Ten Threats To Our Ohio Gun Rights In 2007

By Alex Payton

In August of 2006, the Buckeye Firearms Association produced a list of ten people who are threatening your Ohio gun rights. Since then, Ohio gun owners successfully passed HB347 and helped elect several pro-gun candidates. To some degree, all of the people who were previously listed are still threatening your Ohio gun rights, but there are now new threats that need to be addressed. Shockingly, a large number of the threats on our Ohio gun rights are coming from OUTSIDE of Ohio!

In order to defend our rights, we have to know who is threatening them. However, there are too many threats to address all of them. The following is a list of just ten of the threats to our Ohio gun rights in 2007.

10) Michael Bloomberg

Michael Bloomberg may be the Mayor of New York City, but he continues to have a profound affect on our Ohio gun rights. In an attempt to spread his restrictive New York City gun laws all over the country, Bloomberg has started a coalition called “Mayors Against Illegal Guns.”

Don’t let the name fool you, they are actively working against legal gun ownership and their coalition appears to have very little to do with actually going after illegal guns. There are now over 150 mayors who have joined Bloomberg in his crusade to turn legal guns into illegal ones. Ohio members include; Akron Mayor Donald Plusquellic, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, Columbus Mayor Mike Coleman, Dayton Mayor Rhine McLin, Mansfield Mayor Lydia Reid, North Olmsted Mayor Thomas O’Grady, and Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams.

Bloomberg has hosted anti-gun summits with other big city mayors and has launched a so-called “investigation” into gun stores in several states, including Ohio. During the course of the “investigation,” Bloomberg’s investigators may have committed felonies by lying on BATFE Form 4473. It is also being reported that Bloomberg’s actions may have interfered with "on-going investigations" by the BATFE, and that his “investigators” may have committed felonies during the investigation.

9) Rebecca Peters

Rebecca Peters is the Director of the International Action Network On Small Arms (IANSA). Ms. Peters works with the United Nations, and there are over 500 organizations from almost 100 countries that work under the IANSA umbrella.

According to IANSA, they are working “to stop the proliferation and misuse of small arms and light weapons.” Don’t let their terminology fool you; they are talking about your hunting rifles, shotguns, and handguns. Peters clearly showed her anti-Second Amendment beliefs and her disdain for the United States during a debate with the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre during the “Great UN Gun Debate.” Peters has proven to be very effective. She played a large role in the gun ban and confiscations in Australia.

The IANSA backed gun-ban may have failed in Brazil, but she appears to be hell bent on imposing her form of “reasonable gun control measures” on the United States. The United States almost always stands alone when it comes to the extremely anti-gun agenda of the United Nations and IANSA. All of their latest efforts to pass extremely anti-gun measures were defeated. During these efforts we were lucky to have a pro-Second Amendment administration and a strong defender of freedom, John Bolton, as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations.

Now, times have changed. Bolton is no longer the United States Ambassador to the United Nations and in all likelihood; we will have a anti-gun administration in office after the 2008 election (whether Republican or Democrat wins - see #8!). We can expect Peters, IANSA, and the United Nations to take advantage of this situation to try to strip us of our freedoms.

8) The Main Contenders In The 2008 Presidential Election

Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama are currently the main contenders in the 2008 presidential election. All four of them are adamantly anti-gun and will have a negative affect on our gun rights at EVERY level.

7) Representative McCarthy and the Co-Sponsors of H.R. 1022

Representative McCarthy is the sponsor of H.R. 1022, the proposed “Assault Rifle Ban.” However, this “Assault Rifle Ban” goes far beyond the Clinton ban, and is often referred to as the “Clinton Ban on steroids.” You can read about H.R. 1022, and what it would ban here.

H.R. 1022 now has 30 co-sponsors while the pro-gun H.R.1096 has NONE. This is a threat that we need to take seriously, because it just maybe far reaching federal gun ban that was ever introduced.

6) Senator Sherrod Brown

Senator Sherrod Brown defeated the anti-gun Mike DeWine to become one of Ohio’s two senators. However, it was not a victory for Ohio gun owners. Brown does not make it a secret that he opposes our Second Amendment rights, and we expect him to vote those rights away every chance he gets.

5) Dennis Kucinich

Dennis Kucinich is a super liberal congressman and former Mayor of Cleveland. Kucinich has a long history of opposing our gun rights. Despite a dismal record as a congressman, he continues to get reelected. He recently defeated the Buckeye Firearms Association-endorsed candidate, Mike Dovilla, and was reelected.

Kucinich will spend the next few years pushing his liberal agenda, and anti-gun views. That is if he doesn’t ignore his constituents while attempting another presidential bid. While Kucinich will be busy destroying our freedoms from with in, Dovilla will be serving our great country during his recent deployment to Iraq.

4) Toby Hoover

Toby Hoover is the ringleader of the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence (OCAGV). The OCAGV is an extremely anti-gun organization that is tries to disarm law-abiding citizens in the name “safety.”

Despite a long series of political defeats lately, the OCGAV still wields a disproportionate amount of political clout. In the eyes of the media, Hoover’s credibility was NOT shaken when her claims that allowing law-abiding citizens to carry concealed handguns would result in “blood in the streets” has not happened.

Hoover and the OCAGV have aligned themselves with other anti-gun groups under the flag of the Freedom States Alliance. Hoover will continue to use the OCAGV and sound bite opportunities to exploit her own personal tragedy to rob us of our Ohio gun rights.

3) Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson

The City of Cleveland is now rated one of the poorest and most dangerous cities in the United States. In the short time since his election, Mayor Jackson has done a good job with a shrinking budget and limited resources. He has cut spending and is trying new approaches to solve some of Cleveland’s problems.

However, Mayor Jackson has taken a stance that the City of Cleveland is above state law on several issues. The most recent case would be the recent passage of HB347. On March 14th, he announced that he will ignore the state law that makes one uniformed firearm laws across the entire state of Ohio. At a press conference, he stated that he ordered the Cleveland Police Department to continue to enforce the city’s gun control laws and will be challenging HB347's preemption provision in court.

As a result of Mayor Jackson’s order, the police will have to try to enforce laws that only effect law-abiding citizens and do nothing to prevent crime. The Mayor’s move to defy state law is not even supported by his own police union.

If you want to POLITELY tell Mayor Jackson that he should comply with the state law and not infringe on the Second Amendment rights of the citizens of Cleveland, call his Office of Communications at 216-664-2220.

2) The Anti-Gun Gun Owner

The anti-gun gun owners are tough to explain and understand. On one hand they are a supporter of the Second Amendment and sometimes they even actively work to protect it. On the other hand, they also have some strong anti-gun views and sometimes work to infringe upon the Second Amendment.

The anti-gun gun owner often supports the ownership of only certain types shotguns and rifles used to “hunt.” However, they either would not mind or would out right support a ban on certain types of firearms such as “assault rifles” or handguns. What they do not realize is that the gun-grabbers will not stop at confiscating and banning the firearms that the gun-grabbers and the anti-gun gun owners despise. They will continue to work until there is a total ban on ALL firearms.

The anti-gun gun owner is used as a pawn in the fight to infringe upon the Second Amendment. The gun-grabbers will use them to help pass anti-gun legislation while promising not to go after their “hunting” guns. After the gun-grabbers pass the ban then they WILL come for the anti-gun gun owner’s guns too.

1) The Apathetic Ohio Gun Owner

The apathetic Ohio gun owner has been and may continue to be one of the biggest threat to our Ohio gun rights. This person doesn’t fight to protect their Second Amendment rights and does not feel that the gun-grabbers will ever successfully pass law that results in wide spread gun confiscation. Sadly, the fact that guns were confiscated from law-abiding citizens in New Orleans didn’t change their mind.

The apathetic Ohio gun owner often does not vote, and does not volunteer on campaigns of pro-gun candidates. As a result, anti-gun candidates win elections and continue to erode our gun rights. The apathetic Ohio gun owner does not contact his/her elected representative and demand that they protect our Second Amendment rights. His or her elected representatives see his silence as an endorsement of their anti-gun policies and agenda.

The apathetic Ohio gun owner also does not write letters or emails to various newspapers, television stations, and radio stations challenging their anti-gun reporting and bias.

The apathetic Ohio gun owner does not belong to or support national gun advocacy groups such as the National Rifle Association (NRA), Gun Owners of America (GOA), Second Amendment Foundation, or the Jews For The Preservation of Firearm Ownership (JPFO). They are also not active at the local level with organizations such as the Buckeye Firearms Association. If they are a member, they cannot be counted on to take any action that is needed, even if it is just signing and mailing a pre-filled out postcard.

The apathetic Ohio gun owner is by far the most dangerous threat to your gun rights. In fact, this person does more damage to our Ohio gun rights than the rest of the list combined. If they don’t wake up soon, it may be too late.