious anti-gun rights organization.

About:
Tom Gresham’s Gun Talk Radio is in its 16th year of national syndication, Gun Talk Radio airs live on Sundays from 2PM-5PM Eastern, and runs on 101 stations, plus SIRIUS XM Satellite Radio. All Gun Talk shows can be downloaded as podcasts through Apple iTunes, the Gun Talk iPhone App, the Blackberry Podcast App, or at www.guntalk.libsyn.com. More information is available at www.guntalk.com.

Daley’s Rein of Terror

Buckeye Firearms Foundation

Ohio --(Ammoland.com)- Richard Daley’s request for armed bodyguards to protect him after he leaves office shows that his career as Chicago Mayor is ending, but his legacy of hypocrisy will live on.

After years of disarming all civilians, Daley’s tune is now changing, and he is making sure that someone carrying a gun is in place to defend him when he no longer holds his throne.

For Daley to request armed protection in his retirement is an act of blind arrogance. Note, it isn’t described as a shocking act of arrogance, since nobody is surprised when Daley is caught in a self- centered, egotistical act.

If Daley had to walk down the street in one of Chicago’s worst neighborhoods, or spend several months living in a high crime area of the city without his bodyguards, we can only wonder how his view of gun control would change. Maybe if he walked out of his front door each day completely vulnerable because only the criminals on his street were armed, he might find humanity, or a sense of reality.

Based on his brand of bully-politics, it still remains unlikely he will ever admit that he was wrong about gun-control even though his request proves he sees the value of guns for defending civilians.

Despite the notoriously slow response time of the Chicago Police Department in high crime neighborhoods, Mayor Daley saw to it that the only option for citizens was to call 911, and wait, if violently attacked. His suggestion seemed plausible to him because his self-appointed gunslingers are always an arm’s-length away.

Sadly, even in retirement he found a way to keep his self-appointed place as one of society’s elite. His attempt to use his office as a way to elevate his stature would also be recognizable to infamous Roman Emperor Nero, who wielded unchecked power for his own glory.

Comparing most politicians to a blood-thirsty tyrant is stepping over the line, but not in Daley’s case.

While he was Mayor, Chicagoans were murdered at a horrifying rate, and his time in office included some of the bloodiest periods in Chicago’s history. Even infamous gangster Al Capone’s bloody reign of terror wasn’t able to match the carnage that took place under Mayor Richard Daley’s watch.

Daley’s answer to the bloodshed was to enact policies that left criminals armed to the teeth while law- abiding citizens were left unprotected.

The blood of the innocent murder victims in Chicago will stain Richard Daley’s hands forever, and his choice to ask for protection for his family drips with the same arrogance that led Nero to treat Rome as his own personal playground.

History tells us that Nero fiddled while Rome burned, and history will condemn Daley for fiddling while thousands of innocent Chicagoans met a violent and untimely end.

As he leaves office, Daley refuses to back down from the premise that he is more important than the subjects he scorned while in office. If he had an ounce of self-respect or decency, he would go into retirement and live the life of a citizen, not an Emperor.

Expecting him to do so, however, is like expecting the sun to rise in the west. Instead, even when he should be just another citizen, Daley found a way to place his own interests above the citizens he vowed to serve.

The fact that he is now asking for armed protection during his retirement does prove that he fully recognizes that guns save lives. In his twisted mind, however, he only cares if it is his life that is saved, and to hell with the great unwashed masses left to live in the city he failed to rid of street gangs, armed robbers and rapists.

Daley’s last act as Mayor tells us all we need to know about Chicago’s longest- tenured mayor and self-styled Emperor.

Mayor Richard Daley is an example of everything that is wrong with politics in America.

He also left law-abiding citizens to dodge bullets while he lived in secure houses and enjoyed 24-hour police protection.

Some Roman Emperors didn’t have it any better.

Gerard Valentino is a member of the Buckeye Firearms Foundation Board of Directors and the author of “The Valentino Chronicles – Observations of a Middle Class Conservative,” available through the Buckeye Firearms Association store.

About:
Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots political action committee dedicated to defending and advancing the right of Ohio citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities. Visit: www.buckeyefirearms.org

Buckeye Firearms Foundation

Ohio --(Ammoland.com)- Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Brian Corrigan has ordered Cleveland to stop any enforcement of 19 separate local gun control ordinances, effective immediately.

Buckeye Firearms Foundation is the lead Plaintiff in the case, which was filed in early 2009. In the interim, Cleveland sued the State of Ohio in an attempt to have the state’s firearm laws declared an unconstitutional usurpation of a city’s home rule authority. In December 2010, the Ohio Supreme Court entered final judgment against Cleveland, ruling (for a second time) that the state’s laws were valid.

The Cleveland ordinances invalidated dealt with gun registration, owner I.D. cards, assault weapon bans, limits on firearm dealers within city limits, possession of firearms in parks and other public places, seizure and destruction of firearms, storage of firearms, reporting theft of firearms and concealed carry of firearms.

Judge Corrigan wrote, “R.C. 9.68 clearly invalidates any and all municipal ordinances regulating ‘the ownership, possession, purchase, other acquisition, transport, storage, carrying, sale, or other transfer of firearms, their components, and their ammunition.’” Judge Corrigan set July 7, 2011 as a hearing on Buckeye Firearm Foundations request for mandatory attorney fees. The Ohio Supreme Court has already upheld the validity of the mandatory attorney fee provision.

Attorney Ken Hanson, who represented Buckeye Firearms Foundation in the litigation, said “”We are gratified that the trial court took the time to understand the arguments and the law, and consider the case without being sidetracked by emotional, discredited arguments. Public records requests clearly showed that these ordinances were almost never used to prosecute criminals, and instead operated only as a bar to ownership/possession by those inclined to follow the law in the first place.”

Jim Irvine, a board member of Buckeye Firearms Foundation, observed “When we originally filed this case, Cleveland Law Director Robert Triozzi said the case was ‘more of a publicity stunt than a legal maneuver’ and concluded that none of the city’s ordinances conflicted with state law. Clearly this ruling shows that he was wrong on both counts, and it is the taxpayers of Cleveland that will end up paying for his incorrect conclusions.”

Download the ruling here.

About:
Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots political action committee dedicated to defending and advancing the right of Ohio citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities. Visit: www.buckeyefirearms.org

Buckeye Firearms Foundation

Ohio --(Ammoland.com)- By a 56 – 40 margin, the Ohio House has passed House Bill 45, sponsored by Representatives Danny Bubp (R-West Union) and Terry Johnson (R-McDermott) which will allow citizens who hold a valid concealed handgun license (CHL) to carry a firearm in restaurants.

To do so, license holders may not consume any alcohol and must not be under the influence of alcohol or drugs. According to OpenCarry.org, 42 states (including every state that borders Ohio) allow non-drinking license holders to carry firearms in restaurants.

The bill also reduces burdensome restrictions regarding how a license holder must transport a firearm in a car. Currently, Ohio is the only state to place such complex limitations on license holders.

One month ago, the Ohio Senate passed an amended version of this legislation (SB17) by a 25-7 margin, having adding a provision to provide a way for people who were convicted of improperly transporting a firearm under the current law to receive relief if they would have been in compliance under the law as amended.

Before the bill passed, Rep. Todd McKenney (R-New Franklin) offered an amendment to strip restaurant carry from the bill. The anti-gun amendment was defeated by a 58-38 vote to table. Buckeye Firearms Association can report that McKenney answered our 2010 candidate survey just as did Rep. Matt Lundy (D), who BFA recently exposed for having lied on his 2010 candidate survey by promising to vote for the legislation in order to win a good grade and an endorsement, only to reverse course within weeks after being in office.

Other anti-gun amendments were offered by Reps. Ted Celeste (D), Mike Foley (D) (who invoked “the Wild Wild West atmosphere” he says “could and would happen” in bars, before introducing an admittedly “sarcastic” amendment), Sandra Williams (D), Tracy Heard (D) (who asked “what’s to guarantee me that any one of the members in this chamber who hold a concealed carry wouldn’t shoot me in the head?” and said she believes if the bill passes “there isn’t going to be anyone in Ohio who isn’t carrying a gun.”) and Bill Patmon (D) (who cited examples of a few CHL-holders who have broken the law as representative of what he must expect will happen here). Those amendments too were tabled or defeated – Celeste’s by a 62-34 margin, Foley’s 72-23, Williams’ 64-32, Heard’s 61-34 and Patmon’s 64-32.

Several Democrats also rose in opposition to the bill. Most notably, Rep. Mark Okey (D), rose to complain that a letter sent to Representatives by Buckeye Firearms Association was “threatening” and “intended to intimidate us.” Okey also claimed that bar owners would be liable for the actions of those carrying a concealed handgun license.

Ken Hanson, Legislative Chair of Buckeye Firearms Association, said, “That is not true. Okey needs to refer to Ohio Law, specifically 2923.126(C)(2)(a) which says ‘A private employer shall be immune from liability in a civil action for any injury, death, or loss to person or property that allegedly was caused by or related to a licensee bringing a handgun onto the premises or property of the private employer, including motor vehicles owned by the private employer, unless the private employer acted with malicious purpose.’”

Okey concluded his remarks by with this: “Buckeye Firearms, you have to earn my vote” and asserted that he was voting ‘no‘ as an act of “legislative self-defense,” shouting “Every citizen has a right to defend his house. This is our House,” he said, referring to the Statehouse. There will no doubt a good number of voters who will look forward to reminding Okey in 2012 that it is not, in fact, his House, it is The People’s House, and it is he who has to earn our vote.

The House also passed House Bill 54, sponsored by Representatives Ron Maag (R-Lebanon) and Jarrod Martin (R-Beavercreek), which seeks to align Ohio law with federal statutes regarding the restoration of rights to Ohio firearms purchasers. The bill passed by a 78-18 majority. An amended version of that bill was already passed in the Senate by a 25-7 margin.

Ken Hanson, Legislative Chair of Buckeye Firearms Association, said, “These bills address three important issues facing Ohio gun owners and concealed carry license holders and seek to align Ohio law with federal law and the laws of our surrounding states.”

Even though both the House and Senate have passed substantially similar bills, each bill must go through the normal committee vote and floor vote process in the opposite chamber before it can be sent to Governor Kasich. Only one bill on each topic will actually make it to the Governor. Buckeye Firearms Association is hopeful that the Ohio General Assembly can expedite these bills, because opportunity for proponent and opponent testimony has already been given in each chamber, and so that both bills can be sent to Governor Kasich before the summer recess.

About:
Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots political action committee dedicated to defending and advancing the right of Ohio citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities. Visit: www.buckeyefirearms.org

Thanks Buckeye Firearms Association for this article: read the story here

Buckeye Firearms Foundation

Delaware, Oh -(Ammoland.com)- Buckeye Firearms Association has publicly accused Matt Lundy, Representative for Ohio House District 57, of lying to get their endorsement.

“He told us in no uncertain terms that he would support our bills,” said Jim Irvine, Chairman of Buckeye Firearms Association. “Now that he’s in office, he appears to be working against us. If that’s not lying, I don’t know what is.”

Before endorsing any candidate, Buckeye Firearms Association researches each candidate to determine their position on gun issues and pending legislation. Part of that research is a detailed questionnaire asking direct, specific questions to find out exactly where a candidate stands and whether he or she plans to help when bills come up for a vote.

“Our intention is to keep survey results confidential,” said Irvine, “so that candidates can feel comfortable providing honest answers. But we will never provide cover for a candidate who tells us what we want to hear on our survey to earn an endorsement and gun owners’ votes, only to break that agreement after getting elected.”

This week, Buckeye Firearms Association is running ads in The Morning-Journal and The Chronicle Telegram, newspapers serving Lundy’s district. The ad reveals Lundy’s answers on two key points related to HB45 / SB17, legislation to fix rules related to carrying a concealed handgun in restaurants and transporting a firearm in a vehicle.

Buckeye Politician, Matt Lundy, Caught in a lie

Here is the complete text of the ad:

Ohio District 57 Representative Matt Lundy LIED!Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots political action committee (PAC) dedicated to defending and advancing the right of Ohio citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities, including self-defense, hunting, competition, and recreation. We work to elect pro-gun candidates and lobby for pro-gun legislation.

When Democrat Matt Lundy needed gun owners’ votes, he told them what they wanted to hear. But now in office, he is not honoring his promises.

On the Buckeye Firearms Association 2010 Candidate Survey, we asked him about two key components addressed in HB45/SB17 (pending car and restaurant carry legislation).

Lundy told gun owners he was with them all the way. Here is how he answered our specific questions:

Question 15 – Complying with confusing and unnecessary car carry restrictions continues to be a serious problem for Concealed Handgun License holders. Will you support legislation that protects Ohio license holders and out-of-state visitors by removing these restrictions?

Lundy answered, “Yes.”

Question 16 – It is a felony to carry a firearm into restaurants and other locations that serve alcohol for consumption on premises. Will you support eliminating that restriction for concealed handgun license holders?

Lundy answered, “Yes. But only if the license holder is not consuming alcohol, intoxicated, or under the influence.”

Without his “Yes” answers, Lundy would not have qualified for the “A” grade we gave him, let alone the endorsement that came with it.
Matt Lundy gave gun owners his word that if they voted for him, he would be with them when they needed his vote.

Now that we need his support on these issues, he is turning his back on us and the Ohio gun owners he represents.

Just one month after his re-election last November, Lundy was asked to vote for a discharge petition that would have forced a vote on car and restaurant carry rules fix legislation.

Lundy voted “No.”

Two months later, when the House committee he sits on began hearings on a new version of the same legislation, Lundy appeared passionate in his opposition to the bill.

When it came time for the committee to vote, he introduced three poison pill amendments, including one to make the names of concealed handgun license holders public record.

While we wish to keep survey results confidential, we will never provide cover for a candidate who lies to get our support and win an election.

Whether a gun owner or not, you deserve honesty from candidates and elected officials on their positions.

If Matt Lundy lied about supporting the rights of gun owners in Ohio, what else has he lied about?

About:
Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots political action committee dedicated to defending and advancing the right of Ohio citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities.

Buckeye Firearms Association seeks to maximize your rights by endorsing and electing pro-gun candidates on the city, county, and state level, including mayors, sheriffs, legislators, and governor. We also work to defeat anti-gun legislation, pass pro-gun bills, and reform existing laws to benefit all Ohio citizens.

Unlike many anti-gun groups, we do not get our funding or support from wealthy activists or big corporations. We are a non-partisan, all-volunteer organization. Officers and supporters donate their time and skills to the pro-gun cause. Not a single dime from donors is spent on salaries or wasteful overhead. In fact, every penny is used to support political campaigns, influence public opinion, and advance gun rights around Ohio.

Michigan Coalition For Responsible Gun Owners

Michigan - -(Ammoland.com)- The following answer applies to Michigan residents, please check your local laws.

A: You must report the theft within 5 days after learning that the gun was stolen.

MICHIGAN MCL 28.430 states:

“(1) A person who owns a firearm shall, within 5 days after he or she knows his or her firearm is stolen, report the theft to a police agency having jurisdiction over that theft.

(2) A person who fails to report the theft of a firearm as required under subsection (1) is responsible for a civil violation and may be fined not more than $500.00.”

This is very straightforward and applies to any gun that meets the definition of “firearm.” “The word “firearm”, except as otherwise specifically defined in the statutes, shall be construed to include any weapon from which a dangerous projectile may be propelled by using explosives, gas or air as a means of propulsion, except any smooth bore rifle or handgun designed and manufactured exclusively for propelling BB’s not exceeding .177 calibre by means of spring, gas or air.” So, an air rifle with a rifled barrel is considered a firearm, and its theft must be reported as stated above.

The 5-day period starts to run upon discovery of the theft.

This can be relevant to situations such as firearms left at vacation properties that are not used year-round, or left at home while the owner travels for any extended period of time. It is often recommended that owners of firearms keep a list by make, model and serial number, in a secure location separate from the firearms in case it becomes necessary to report a theft. Also, keep in mind that, as personal property, the firearm may be covered by one or more insurance policies.

For example, many firearms owners have taken advantage of NRA ArmsCare coverage: www.nraendorsedinsurance.com

About:
The Michigan Coalition for Responsible Gun Owners is a non-profit, non-partisan organization. Formed from just eight people in 1996, we now have thousands of members and numerous affiliated clubs across the state. We’re growing larger and more effective every day.

Our mission statement is: “Promoting safe use and ownership of firearms through education, litigation, and legislation” Visit: www.mcrgo.org

NRA - ILA

Charlotte, NC --(Ammoland.com)- NRA-ILA grass roots news continues to cover break gun rights news with a new and improved format for the “Grassroots News Minute” video!

Cam Edwards talks to Linda Walker from Buckeye Firearms about Restaurant Carry bills passing in Ohio.

To view the current video in its new format, please click above:

Read More on these topics:

• Ohio Restaurant Carry Bill Needs Your Support
• Tennessee Court Rules Restaurant Carry Law Unconstitutional
• Ohio Restaurant Carry Legislation Is Moving Fast

About:
Established in 1871, the National Rifle Association is America’s oldest civil rights and sportsmen’s group. Four million members strong, NRA continues its mission to uphold Second Amendment rights and to advocate enforcement of existing laws against violent offenders to reduce crime. The Association remains the nation’s leader in firearm education and training for law-abiding gun owners, law enforcement and the military. Visit: www.nra.org

Buckeye Firearms Foundation

Ohio --(Ammoland.com)- I’m writing to you to ask for your support.

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.

As an ardent Second Amendment supporter, I am saddened by the erosion of our US Constitutional Rights over the years. The recent events in Tucson, as well as the Virginia Tech shootings, Colorado church murders, Columbine massacre, and other horrific events, have taught Americans nothing.

For too long, anti-gun advocates have played on the fears and ignorance of a gullible public to erase liberty and self-reliance from our national dialog. But I absolutely refuse to let them win this debate.

Linda Walker For NRA Board Of Directors

For many years now, I have called the Ohio Statehouse my second home as I have personally worked with legislators to protect and advance gun rights. While I have sought no personal gain for my efforts, the NRA honored me in 2009 with the “Sybil Ludington Women’s Freedom Award,” the highest honor given to one woman each year for Second Amendment legislation, advocacy, and education.

I serve as the Central Ohio Chair of Buckeye Firearms Association, Ohio’s foremost Second Amendment Rights organization. I have been present and testified in our Statehouse for nearly every hearing and vote over the past several years. I have directly assisted in the passage of legislation establishing Castle Doctrine in Ohio, statewide preemption of local gun bans, and historic reformations of concealed carry laws.

As a proud NRA certified instructor, I have taught well over a thousand students in safe, responsible gun handling and concealed carry. I also serve as Chairman of our county Friends of the NRA, work as an NRA Election Volunteer Coordinator for the Ohio 12th Congressional District, participate in local politics, and support the Ohio Gun Collectors Association.

If you help me get elected to the NRA Board of Directors, I vow that I will fight the encroachment of the BATF on the lawful use of firearms, stop foolish registration schemes, encourage youth and women to participate in hunting and shooting sports, and do everything in my power to prevent the erosion our God-given rights.

I am neither a celebrity nor a wealthy politician. I am a simple American who has dedicated her life to restoring the hopes and dreams of the Founding Fathers. I have fought in the trenches of legislation, educated citizens in basic self-defense, and tried my best to uphold the values of our Constitution.

I have done all this for my family, for my state, for my country, and for you.

If you are a voting member of the NRA, I humbly ask for your faith in me. And I ask for your vote when you receive the Board of Directors ballot in the mail or in your NRA publication scheduled for late February or early March.

P.S. Click here to see my pro-gun resume. Scroll down. It’s at the bottom of the article.

Buckeye Firearms Foundation

Ohio --(Ammoland.com)- The Ohio Supreme Court has, in a 5-2 opinion, once again ruled that Ohio’s “preemption” law is valid.

In a case brought by the City of Cleveland against the State of Ohio, the court held that R.C. 9.68 is valid in all respects, including, but not limited to, the mandatory attorney fee provision against any city that attempts to violate a citizen’s right to self-defense.

HB347, the preemption law, became effective in March of 2007. It replaces a patchwork of varied and confusing local rules with “uniform laws throughout the state regulating the ownership, possession, purchase, other acquisition, transport, storage, carrying, sale, or other transfer of firearms, their components, and their ammunition.”

The legislature recognized that, like motor vehicle laws, it makes sense for firearms laws to be uniform throughout the state. Because local laws can only carry misdemeanor penalties, and almost every crime committed with a gun is a felony under state or federal law, the local laws were almost never used to charge criminals and instead served to disarm the crime victims.

Cleveland’s argument against the state law was simple: they felt the state and federal government had not gone far enough to regulate your self-defense rights, so the city should still be free to further handcuff everyone who happens to be inside city limits.

Writing for the majority, Justice Stratton rejected this argument, stating “A comprehensive enactment need not regulate every aspect of disputed conduct, nor must it regulate that conduct in a particularly invasive fashion.”

Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray hailed this morning’s ruling from the Ohio Supreme Court, which affirmed the constitutionality of Ohio’s firearms statutes.

“This is an important victory for every gun owner in Ohio,” Cordray said. “Before 2006, Ohioans faced a confusing patchwork of local ordinances with different restrictions on gun ownership and possession. The General Assembly stepped in, enacting a comprehensive set of rights and responsibilities for every citizen seeking to exercise his or her Second Amendment liberties. We vigorously defended that law, and today the Court upheld it.”

Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, said, “Today’s ruling is a victory for law-abiding Ohioans. This ruling makes clear that preemption is the law in the Buckeye State and a patchwork of gun laws is not acceptable. If Cleveland, or any other city, wants to crack down on violence, city leaders there should focus on prosecuting criminals, not enacting new gun laws that only serve to restrict law-abiding citizens.”

It is particularly noteworthy, and refreshing, that Justice Lanzinger, who voted against preemption in the Clyde case, acknowledged the legal concept of stare decisis that admonishes judges to respect prior decisions, and voted to respect the prior decision where she was in the dissent. The same cannot be said of Justice Pfeifer, who once again was in a dissent that had no basis in law or fact. The other dissenting vote came from Chief Justice Eric Brown, an appointee of Gov. Ted Strickland who failed in November to win election to a full term.

This ruling also means that Buckeye Firearms Foundation’s suit against Cleveland will be reactivated, and we expect immediate action on the injunction requests previously filed with the trial court. The suit seeks a temporary restraining order and permanent injunction 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 asks the Court to declare 20 different local ordinances unconstitutional on the grounds of state preemption of firearm laws.

In Cleveland, gun ordinances have been used for political or philosophical reasons and had the effect of harassing law-abiding citizens.

Download the ruling here.

Media Coverage:

Columbus Dispatch – Ohio Supreme Court shoots down local gun control

Local firearms regulations suffered a crippling, possibly fatal blow yesterday when the Ohio Supreme Court ruled for the second time that a more-permissive state law trumps local restrictions.

…Firearms groups cheered the statewide law, saying gun owners shouldn’t be penalized by a patchwork of laws from city to city. The same groups hailed yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling.

“My right to self-defense, just like my right to attend church or write an op-ed in the local newspaper or be protected from illegal search and seizure, is the same in Delaware County as it is in Columbus or Cleveland,” said Ken Hanson, legislative chair of the Buckeye Firearms Association.

Toledo Blade - Ohio Supreme Court denies cities gun-law authority

The Ohio Supreme Court has upheld a 2006 law that allows the state, rather than cities, to determine firearm restrictions.

…Firearms groups hailed Wednesday’s ruling.

A key issue in discussing home rule is whether local ordinances conflict with general laws, he wrote, noting he doesn’t believe Cleveland’s ordinances conflict with the law “because they do not permit something that the statute forbids or vice versa.”

“My right to self-defense, just like my right to attend church or write an op-ed in the local newspaper or be protected from illegal search and seizure, is the same in Delaware County as it is in Columbus or Cleveland,” Ken Hanson, legislative chair of the Buckeye Firearms Association, told the Columbus Dispatch.

In addition to other state media coverage, this important ruling has also been covered in national media, including Reuters, AmmoLand Shooting Sports News, UPI, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times.

Of particular note in the NYT coverage are the dire predictions by Robert J. Triozzi, Cleveland’s law director, who led the city’s lawsuit, who said that “gun owners would now be able to walk through a public square with rifles, handguns and assault weapons, and that safety rules for possession of guns near children would also be removed, endangering residents.”

Not to be left out, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson told The Cleveland Plain Dealer he believes the ruling will put urban populations like Cleveland’s at greater risk for gun violence.

“Even though we’ve made progress in Cleveland, gun violence is a very real threat that we face, particularly our young people,” Jackson said in a statement. “Our inability to enforce laws that are right for our city flies in the face of home rule and takes power away the people at the local level.”

Mayor Jackson has been crying about an Ohio law rendering Cleveland’s so-called assault weapons ban unenforceable since before it passed in late 2006 (HB347). He complains that he can no longer prosecute people for all those crimes, and that the loss of that tool has directly resulted in Cleveland’s increasing violent crime problem. He even stages press conferences behind a table of scary looking guns, implying that they had been confiscated through the now-defunct ban. For that to be true, there must be a significant drop in convictions related to those offenses. We have the proof – there is not.

In fact, as of the date of our investigation, not only has the city of Cleveland has not convicted a single person under their so-called assault weapons ban in the mayor’s entire tenure; they have never even taken one case to trial!

• The truth about Cleveland’s “Assault Weapon Ban” – Part I
• The truth about Cleveland’s “Assault Weapon Ban” – Part II

About:
Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots political action committee dedicated to defending and advancing the right of Ohio citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities. Visit: www.buckeyefirearms.org

Tyrannical Government Times Up

Buckeye Firearms Foundation

Ohio --(Ammoland.com)- This is not a retrospective on the life of Axl Rose, although he may be nearly as old as Moses.

This entry is an exploration of the necessity for an armed citizenry. In a perfect world there would be no need for citizens to bear weapons.

Today’s world is not perfect, however, and members of our society should be armed for a number of reasons.

Personal Protection
Obviously, one of the primary reasons is for personal protection. The United States has become an increasingly dangerous place, and even our smaller communities have not escaped the turmoil. Although crime prevention is a component of police work, most often law enforcement officers do not become involved until after a crime has been committed. Their efforts are primarily directed toward investigation and apprehension. It seems, therefore, a prudent move for a citizen to have the means for self-defense and self-preservation.

Sporting Purposes
A second justification for a citizen’s possession of firearms is for sporting purposes and varmint control. Target shooting and hunting are noble, healthy pursuits. They are the types of activities that an entire family can enjoy. The varmint control element may not be a huge issue in many neighborhoods — one doesn’t find too many Norwegian rats in Scarsdale, but in my small patch of the country, we do encounter the occasional pest. Woodchucks (we call them groundhogs around here), raccoons (nasty critters when threatened), and the increasingly annoying coyote are all threats to livestock, pets, crops or gardens. These feral critters are often too wily for effective trapping, so a well-placed shotgun blast or rifle shot is usually an effective determent.

Tyrannical Government
Resisting tyrannical government is a serious endeavor. One does not cavalierly initiate armed activity against the power structure of the nation. The Founders and Framers of our country anticipated that at some time in the future, the citizens would feel compelled to rise and resist an overreaching governmental apparatus.

As Thomas Jefferson wrote: “Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.”

The implication is that if the government becomes too big, too oppressive or too unresponsive, then the people must aggressively wrest the reins of power and self-determination from the entrenched power structure. The huge government entity will resist any attempt to contain it. Laws and regulations will be advanced that limit the ability of the people to assert their control over the leviathan. In June of 1788, George Mason prophetically identified a key element of government’s restrictive control.

“To disarm the people…was the best and most effectual way to enslave them.”

Mason’s sentiment was further advanced by Patrick Henry: “O sir, we should have fine times, indeed, if, to punish tyrants, it were only sufficient to assemble the people! Your arms, wherewith you could defend yourselves, are gone… Did you ever read of any revolution in a nation…inflicted by those who had no power at all?”

The Founders and Framers, when considering additions to the Constitution that would protect individual God-given rights and secure ratification votes from some reluctant colonies, enshrined the individual right of the citizen to bear arms in the Second Amendment. Fortunately, the United States Supreme Court in the 2008 D.C vs. Heller decision, upheld the historical understanding that the right to keep and bear arms is an individual one. That’s the good news. The alarming news is that the Court affirmed more than 220 years of common practice by a mere five to four vote!

Our individual Second Amendment right is hanging by a thread even as our government becomes more oppressive and invasive.

So, why is the reference to Moses in the title of this piece?
Our Judeo-Christian heritage informs us that if God is with you, then the size of your army or the power of your arsenal is incidental. David needed but a few smooth stones and a sling to vanquish the mightiest warrior of the Philistine nation whereupon their army surrendered. Samson slew a thousand of those pesky Philistines using the jawbone of an ass. I suspect that our country may have forfeited God’s blessing if we’ve ever had it. We cannot rely on His divine intervention to help us secure our liberty.

If the time should come that freedom-loving citizens are compelled to battle for their God-given liberties, then the right to bear arms is critical. Slinging stones and swinging jawbones will not achieve the objective. We must protect and defend our individual right to bear arms. Every branch of the federal government has, to some degree, undermined the Constitutional certainty that was understood at the founding.

In many speeches, I’ve advanced the notion of the “triad of liberty.” When we perceive that Government is exceeding its limits, we use the First Amendment to reason, to protest and to persuade. Our next remedy for relief is the Tenth Amendment wherein our states resist the encroachment of the federal government that has run amok. Finally, we resist force with force by exercising our Second Amendment protections.

Asses’ jawbones do not contain enough firepower. They are readily available, though. You can find a career politician lurking around every corner.

Comments are welcome.

Charlie Earl is a former member of the Ohio House of Representatives, and was the 2010 Libertarian candidate for Ohio Secretary of State.

About:
Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots political action committee dedicated to defending and advancing the right of Ohio citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities. Visit: www.buckeyefirearms.org

Buckeye Firearms Foundation

Ohio --(Ammoland.com)- The FBI has released its National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figures for October 2010.

NSSF-adjusted figures (854,563) show a 1.5 percent increase over October of last year (841,631).

The adjusted NICS data were derived by NSSF by subtracting out NICS purpose-code permit checks used by several states such as Kentucky and Utah for CCW permit application checks as well as checks on active CCW permit databases.

Though not a direct correlation to firearms sales, the NSSF-adjusted NICS data provide a more accurate picture of current market conditions.

…In addition to other purposes, NICS is used to check transactions of firearms sales and transfers on new and used handguns and long guns.

About:
Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots political action committee dedicated to defending and advancing the right of Ohio citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities. Visit: www.buckeyefirearms.org

Buckeye Firearms Foundation

Ohio --(Ammoland.com)- Why aren’t we teaching EVERY child in the USA these principles?

The Toledo Blade is reporting that when 11 year-old Mason Knannlein found a gun laying in the yard, he had his grandfather to thank for having educated him to know what to do in such a situation.

From the article:

The whitish top on the handgun lying in the grass in front of a West Toledo home was what caught Mason Knannlein’s eye, but the 11-year-old didn’t do what he suspects most boys would when making such a find: pick it up.

Instead, Mason shouted to his next-door neighbor, in whose yard in the 4200 block of North Lockwood Avenue he had found the weapon, to call police while he waited nearby to make sure nobody else touched it, either.

” It was a really nice gun,” said Mason, whose family includes several law-enforcement officers and who has been learning to shoot for four years.

But handling the 40-caliber Smith & Wesson could have had tragic results, said Mason’s mother, Angie Knannlein. The gun had a round in its chamber and no external safety device, ready to fire if the trigger were tripped. Ten more bullets were in its magazine.

” There’s every chance it would have gone off. And there are kids in all the neighborhood houses around here,” she said. ” Somebody could have been killed, or at least hurt.”

” He quite possibly could have saved somebody’s life,” agreed Lori Knannlein, Mason’s aunt and a Lucas County sheriff’s deputy who lives near Mason’s house. He called her, and she arrived before Toledo police did.

Where the gun came from, though, was a mystery.

Lori Knannlein said it was obvious to her the weapon, which had not been reported stolen, was thrown by someone to the spot where it was found, because of dirt and grass smudges on it.

The deputy also said there had been a foot pursuit in the neighborhood the night before, stemming from a burglary report. But she couldn’t conclusively link the gun to that incident, and said it seemed unlikely that it could have lain where it did for most of a day before being found last Wednesday.

Mason told the newspaper he learned two rules about ” found” guns from his grandfather, Lawrence ” Whitey” Knannlein, a retired Toledo police officer: Tell an adult, and don’t leave it unattended. Mr. Knannlein said his second rule actually was ” don’t touch it,” but Mason followed that one too.

” I’m very proud of him. He did just the right thing,” Mason’s grandfather said.

For his actions, Mason is expected to receive a junior safety award from Toledo City Council on Nov. 9, Mason’s family said.

…Mr. Knannlein said his grandson has been learning about guns and gun safety he was 7, and the boy has been very safety-conscious.

” He really loves to shoot. He fishes with his Dad, and he hunts and shoots with me,” Mr. Knannlein said.

A child without that background could have picked up the weapon and accidentally fired it, said the grandfather, who teaches a concealed-carry course at Owens Community College.

” Other kids would have picked it up,” Mason agreed. ” They might have brought it to school.”

Teaching children what to do if they find a gun is no different than teaching a child that ovens should always be considered hot. Teaching children what to do if they find a gun is imperative for all parents, whether or not they keep a firearm in their home, for the simple fact that the child will not always be in the home. The potential exists for even young children to come into unauthorized, unsupervised contact with a firearm, and only proactive education by their parents can prevent a negative outcome when they do.

• Society has determined (after seeing enough homes and apartment complexes burn to the ground because little Johnny was playing with matches) that it cannot be left to parents alone to teach children not to play with matches.
• Society has determined (after seeing enough children experience the horrible victimization of sexual abuse) that it cannot be left to parents alone to teach children what to do if they are touched inappropriately.
• Society has determined (after seeing enough children on the sides of milk cartons and WalMart bulletin boards) that it cannot be left to parents alone to teach children what to do if a stranger attempts to lure them into their car.
• Society has even determined (well, at least our President did when he was an Illinois State Senator) that kindergartners need to be given sex education.

I simply cannot understand why a society that has decided that parents cannot be trusted to provide the ” proper” education on issues like fire safety, sexual abuse, abduction, and even sexually transmitted diseases, is perfectly comfortable leaving the issue of gun accident prevention up to parents.

Why is deterrence-oriented education deemed appropriate on other dangerous topics, but not when it comes to guns?

WHY IS GUN ACCIDENT PREVENTION EDUCATION NOT A MANDATORY PART OF OUR KIDS’ ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM?

Gun safety training, such as that provided by the National Rifle Association’s Eddie Eagle GunSafe Program, educate children on the exact same principles that were employed by this Toledo youth.

Created in 1988 by past NRA President Marion P. Hammer, in consultation with law enforcement officers, elementary school teachers, and child psychologists, the program provides pre-K through the third grade children with simple, effective rules to follow should they encounter a firearm in an unsupervised setting: ” If you see a gun: STOP! Don’t Touch. Leave the Area. Tell an Adult.” The self-explanatory program includes a student workbook, corresponding instructor guide, reward stickers, posters and parent guides.

If your children haven’t been taught what to do if they find a gun, it is your responsibility to teach them.  If your school isn’t teaching the Eddie Eagle GunSafe Program, ask the superintendent why not. Anyone can teach the material, and it can be covered in 30 minutes to an hour. Volunteer to do it for them.

School districts wishing to participate in the program should call the National Rifle Association at (800) 231-0752, email a  http://www.nrahq.org/safety/eddie/.

Schools, law enforcement agencies, civic groups, and others interested in more information about The Eddie Eagle GunSafe Program, or persons who wish to see if free materials are available in their communities, should call the Eddie Eagle Department at (800) 231-0752 or visit www.nrahq.org/safety/eddie/.

In addition to the steps we can and should all take on our own, it is time for legislators to mandate the program be taught in every school in the state.

Chad D. Baus is the Buckeye Firearms Association Vice Chairman, an NRA-certified firearms instructor and the proud father of two ” Eddie Eagle GunSafe Program” graduates.

About:
Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots political action committee dedicated to defending and advancing the right of Ohio citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities. Visit: www.buckeyefirearms.org

Cleveland Clings To Gun Control Until The Bitter End

Buckeye Firearms Foundation

Ohio --(Ammoland.com)- On October 12, 2010, the Ohio Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Cleveland’s challenge to the constitutionality of R.C. 9.68. R.C. 9.68 is the provision of Ohio law generally referred to as Ohio’s preemption law, which was implemented over Governor Taft’s veto of House Bill 347.

Trying to predict the outcome of a court case based upon oral argument is pure folly, but listening to this argument does instill a sense of optimism for Ohio’s gun owners.

The first thing to note about this case is that it was brought by the City of Cleveland against the State of Ohio. As we noted throughout the debate on HB347, one critical component of the new law is that it shifted the burden back where it belonged – on the cities. If a city wants to have firearm laws, the city now bears the expense and risk of advancing such laws. So from that viewpoint, the simple fact that Cleveland sued the State of Ohio, versus a gun owner or pro-gun group taking Cleveland to court, is a victory for gun owners.

I have said in the past that a layperson observing a court case is kind of like an American watching a Cricket match. Different people are playing different roles, there appears to be rules and score keeping, but danged if we can figure the game out. It really takes an insider to understand and appreciate the game.

Cleveland’s case presents a pretty straightforward question – is R.C. 9.68 constitutional?

From there, the issues become convoluted and contrary to what an ordinary person considers logical. In an attempt to provide a roadmap to our supporters, the following simple, generalized summary should be helpful.

First, Ohio does not have a provision for ” preemption” of local laws. Cities have the ability to pass whatever criminal laws strike their fancy. The Ohio General Assembly may not pass a law that says ” cities may not regulate x, y and z.” Instead, Ohio has a conflict of law analysis. Cities may not prohibit that which the state has specifically allowed, and cities may not try to allow that which the state has specifically prohibited. During the debate on HB347, the Ohio Supreme Court decided the Baskin case, upholding Cincinnati’s ” assault weapons” ban. As we noted at the time, the decision was expected and was correct based upon current law; current law that would be changed by HB347.

Since Ohio has no preemption provision, the approach that was required was to have the state specifically allow the complete exercise of firearm rights, unless the exercise was specifically prohibited by state or federal law. This approach was taken because constitutions are not self-implementing. Specific legislation is required to implement affirmative rights; otherwise, the individual is forever stuck challenging laws that prohibit the exercise of rights.

Cleveland has taken the position that Ohio cannot guarantee broad exercise of constitutional rights. Instead, what is required is a micro-management of each element of the exercise of the right. This argument is nonsense on stilts. Cleveland’s argument, by analogy, is that there is no freedom of speech unless the state regulates exactly when, where and how a person speaks and criminally punishes anyone who does not speak according to these regulations.

It is extremely illustrative of Cleveland’s attitude towards their citizens that Cleveland feels that the only role government may play is restricting freedoms, rather than broadly guaranteeing freedoms.

Benjamin C. Mizer (Ben) is Attorney General Richard Cordray’s solicitor general, the person who argues cases on behalf of the State of Ohio. Attorney General Cordray has vibrantly defended this case since it was filed, and Mr. Mizer did an outstanding job of defending R.C. 9.68. The justices had relatively few questions for Mr. Mizer. The same is not true of Gary Singletary, Cleveland’s assistant law director.

Regrettably, I was unable to attend the oral argument in person due to family commitments. At about 14:20, Justice Stratton asks about states granting rights, versus merely prohibiting conduct that is offensive. Again at 24 minutes into the argument, Justice Cupp pins down Mr. Singletary on the issue about governments only passing negative regulation (i.e. prohibiting conduct) versus affirmative regulation (i.e. allowing conduct.) At that point Mr. Singletary concedes that governments may pass affirmative regulation. In my opinion, this is the point where the case is decided in favor of gun owners. Around 18:40 Justice Pfeifer asks about Cleveland amending their laws in response to state law changes, and Mr. Singletary conceded that Cleveland has made no attempt to bring their local ordinances into compliance with Ohio’s concealed carry laws, much less any other area of firearm laws. He also conceded that Cleveland will be back in court over these same laws, even if Cleveland loses this current case.

This question is followed up by justice Cupp at 26 minutes (roughly) by asking why the state should have to affirmatively regulate by micro-management versus just saying that all exercise of a right is allowed unless specifically prohibited. In essence, why should the state have to say ” you may carry a firearm on the sidewalk, on the street, in the park, in the grocery etc. etc. ad nauseum” versus just saying ” unless we have specifically rohibited it, it is affirmatively allowed.”

This is the reason that Buckeye Firearms Association has a case filed and waiting over every single Cleveland gun control law. Cleveland is not going to go away quietly, so we are ready to move forward one minute after the Ohio Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of R.C. 9.68. Cleveland is going to claim that they may require handgun registration because Ohio has not specifically said ” you may own a handgun without registration.” Instead, Ohio has said you can own any firearm unless state or federally law specifically says you may not. Yes, I roll my eyes at that argument, also.

At 1:30 and again at 28 minutes into the argument, Justice Lanzinger (up for election this year) asks Mr. Singletary about the precedent from the Clyde case, and hasn’t this issue already been decided? Justice Lanzinger has made it pretty clear with this question that she feels that the Clyde case is settled law which she and the court must follow, even though she voted in the dissent in the Clyde case. Justice O’Connor (running for Chief Justice this year against current Chief Justice appointee Eric Brown, who asked questions that were generally hostile to gun owners during the argument) follows this up at minute 36 with questions that make it pretty clear that she also feels that the issue was already decided years ago. Justice O’Connor’s point is that if Cleveland feels that there isn’t enough gun control, then their relief lies in asking the General Assembly to pass more gun control, and not in ignoring valid state law.

Again, there is no way to predict an outcome by listening to an argument, but it appears generally that gun owners should be optimistic of a positive outcome, perhaps even by a vote of 6-1 this time.

Ken Hanson is a gun rights attorney in Ohio. He serves as the Legislative Chair for Buckeye Firearms Association, and is the attorney of record for Buckeye Firearms Foundation, which filed friend-of-the-court briefs in the Heller and McDonald Supreme Court cases. The National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) has awarded him with its 2008 Defender of Justice Award and 2009 Jay M. Littlefield Volunteer of the Year Award. He is the author of The Ohio Guide to Firearm Laws, a certified firearms instructor and holds a Type 01 Federal Firearms License.

About:
Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots political action committee dedicated to defending and advancing the right of Ohio citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities. Visit: www.buckeyefirearms.org

Firearms Sales Jump 6% In September Over Same Month Last Year

Buckeye Firearms Foundation

Ohio --(Ammoland.com)- The FBI has released its National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figures for September 2010. NSSF-adjusted figures (770,310) show a 6 percent increase over September of last year (726,572).

The adjusted NICS data were derived by NSSF by subtracting out NICS purpose-code permit checks used by several states such as Kentucky and Utah for CCW permit application checks as well as checks on active CCW permit databases.

Though not a direct correlation to firearms sales, the NSSF-adjusted NICS data provide a more accurate picture of current market conditions.

…In addition to other purposes, NICS is used to check transactions of firearms sales and transfers on new and used handguns and long guns.

About:
Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots political action committee dedicated to defending and advancing the right of Ohio citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities. Visit: www.buckeyefirearms.org

Buckeye Firearms Foundation

Ohio --(Ammoland.com)-

The FBI has released its National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figures for August 2010. NSSF-adjusted figures (718,971) show a 4.6 percent increase over August of last year (687,252).

The adjusted NICS data were derived by NSSF by subtracting out NICS purpose-code permit checks used by several states such as Kentucky and Utah for CCW permit application checks as well as checks on active CCW permit databases.

Though not a direct correlation to firearms sales, the adjusted NICS data provide a more accurate picture of current market conditions. Questions concerning NSSF-adjusted NICS data should be directed to NSSF’s research department at 203-426-1320 or research@nssf.org.

In addition to other purposes, NICS is used to check transactions of firearms sales and transfers on new and used handguns and long guns.

About:
Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots political action committee dedicated to defending and advancing the right of Ohio citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities. Visit: www.buckeyefirearms.org

Buckeye Firearms Foundation

Ohio --(Ammoland.com)- Regular readers of Buckeye Firearms Foundation website are familiar with the refrain ” elections matter.”

Buckeye Firearms Association feels that elections are the most important component of firearm rights: without pro-gun legislators, prosecutors, judges and law enforcement, your fundamental right to own firearms and your fundamental right to self-defense are in constant peril.

To give the reader an illustration of the importance of elections, we need to look no further than the final day of testimony on SB239 (restaurant carry and eliminating car carry restrictions) and SB247 (fixing Ohio’s restoration of rights statute).

On this day, those opposed to your rights got their opportunity to testify in front of the Senate. The tone, and content, of the testimony starkly reveals the difference between elected and unelected officials.

Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police
John Gilchrist Esq. is the professional/paid lobbyist for the Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP.) In Ohio, Chiefs of Police are unelected officials, most often appointed by a mayor or a city council. There is no direct accountability to the voters. The OACP has opposed every single piece of pro-gun legislation that empowers civilians, including the original concealed carry law. This time was no different. During his testimony, Gilchrist opined that statistics are ” worthless” (thus the Senators should ignore any empirical evidence and/or what other states are doing.) He also spouted the tired refrain that guns and alcohol don’t mix, that licensees are a safety risk and that he wants licensee information to be public record. Gilchrist’s justification for making the licensee records public is that no one is telling the sheriff when a licensee is arrested (i.e. the police aren’t doing their job.)

Ohio Fraternal Order of Police
Mark Drumm is the professional/paid lobbyist for the Ohio Fraternal Order of Police. The FOP is a union that represents sworn police officers and is funded through union dues deducted from wages paid to police officers (i.e. funded by your tax dollars.) Neither the labor union leadership nor the members are directly accountable to voters. The FOP opposes SB239, according to Drumm, in part because it would: allow licensees to drive around twirling guns on their finger, allow the use of quick draw holsters that are a danger to police and require those going to restaurants to have ” designated shooters.” Drumm also testified that police officers should be allowed to drink in restaurants and/or while consuming because they are ” better trained,” ” better decision makers,” and have received weapons retention training. (I should note that I had the OPOTC training curriculum in my hands as Drumm testified, and sure enough, there isn’t any training about how to carry while intoxicated, no training on carrying concealed and no explanation of how a person would get into a situation where there would be a ” gun snatch” when the gun is concealed.) The tone, content and manner of his testimony was condescending and insulting to gun owners.

Cleveland Police Patrolman’s Association
Steve Loomis is the officer designated to represent the Cleveland Police Patrolman’s Association (CPPA). The CPPA is a union that represents sworn Cleveland police officers and is funded through union dues deducted from wages paid to police officers (i.e. funded by your tax dollars.) Neither the labor union leadership nor the members are directly accountable to voters. I note that Loomis is a designated officer versus a paid/professional lobbyist to point out that he isn’t doing this for a living. I make this point because I hope Loomis was simply having an ” off day,” as he generally has been polite, professional and supportive of concealed carry. His testimony on this day was quite the opposite.

The CPPA is convinced that, if SB239 passes, drunken fools will be getting into gun fights instead of fist fights. (If a licensee is convicted of being in a fist fight, they are ineligible for a concealed handgun license (CHL) for 3 years, so obviously licensees aren’t getting into drunken fist fights now.) Perhaps most concerning Loomis opined several times that his officers were now more likely to shoot licensees during traffic stops and when responding to ” bar fights.” While his tone and demeanor were polite and professional, the content of his testimony was incredibly insulting to gun owners.

Buckeye State Sheriff’s Association
McKenzie Davis is a professional/paid lobbyist that represents the Buckeye State Sheriff’s Association (BSSA). The BSSA is group organized to collectively represent Ohio’s 88 sheriffs, who are all elected officials and directly accountable to voters every four years. BSSA pointed out that they have supported most improvements to Ohio’s concealed carry law, and that they were the only group to support the original concealed carry law that established the license. BSSA testified that ” guns and alcohol don’t mix” and that it was OK for officers to be in bars because they are better trained. Davis’ testimony was about three minutes, was polite and professional; he made the few points in opposition and then he sat down.

Ohio Association of Prosecuting Attorneys
John Murphy is a professional/paid lobbyist that represents the Ohio Association of Prosecuting Attorneys (OPAA). The OPAA is a group organized collectively to represent Ohio’s 88 prosecuting attorneys, who are all elected officials directly accountable to voters every 4 years. OPAA also includes prosecutorial staff, such as assistant prosecutors and victim advocates. The group is funded with dues almost always paid from tax dollars, either from prosecutor’s general funds or furtherance of justice funds (i.e. your tax dollars.) Murphy testified that OPAA was OK with removing the vehicle carry restrictions but had concerns about the restaurant carry portion. Murphy’s testimony was polite, subdued and to the point. I should note that Dave Yost, candidate for state Auditor, is on the current Executive Committee of OPAA, and Yost did a lot of work educating his fellow prosecutors on the technical issues involved in these two bills.

No one testified in opposition to SB247.

I hope this summary of testimony helps illustrate the difference between elected and unelected officials. The elected officials take the time to understand the issues, analyze them critically and then make a decision. If they don’t agree with something, they make that point in a professional way and then don’t belabor the point, appealing to emotional arguments or insults. The unelected officials/groups act much differently, with much more arrogance and contempt for your rights.

Direct accountability matters a lot, and there are two parts to direct accountability: first, the position must be elected (i.e. it is well past time to pass a constitutional amendment requiring chiefs of police be elected) and second, you must work in support of, and get out and vote for, pro-gun candidates.

Ken Hanson is a gun rights attorney in Ohio. He serves as the Legislative Chair for Buckeye Firearms Association, and is the attorney of record for Buckeye Firearms Foundation, which filed friend-of-the-court briefs in the Heller and McDonald Supreme Court cases. The National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) has awarded him with its 2008 Defender of Justice Award and 2009 Jay M. Littlefield Volunteer of the Year Award. He is the author of The Ohio Guide to Firearm Laws, a certified firearms instructor and holds a Type 01 Federal Firearms License.

About:
Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots political action committee dedicated to defending and advancing the right of Ohio citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities. Visit: www.buckeyefirearms.org

Buckeye Firearms Foundation

Ohio --(Ammoland.com)- This November will be ground zero for the enemies of freedom trying to turn the tide against our gun rights in the Buckeye State, serving as a launching pad for their national gun ban crusade.

Our opponents will be pulling out all the stops as the mid-term election nears, so it is more important than ever that we block their campaign against the Second Amendment.

To ensure we are prepared to meet the challenges and opportunities we will face this election season, NRA-ILA is hosting a free volunteer kick-off meeting on September 13, 2010 in Westerville!

At this meeting, we will lay out our plans for our grassroots election strategies in your area and show you how you can help. You will also get to meet and begin working with your NRA-ILA Campaign Field Representative — an NRA-ILA staff person living in your area, coordinating our volunteer activities right through Election Day, November 2!

This meeting is absolutely free and beverages and light snacks will be provided. It should run approximately 60-90 minutes. Please make plans to attend and encourage your fellow NRA members to attend as well.

Here are the details:
Monday, September 13th
7:00 p.m.
Westerville Conference Center
98 Commerce Park Dr.
Westerville, Ohio 43082
(614) 623-5175
To register for this free event, please

About:
Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots political action committee dedicated to defending and advancing the right of Ohio citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities. Visit: www.buckeyefirearms.org

Linda Walker with Ohio's Governor Strickland holding the Castle Doctrine bill that he had just signed into law.

Buckeye Firearms Foundation

Ohio - -(AmmoLand.com)- I’m Linda Walker, Central Ohio Chair of Buckeye Firearms Association, and I’m running for the board of directors of the National Rifle Association.

I have been part of Buckeye Firearm’s leadership team nearly from the beginning of the organization. I have spent a lot of time in the Statehouse fighting for our Second Amendment Rights through both hearings and meetings. I generally attend every hearing for firearms legislation, which has amounted to hundreds of hours in Ohio’s Statehouse.

Part of being on “the team” has entailed attending one-on-one meetings with various State Representatives, Senators and candidates; working on legislation with my fellow leadership team; attended bill signings and Governor’s receptions; attending political events such as legislative receptions, inaugural receptions, political dinners, and fundraisers; assisting on candidate campaigns; organizing BFA events; staffing events, such as gun shows, expos, clay shoots, etc.; shipping, PR., media interviews, writing articles and a wealth of other activities.

I’ve done a lot of media, including NRA News, print, radio, TV, blogs, articles and more. I have spoken at several Tea Parties with up to 10,000 attendees and made various other speeches.

Because of my work with Buckeye Firearms, that led to my involvement with the NRA in various capacities. I became an NRA certified instructor over four years ago in multiple disciplines, and have actively instructed nearly a thousand students in Ohio concealed carry. I am the NRA-EVC (election volunteer coordinator) for the 12th Congressional District and an NRA recruiter. I am also the chairman of the Licking County Friends of the NRA, nearly tripling our attendance in the second year.
I spent nearly a decade as a Den Leader, Cubmaster and troop committee member with Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, which I attribute to the beginning of my activism.

I have instructed for the Ohio high school FFA teachers, in teaching them how to run a safe range at FFA summer camps, instructed for Women in the Outdoors events, Dillon Sportsmen’s Club ladies nights, Ohio Writers Conference, and assisted Pickaway Sportsmen’s Club and Big Darby Creek shooting ranges in introducing more women to the sport of IDPA.

The National Rifle Association honored me by awarding me the NRA’s 2009 “Sybil Ludington Women’s Freedom Award.” This is given to one woman on the national level for legislation, advocacy and education. They began this award in 1995, and awarded one each year except for 2008 and 2010.

If elected to the NRA board of directors, my main goal is to get more women involved in the Second Amendment, firearm sports, as certified instructors and also legislation. There is a great need to be filled. The ratio of women who sit on the NRA BOD currently is about 10%.

This is where I need your help!
I need to collect 250 VALID signatures on petitions from voting members of the NRA. From past experience, this is no easy feat. To constitute a voting member, you must be a member of the NRA for five consecutive years without a break or interruption, or a fully-paid Life member or higher.

Click below for the petition. According to NRA rules, it MUST be printed on LEGAL sized paper. The NRA will not accept them on standard sized paper. Also attached is my biography. I will be happy to mail out a petition on legal size paper for those not having legal paper. Just send me an email at LWalker@BuckeyeFirearms.org with your mailing address, and I will drop it in the mail.

If you still have your July edition of an NRA magazine, you will find a nomination form. Any member can fill out and mail in the nomination form. If you could also do me the favor of mailing that in directly to the NRA, I would appreciate it. The following is the information you will need:

Linda Walker
NRA member # 146005210 Age: 50
5779 Lobdell Rd
Alexandria, OH 43001

I thank everyone in advance for any help that you may lend me in signing or circulating petitions and for the moral support. If elected, I promise to work hard for your Second Amendment rights!

Thank you,
Linda Walker

Click here for the petition.

About:
Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots political action committee dedicated to defending and advancing the right of Ohio citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities. Visit: www.BuckeyeFirearms.org

Buckeye Firearms Foundation

Ohio - -(AmmoLand.com)- Buckeye Firearms Association is thrilled that the United States Supreme Court has ruled to strike down the ban on private ownership of firearms in Chicago.

Today, in a 5 to 4 decision, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment applies to states and cities. The decision is a result of a case brought by Otis McDonald (and others) against the city of Chicago. Leaving no room for doubt, the court made clear that the Second Amendment applies to Mayor Daley and Chicago.

“While there is much work to be done, this decision is the first critical step towards universal self-defense rights,” said Jim Irvine, President of Buckeye Firearms Foundation. Buckeye Firearms Foundation teamed up with the United States Concealed Carry Association to file an amicus brief in support of Mr. McDonald.

Irvine summarized the importance as follows: “The members of the United States Concealed Carry Association and the supporters of Buckeye Firearms Foundation travel regularly, and a robust Second Amendment applied against all cities and states is needed to insure that the right to self-defense travels with these people, the same as all their other rights. Finally, the Second Amendment is afforded equal dignity with the other constitutional rights we enjoy.”

The Court’s decision is being welcomed as a day of liberation for the law-abiding citizens of Chicago. After years of being held hostage to the murder and mayhem that has plagued the city without a means of self-defense, Chicagoans can finally exercise their right to bear arms and defend their home against the common thugs that used to act with impunity.

Chicago native and Buckeye Firearms Foundation BOD member Gerard Valentino was elated by the ruling and is already making plans to help his elderly mother in purchasing her first gun.

“Finally, my elderly mother and grandmother can live a little safer and with a little less fear because if someone breaks in they can have a gun for self-defense.”

For more information, visit this link, which will be updated throughout the day.

About:
Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots political action committee dedicated to defending and advancing the right of Ohio citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities. Visit: www.BuckeyeFirearms.org

Civil Rights Double Standard: Gun Owners Forced To Show Papers But Not Illegals

Buckeye Firearms Foundation

Ohio - -(AmmoLand.com)- I’ve been watching with some interest the fallout over the new Arizona law dealing with illegal aliens. I hear the news media moaning that the new law “makes it a crime to be an illegal alien.”

I’m not joking, that is exactly how they phrased it on several networks and cable news shows. Wow, that is what I always thought illegal meant. I really wish the media would think about what they utter.

I hear President Obama, the ACLU and pro immigrant liberals in general say that to ask someone to show identification to prove they are an American citizen is a violation of their civil rights. These same folks, as I recall, told us that asking someone to show ID when voting is a violation of their civil rights as well.

So now I am a bit confused?
With such a broad definition of what a civil right is, and the slightest inconvenience in enforcing the law an outrage, will someone please explain something to me? Why, when using the above logic, that when exercising your civil right to buy and own a gun you have to show identification and undergo a background check to purchase that gun?

After all, the U.S. Supreme Court told us in the 2008 Heller decision that gun ownership is a constitutionally protected civil right. Also, tell me why when it comes to bearing those arms, a specifically enumerated constitutionally protected right, we must take concealed carry classes, pay high fees and again undergo additional background checks, fingerprinting and submit a specific size photograph to the state to do something specifically protected by the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and Article 1 section 4 of Ohio’s Constitution. Was not turning a right into a state-issued privilege a violation of our rights?

As I am writing this I am watching politicians and media talking heads saying this new law in Arizona is pure fascism and Nazi-like demands to “show their papers.” Oh really!

As a concealed handgun license-holder in Ohio, in any encounter with a police officer I am required under penalty of law to disclose I am a CHL-holder (if I am carrying), and then show identification. Funny how I don’t see my fellow CHL holders protesting or rioting over that.

Prior to 1968 in the United States, citizens in most states could buy firearms via mail order with no identification. You just clipped out the ad, told the dealer what you wanted, sent in your check and your postal carrier delivered the gun to your door, with ammo if you ordered that too. I am old enough to remember those days. However, all that ended with the Gun Control Act of 1968, a law largely written by Democrat Senator Thomas Dodd, father of current Senator Chris Dodd. The 1968 U.S. law was largely based on a gun control law written in 1938 that Dodd Sr. learned about while serving on the staff of those prosecuting war criminals in Nuremberg following World War II. That law forced firearm purchasers to show identification “papers” and registry of those arms. Who wrote this law? The National Socialist German government! That is where we got the U.S. 1968 Gun Control Act! That is unarguably a Nazi piece of legislation where you do have to show “papers.” So I have to ask, where is the screaming and gnashing of teeth about that Nazi law?

Where is the media’s and President Obama’s outrage over this truly NAZI violation of civil rights? I’d love to hear the tortured logic. After all, the crime rate among American gun owners is far lower than that of illegal aliens.

Meanwhile, let’s enforce the laws and protect our borders.

Tim Inwood is the current Legislative Liaison and Past President of the Clinton County Farmers and Sportsmen Association, an Endowment Member of the NRA and Life Member of the OGCA, Republican Central Committeeman for Chester Township A, in Clinton County, Ohio, and a volunteer for Buckeye Firearms Association.

About:
Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots political action committee dedicated to defending and advancing the right of Ohio citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities. Visit: www.BuckeyeFirearms.org

Buckeye Firearms Foundation

Toledo Ohio --(AmmoLand.com)- In Toledo Ohio, a thug has gone on an ugly and violent crime spree.

His technique is to prowl parking lots looking for an unlocked car he knows to be owned by a woman. He hides in the car then pounces when the woman gets in, robbing or threatening to rape the victim at gunpoint.

The advice from police? Lock your car doors.

That’s sensible advice, but it doesn’t address the central issue. What happens if the thug jumps you in the parking lot? Or what if he pulls out a gun while you’re in a fast food store? This particular thug has done both.

The real message from Toledo police is that they can’t protect you or prevent a crime. Your personal security is up to you.

Security experts will tell you to be aware of your surroundings and listen to your gut. If you see someone who appears out of place or threatening, you should take evasive action. That’s fine as far as it goes, but if you’re serious about security, you have to ask yourself an important question: “Then what?”

If you’re aware of your surroundings, see a threat, and do everything you can to avoid a confrontation but can’t, then what? If you lock your doors and turn on your security system and a bad guy breaks in anyway, then what? If you dial 911 and the operator tells you police will arrive within 10 minutes, but a criminal is threatening you now, then what?

This is one reason that maintaining the right to bear arms is such a vital piece of the security puzzle. Once you accept the fact that your security is up to you, not the police, and after you take ordinary precautions to lower your risk, you must ask yourself, “Then what?”

This is also why we decided to give away an Ithaca 12-gauge self-defense shotgun. If you’re in your home and encounter an unauthorized visitor at 3 a.m., this particular piece of hardware offers an immediate and effective answer to the question “Then what?”

Gun control advocates want to prevent you from having a good answer to that question. They assume we’re trying to force guns on everyone. We’re not. We just want to make sure people have all available options. Whether you choose to use them is up to you.

Gun Rights Roundup is a joint venture of Buckeye Firearms Association and USCCA. We will keep fighting until every American enjoys their natural right to carry and self-defense. For more news on pro-gun law, politics, and events, click here to subscribe to Buckeye Firearms Association’s FREE Newsletter.

About:
Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots political action committee dedicated to defending and advancing the right of Ohio citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities. Visit: www.BuckeyeFirearms.org

Buckeye Firearms Foundation

Ohio - -(AmmoLand.com)- On December 4, 2009, Buckeye Firearms Association launched a Facebook fan page. Within two months, we grew to over 4,400 fans who were hungry for pro-gun news and information.

On February 8, 2010, our Facebook fan page vanished. No warning. No reason given.

How could this happen? We have only one clue: The day before, our Facebook fan page administrator had the audacity to post a pro-gun message on the Brady Center’s anti-gun fan page.

Did the Brady Center sabotage our page? We have no proof, but you can be the judge.

Normally, we have no contact with the hoplophobic Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. But a news item prompted our administrator to visit their Facebook page. There were comments there on both sides of the gun rights issue. So, the administrator posted a short message:

If you’re tired of the anti-liberty nonsense here, visit Buckeye Firearms Association.

That’s it. No cursing. No threats. Nothing discourteous or out of line. Just a simple invitation.

Shortly afterward, ALL the pro-gun comments vanished. And so did our Facebook page. Coincidence?

Perhaps we should see if we violated a code of conduct. Here’s what Facebook includes in their terms:

Accounts can either be disabled for repeat offenses or for one, particularly egregious violation. What offense did we commit? What did we do that was “egregious”? Is an invitation to a pro-gun page egregious? Is it egregious to suggest that they hold an anti-liberty point of view?

We do not allow users to send unsolicited or harassing messages to people they don’t know …. There was no unsolicited message. The Brady Center’s page was open for comments. There was no harassing message, unless you consider “anti-liberty nonsense” to be harassment.

We also remove content, photo or written, that threatens, intimidates, harasses, or brings unwanted attention or embarrassment to an individual or group of people. Was the Brady Bunch threatened? Intimidated? Embarrassed? Could it be they are so thin-skinned, so “intimidated” by all the millions of freedom-loving Americans, that they burst into tears whenever they encounter a dose of reality?

Again, we have no proof that the Brady Center lodged a complaint claiming that we were “harassing” or “intimidating” them. Facebook will not divulge the reason for their actions: Unfortunately, for technical and security reasons, Facebook cannot provide you with a description or copy of the removed content. All we know is that we wrote one little comment on the Brady Center’s page and now our own Facebook page is gone.

Oh, and we were just a day or two away from surpassing them in the number of fans we have. Could that be it? Were they “embarrassed” that a state organization could attract more fans than a national organization so quickly? I guess that is embarrassing, isn’t it?

And just to be clear, we would never remove an anti-gun comment from our own page. We would certain remove any outright profanity or highly abusive personal comments, but we prefer to let people openly share their opinions. An anti-gun comment would merely provoke discussion. Isn’t that a good thing in a free society?

The fact that the Brady Center and others like them fear opposing viewpoints and refuse to allow discussion reveals something about them. It shows the sort of world they long for, where there is only “approved” opinion and adherence to central authority.

As we’ve pointed out many times, the fight for gun rights is about more than guns. It’s about liberty, freedom, individualism, and self-reliance. These are ideas that “intimidate” anti-gun advocates.

We’ve done a little research on this and found that we’re not the only page to be removed. A supporter informed us that a Glock page has been removed. And a brief Google search revealed that thousands of other pages have also been deactivated, usually with no warning or reason given.

Is Facebook anti-gun?
Who knows? What is certain is that they show little concern for the time and effort users put into their pages. They have grown into the second most popular website on the planet. Perhaps this rapid growth has gone to their heads and caused them to shrug off the many complaints of poor customer service and the draconian practice of deleting sites without warning.

We have filed an appeal with Facebook and will wait patiently to see if our page re-appears. If not, we’ll just create a new one. If that one vanishes, we’ll create another one. If Facebook won’t let us get our message out, we’ll find another way, and another, and another.

If the Brady Center is intimidated by us now, they’re in for a real surprise in the years ahead. Because we’re not going anywhere. And they ain’t seen nothing yet.

About:
Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots political action committee dedicated to defending and advancing the right of Ohio citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities. Visit: www.BuckeyeFirearms.org

Buckeye Firearms Foundation

Ohio --(Ammoland.com)- During his presidential campaign, Barack Obama assured gun owners that he was no threat to gun rights. And so far, his administration has publicly steered clear of the issue.

However, behind the scenes, he and his staff have shown support for the U.N. Gun Ban, an international treaty on small arms sales that could sidestep established American gun rights and pose a serious threat to the Second Amendment.

President George W. Bush refused to involve America in any aspect of the U.N. Gun Ban treaty. But the government’s position changed when Obama gave Secretary of State Hillary Clinton the green light to begin the negotiation process.

Worse, the small arms treaty brings up a horrifying proposition that the theory of “international norms” means the U.S. might be bound by the treaty even if we never sign on.

Basically, once the small arms treaty is accepted by enough nations, the argument can be made that the provisions become accepted practice and binding on all nations. Based on that logic, America is hurt by the U.N. treaty whether we are a party to it or not.

Barack Obama is the most anti gun president in history and his anti-gun views are a threat to gun rights. If he can destroy the right to bear arms while cozying up to the U.N., without paying a political price, he will surely do so.

Click here to read the full story.

Gun Rights Roundup is a joint venture of Buckeye Firearms Association and USCCA. We will keep fighting until every American enjoys their natural right to carry and self-defense. For more news on pro-gun law, politics, and events, click here to subscribe to Buckeye Firearms Association’s FREE Newsletter.

About:
Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots political action committee dedicated to defending and advancing the right of Ohio citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities. Visit: www.buckeyefirearms.org

Buckeye Firearms Foundation

Ohio - -(AmmoLand.com)- I don’t know exactly how long Colleen Long has been employed by the Associated Press, but if the journalist publishes many more facts that expose the lies of the gun control movement, I expect she’ll be visiting the unemployment lines very soon.

In an article noting an increase in the number of officers killed in the line of duty by gunfire in 2009, Long departed from the anti-gun media template by providing a great deal of perspective on the increase.

From the story:

The number of officers killed in the line of duty by gunfire increased 24 percent from 2008, according to preliminary statistics compiled by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, a national nonprofit organization that tracks officer-related deaths.

As of Saturday, 47 police officers have died nationwide this year after being shot while on duty, up from 38 for the same time in 2008, which was the lowest number of gunfire deaths since 1956, according to the data.

Just publishing the actual numbers themselves (38 last year, 47 this year) provides a great deal of perspective. And keeping in mind that there are close to 1 million officers on the street (a number Long also provides later in the story), the situation becomes even clearer.

But Long didn’t stop there.

The availability of guns compounds the problem, criminologists say. But Pennsylvania, the state with the most gun-related officer deaths so far this year, has among the strictest gun laws in the country, according to a ranking by the pro-gun-control Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. Other states, like Louisiana, Oklahoma and Kentucky, have very little oversight and had few, if any, officer gun deaths this year.

Amazing! This is the type of analysis that is completely absent from the vast majority of gun-related reports in mainstream media. Pro-gun advocates often point out that the Brady Campaign gives better grades for having tough gun control laws to states that also have the highest gun violence, but the point is rarely repeated by media who dutifully publish the Brady bunch’s grade card press release each year.

The story goes on to note that Kevin Morison, a spokesman for the Officers Memorial Fund, which keeps the statistics, said he sees people on both sides of the gun debate using the numbers to prove points.

“But folks who are willing to intentionally target police officers seem to be able to find a way to accrue guns regardless of what the laws in those state would be,” Long quotes Morison as saying, again raising a point those who oppose gun control laws often make, only to have their observations spiked by a biased media.

As if she is unaware she is writing for the anti-gun Associated Press, Long includes still more perspective at the conclusion of her story.

Overall gunfire deaths have more or less been on a steady decline for decades as more tools become available to keep officers safe. More officers are required to wear bullet-resistant vests. There’s also better and faster medical care to save an officer’s life.

In 1973, during a heyday of corruption and crime, there were around 600,000 officers and about 156 gunfire deaths. Currently, there are about 900,000 law enforcement officers nationwide and only 47 gunfire deaths this year — a per-capita decrease of nearly 21 percent.

I’m not sure how Colleen Long’s story made it past the biased editors at the Associated Press, but I’m glad it did. Poll after poll shows a majority of Americans support the right to bear arms for self-defense, and oppose new gun control laws. No one is asking for the bias to simply switch to the pro-gun side, but it is high-time the American media start telling the whole story in its coverage of gun-related issues, and Colleen Long has written an excellent example of how such articles can be written.

Chad D. Baus is the Buckeye Firearms Association Vice Chairman.

About:
Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots political action committee dedicated to defending and advancing the right of Ohio citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities. Visit: www.BuckeyeFirearms.org

Buckeye Firearms Foundation

Ohio --(Ammoland.com)- With the 2010 mid-term elections on the horizon, the gun issue is nowhere to be found … or is it?

Health Care and the nation’s economic problems are dominating the news, and are likely to remain front and center in the upcoming campaign season.

However, gun owners need to remain vigilant. The fact is those in power want to take our guns. They always have. And they will come for them when we’re preoccupied with other issues.

One tactic to watch for is the Trojan horse, a type of attack that hides anti-gun provisions in a seemingly harmless bill. Health Care reform is of particular interest since once the government is paying medical bills, they can use the medical-related costs from any activity as an excuse for regulation.

Ken Hanson recently showed how this could work in an in-depth article called Will Health Care Reform Regulate Guns? We have successfully fought off direct attacks on our gun rights in recent years – it’s the indirect attack that should concern us.

Gun Rights Roundup is a joint venture of Buckeye Firearms Association and USCCA. We will keep fighting until every American enjoys their natural right to carry and self-defense.

About:
Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots political action committee dedicated to defending and advancing the right of Ohio citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities.

About:
Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots political action committee dedicated to defending and advancing the right of Ohio citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities. Visit: www.buckeyefirearms.org

Buckeye Firearms Foundation

Ohio - -(AmmoLand.com)- Buckeye Firearms Association is a single issue, non-partisan PAC concerned with gun rights. As such, the debate on health care reform occurring across the U.S. is not something that would be within our normal sphere of coverage.

However, my good friend Chad Baus posted a story a few days ago highlighting how the Centers for Disease Control has begun researching gun violence and the impact of gun violence on health care costs. This immediately set off alarm bells in my head as the pieces fell into place.

Why, you ask?

Health care reform is a brilliant way to regulate guns without violating the Second Amendment.

As an attorney, part of my job is risk management – sit around and think big thoughts on how things could go wrong, and then plan accordingly. (Some of my less charitable friends describe it as “being paid to think of ways to screw things up.”)

Health care reform, which seems completely innocuous to gun rights at first blush, is a Trojan Horse. Of that, there can be no doubt. The only real question is whether our enemies will choose to use it as such. Given the string of court and legislative defeats the anti-gun groups have suffered, is there any doubt whether the Brady Bunch will pass up an opportunity to regulate guns in this oblique manner?

Chad’s article pointed to a Washington Times editorial taking the CDC to task for circumventing congressional orders to abstain from gun control “research.” The original reasoning behind this “research” ban was that the CDC would be using tax dollars to advance a gun control agenda, and the taxpayers rightly put an end to these shenanigans. Now, under President Obama, the CDC is defying this ban by researching “health care costs” and how guns impact health insurance and health care services. If any reader is in doubt as to what the results of this “research” will be, you might as well stop reading now.

So, sometime in the near future, a tax-payer funded study will show that gunshot wounds take up a tremendous amount of medical resources, almost all of which goes unreimbursed, because the victims are uninsured. The study, of course, will fail to mention that the majority of this care goes to criminal/gang elements injured during illegal activities. I will readily concede that the Crips, Bloods, Triad, Mongols and the Mexican Mafia have woefully deficient employee benefit plans (no 401K, dental, paid vacation etc) but is that really a basis for national health insurance policy?

Why should gun owners care that this “research result” will show such an impact on health care costs?

Underwriting.
Insurance premiums are calculated, in part, based upon your risk group. If you smoke, your premiums are higher and/or it is harder to get coverage. Why? Cigarette smoking demonstrably increases your health care costs over the long term. Have diabetes? Ditto. High blood pressure and cholesterol? Get out your wallet.

So now, armed with a “study” showing that the presence of a gun greatly increases health care costs, gun owners are now considered a high risk group and the insurance companies have Science! to back up that claim. “Owning a gun is no different than having cancer…” “No sir, we aren’t violating your civil rights. You may still own whatever guns you wish, you just are going to pay at-risk rates rather than preferred rates.”

I assure the reader that this scenario is not far-fetched or fanciful, the mechanism is already in place and is capable of operating exactly as I have outlined. The only question is whether the antis will have the political will to use it in such a manner, and to what extent. (i.e would they try to divide us by “finding” that ownership of a $5,000.00 trap gun has no impact on healthcare costs, but ownership of a handgun does and ownership of an ugly black rifle drives the costs right through the roof.)

Here is a preview of the new health insurance application forms:

Name, address, age, gender, height, weight, prior medical conditions, do you smoke, do you own guns, if so how many and what kind….

Then there is the whole issue of de facto gun registration, since this information will now be on your wonderful, portable healthcare chart that is all residing on a computer someplace. Don’t forget the new taxes on guns and ammo to help provide insurance for those poor Crips, Bloods, Triad, Mongols and Mexican Mafia members who find themselves suffering from uninsured gunshot wounds incurred during a drug deal gone wrong . The anti-gun possibilities are limited only by the imagination.

Please don’t delude yourself into thinking that this would only be part of any “public option” insurance plan. The private insurance companies are going to be in direct competition with any of the pre-existing or new government insurance plans, so if the public plans get an “upcharge” for gun ownership you know the private ones are going to demand this extra money, too. After all, they have Science! to provide the justification for the higher premiums.

These are not paranoid delusions or ramblings, just possibilities that are there for the taking should the political muscle be flexed to do so.

So what do gun owners need to do? We need to be calling our “Congress Critters” and demand, at a minimum, two things. (If you are just outright opposed to any of the health care reform going on, simply add the above objections to the pile of objections you already have when you call in, and skip over making these demands.)

First, any health care reform bill must be absolutely, affirmatively firearm neutral. The law must explicitly state that no insurer, public or private, may use ownership or use of guns as a basis for underwriting or benefit decisions.

Second, any health care reform bill needs to explicitly deny insurance benefit payments for care provided to anyone who is harmed during the commission of a violent felony, and allow hospitals/doctors to choose to refuse treatment to these same people if they feel they can ethically do so. They may ethically feel they have to treat these people, but you and I should not be subsidizing medical care to Johnny Crackhead when he finds himself shot during a robbery, nor should we be subsidizing someone’s ethics. It is time these criminals start bearing the consequence of their actions and allow natural selection to work its magic.

Ken Hanson is a gun rights attorney in Ohio who serves as the Legislative Chair for Buckeye Firearms Association. He is the attorney of record for Buckeye Firearms Foundation, which filed an amicus brief in the Heller case. In 2008, the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) awarded him with its Defender of Justice Award. He is the author of The Ohio Guide to Firearm Laws, a certified firearms instructor and holds a Type 01 Federal Firearms License.

About:
Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots political action committee dedicated to defending and advancing the right of Ohio citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities.

Buckeye Firearms Foundation

Ohio - -(AmmoLand.com)-Polls will be open across the state of Ohio and around the nation today, and once again, pro-gun voters will have a disproportionate impact on the election outcome here in the Buckeye state.

Although there are 11 million voters in Ohio, about 4 million are ineligible to vote, either by age or lack of registering. And out of the 7 million registered voters, precedent suggests that only a little over 2 million (30%) will bother to drag themselves to the polls in an off-year election.

There are somewhere north of 400,000 people in Ohio who are licensed to hunt and/ or carry a concealed handgun. When one considers that, in the 2000 Presidential election, nine of 10 Ohio sportsmen of voting age went to the polls (a full 27% of the vote!), one can begin to see how much of an influence gun voters can have on elections that swing by just a few percentage points.

About:
Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots political action committee dedicated to defending and advancing the right of Ohio citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities.

Buckeye Firearms Association seeks to maximize your rights by endorsing and electing pro-gun candidates on the city, county, and state level, including mayors, sheriffs, legislators, and governor. We also work to defeat anti-gun legislation, pass pro-gun bills, and reform existing laws to benefit all Ohio citizens.

Unlike many anti-gun groups, we do not get our funding or support from wealthy activists or big corporations. We are a non-partisan, all-volunteer organization. Officers and supporters donate their time and skills to the pro-gun cause. Not a single dime from donors is spent on salaries or wasteful overhead. In fact, every penny is used to support political campaigns, influence public opinion, and advance gun rights around Ohio.

Buckeye Firearms Foundation

Ohio --(AmmoLand.com)-We have a chance to get Ken Hanson, our legal guru and author of The Ohio Guide to Firearm Laws, on the NRA Board of Directors.

Not only would this be a great honor, it would help put Ohio gun issues front and center with the most powerful pro-gun organization in the country.

First, we have to get him officially nominated and we need more petition signatures. Will you help us?

Here’s what you have to do:

1. Click here to download a copy of the nominating petition. If you can’t open a pdf document, get Adobe Acrobat free.
2. Print the petition on LEGAL SIZE paper. We know this is inconvenient, but that’s the rule. No exceptions. If it’s not on legal paper, the NRA won’t accept it. If you can’t print it at home, print it at work. Or go to Kinko’s.
3. Fully complete line 1 of the petition if you are a voting member of the NRA. (To be a voting member, you must be a life member or an annual member for 5 consecutive years with no lapse in membership.) PRINT CLEARLY in ink. Get everyone you know who is a voting member to sign the petition as well. Collect as many signatures as you can. If you want to go above and beyond, take it to a local gun shop or range and ask them to collect signatures. You can pick it up in a few days.
4. Mail the petition to Ken Hanson no later than Tuesday, Oct. 20. NO FAXES, PHOTOCOPIES, OR EMAILS ALLOWED. They must be mailed.

We only need another 29 signatures. We’re SO close. But the time is short. You’ve always come through for us before. And we need you to come through for us again.

Help us get a Buckeye on the NRA Board of Directors!

About:
Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots political action committee dedicated to defending and advancing the right of Ohio citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities.

Buckeye Firearms Association seeks to maximize your rights by endorsing and electing pro-gun candidates on the city, county, and state level, including mayors, sheriffs, legislators, and governor. We also work to defeat anti-gun legislation, pass pro-gun bills, and reform existing laws to benefit all Ohio citizens.

Unlike many anti-gun groups, we do not get our funding or support from wealthy activists or big corporations. We are a non-partisan, all-volunteer organization. Officers and supporters donate their time and skills to the pro-gun cause. Not a single dime from donors is spent on salaries or wasteful overhead. In fact, every penny is used to support political campaigns, influence public opinion, and advance gun rights around Ohio.

Buckeye Firearms Foundation

Chicago , IL --(AmmoLand.com)-We have just received word that the U.S. Supreme Court will hear another case on the individual rights of gun owners.

A group of Chicago gun owners is challenging a lower appeals court ruling that while the Second Amendment guarantees individual rights on the federal level, it does not bar state or city governments from passing restrictions or outright bans on guns.

Chicago imposes a handgun ban similar to the one the Supreme Court struck down last year for Washington D.C. In that case, District of Columbia v. Heller, the court declared what we have all known: that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to firearms for self-defense and does not merely refer to a state “militia.”

However, the 5-4 decision did not address one important question:

Does the Second Amendment also apply to states and municipalities?

The new case is called McDonald v. City of Chicago and will probably come before the court as early as this coming January, 2010. The decision may come sometime in June.

We will have more details in the coming days and weeks.

NOTE: Buckeye Firearms Association may be involved in this case as we were in last year’s case. We played a part in winning that decision by preparing and submitting a brief for the court. If we participate in the coming case, we will need your financial support. The research, work, and requirements of dealing with the Supreme Court is highly expensive.

About:
Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots political action committee dedicated to defending and advancing the right of Ohio citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities.

Buckeye Firearms Association seeks to maximize your rights by endorsing and electing pro-gun candidates on the city, county, and state level, including mayors, sheriffs, legislators, and governor. We also work to defeat anti-gun legislation, pass pro-gun bills, and reform existing laws to benefit all Ohio citizens.

Unlike many anti-gun groups, we do not get our funding or support from wealthy activists or big corporations. We are a non-partisan, all-volunteer organization. Officers and supporters donate their time and skills to the pro-gun cause. Not a single dime from donors is spent on salaries or wasteful overhead. In fact, every penny is used to support political campaigns, influence public opinion, and advance gun rights around Ohio.

Buckeye Firearms Foundation

Dundee, MI --(AmmoLand.com)-You are invited to attend a free Second Amendment workshop at Cabelas in Dundee, MI, just 20 minutes north of Toledo.

You will get information and strategies on how you can play an important roll in the ongoing fight to maintain Second Amendment rights in the United States.

The impressive lineup of speakers includes:

• Suzanne Anglewicz (NRA-ILA)
• Bryan Patrick (Firearms Activist)
• David Coy (NRA Director)
• Dave Felbeck (Michigan Coalition for Responsible Gun Owners)
• Steve Dulan (Michigan Coalition for Responsible Gun Owners)
• Skip Coryell (2nd Ammendment March)
• James Irvine (Buckeye Firearms Association)
• William Nichols (Monroe County Prosecutor)

Date: Saturday, August 29, 2009
Time: 9:00 am – 4:30 pm
Location: Cabelas, 110 Cabela Blvd. East, Dundee, MI 48131 – Right off US 23 at exit #17 (20 minutes north of Toledo) Cabelas location and information www.Cabelas.com
Cost: FREE
Questions: Call Wayne Blank – 734-241-9131

If you’re serious about defending the Second Amendment, please make an effort to join us this coming Saturday. I’m looking forward to seeing you there.

Yours for Freedom,
Jim Irvine

About:
Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots political action committee dedicated to defending and advancing the right of Ohio citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities.

Buckeye Firearms Association seeks to maximize your rights by endorsing and electing pro-gun candidates on the city, county, and state level, including mayors, sheriffs, legislators, and governor. We also work to defeat anti-gun legislation, pass pro-gun bills, and reform existing laws to benefit all Ohio citizens.

Unlike many anti-gun groups, we do not get our funding or support from wealthy activists or big corporations. We are a non-partisan, all-volunteer organization. Officers and supporters donate their time and skills to the pro-gun cause. Not a single dime from donors is spent on salaries or wasteful overhead. In fact, every penny is used to support political campaigns, influence public opinion, and advance gun rights around Ohio.

Buckeye Firearms Foundation

Cardinal Center Campgrounds, Ohio - -(AmmoLand.com)- Reserve your seats for the 2009 Buckeye Bash.

We’re holding this year’s festivities at the Cardinal Center Campgrounds and Shooting Center in Marengo, just 30 miles north of Columbus. And we promise that you’re in for a treat.

You’ll hear from pro-gun Representatives who support the Second Amendment and fight for your rights here in Ohio.

We’ll also fill you in on what Buckeye Firearms Foundation has been working on recently, including our legal battle with the City of Cleveland and our preparations for the upcoming elections.

Plus you’ll have the chance to participate in our live auction for fantastic gifts and gun gear. We’ll also hold a silent auction for shooting packages, gun cleaning supplies, gift certificates for restaurants, hunting gear, and more.

Click here for all the details.

About:
Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots political action committee dedicated to defending and advancing the right of Ohio citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities.

Buckeye Firearms Association seeks to maximize your rights by endorsing and electing pro-gun candidates on the city, county, and state level, including mayors, sheriffs, legislators, and governor. We also work to defeat anti-gun legislation, pass pro-gun bills, and reform existing laws to benefit all Ohio citizens.

Unlike many anti-gun groups, we do not get our funding or support from wealthy activists or big corporations. We are a non-partisan, all-volunteer organization. Officers and supporters donate their time and skills to the pro-gun cause. Not a single dime from donors is spent on salaries or wasteful overhead. In fact, every penny is used to support political campaigns, influence public opinion, and advance gun rights around Ohio.

Buckeye Firearms Foundation

Ohio - -(AmmoLand.com)- The U.S. Senate will vote at 11:30 a.m. tomorrow — Wednesday, July 22 — on an amendment to protect your right to self-defense.

The anti-gunners are now doing everything that they can to defeat this amendment and the vote by your Senators is likely to determine the outcome. So it is critical for you to call and e-mail your Senators now and urge them to support and vote for the Thune-Vitter Amendment.

The Senate is now considering an amendment by Senators John Thune (R-SD) and David Vitter (R-LA) that will provide interstate recognition of Right-to-Carry licenses and permits. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his “Mayors Against Illegal Guns” — and other anti-gun leaders and organizations — are running ads and spreading lies to scare your Senators into opposing this important self-defense reciprocity reform.

It is crucial for you to contact your Senators today — now — and urge them to support and vote for the Thune-Vitter Self-Defense Amendment. Ohio residents use the contact information provided below, please call both their D.C. number and a state office locally AND send an e-mail message (and a fax if possible) to your Senators:

Everyone else you can use NRA CapWiz: www.capwiz.com/nra/dbq/officials/

SENATOR SHERROD BROWN
(202) 224-2315 (D.C.)
(202) 228-6321 (D.C. Fax)
(216) 522-7272 (Cleveland)
(513) 684-1021 (Cincinnati)
(614) 469-2083 (Columbus)
(440) 242-4100 (Lorain)
Email: http://brown.senate.gov/contact/

SENATOR GEORGE VOINOVICH
(202) 224-3353 (D.C.)
(202) 228-1382 (D.C. Fax)
(216) 522-7095 (Cleveland)
(513) 684-3265 (Cincinnati)
(740) 441-6410 (Southeast OH)
(216) 522-7095 (Northeast OH)
(419) 259-3895 (Toledo)
(513) 684-3265 (Dayton)
(614) 469-6697 (Central OH)
Email: http://voinovich.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.ContactForm

P.S. If the line is busy, call back. If you’ve already called, call again.

About:
Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots political action committee dedicated to defending and advancing the right of Ohio citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities.

Buckeye Firearms Association seeks to maximize your rights by endorsing and electing pro-gun candidates on the city, county, and state level, including mayors, sheriffs, legislators, and governor. We also work to defeat anti-gun legislation, pass pro-gun bills, and reform existing laws to benefit all Ohio citizens.

Unlike many anti-gun groups, we do not get our funding or support from wealthy activists or big corporations. We are a non-partisan, all-volunteer organization. Officers and supporters donate their time and skills to the pro-gun cause. Not a single dime from donors is spent on salaries or wasteful overhead. In fact, every penny is used to support political campaigns, influence public opinion, and advance gun rights around Ohio.