Letters to Toby...

2:43pm Tuesday, April 20, 2004

In an op-ed published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Columbus Dispatch and Toledo Blade, Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence director Toby Hoover took issue with a Toledo professor who stated that "licensees are a good deal more law-abiding than the norm, and they are well-socialized personalities who can rationally plan and conduct their own lives and actions."

Hoover's retort: "Some must be like that, but if you could read my e-mails from the license wannabees, you would find it difficult to describe them with any of those terms.

The following email to Hoover was cc'd to OFCC, and it paints a far different picture of the types of emails she is receiving than do her claims:

I have read with interest your public stance over the concealed carry laws in Ohio. I must admit I am perplexed about your reasoning.

You see, I am a retired police sergeant from Portland, Oregon, a state where we have had concealed carry for years. Police view responsible citizens with concealed carry permits as allies in thwarting criminal behavior. The incidents of CCW holders doing irresponsible things with their firearms are rare and when it occurs, they lose their right.

There are no shoot outs at traffic accidents and no Dodge City mentality. Those that carry concealed do so responsibly and it isn't a big deal with the police.

It is believed that the concealed carry implementation of several years ago contributed to a drop in criminal activity. You would do well to tone down your sky is falling rhetoric and let the system work.

Gary Crane

She may get shivers from reading such letters, but they're not because Hoover is afraid of the writer. She's afraid of the truth.

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