Letter to the Editor: Doctor vows his office won't be a gun-free zone

May 15, 2004
Columbus Dispatch

"Dr. Johnston," a colleague asked me yesterday, "Aren’t you going to fill out the application to keep concealed weapons out of your office?" A physician wouldn’t want guns in his office, right?

I walked into the hospital to see a patient yesterday, and I saw one of the placards: "No weapons of any kind are allowed inside this building."

Buses have them posted. We have seen the signs outside of our public schools for years, forbidding even teachers from carrying concealed weapons onto the property.

Columbus’ mayor has been whining to the public that parks are now dangerous to children, and should be added to the list of places that can ban state-sanctioned concealed carry.

At least now, if there are any mass murders in Ohio, we know where they will occur.

Bad people have always carried the means of assault on their person, regardless of the law. A placard outside of a school or hospital is not going to prevent a criminal from carrying a gun onto the property, though they will be more likely to use it.

Gun-control statutes only disarm good people.

Until recently, Ohioans have been intimidated by state law and have not been keeping and bearing arms in public.

Thus, state law has facilitated the crimes perpetrated upon them by criminals, who prefer a disarmed population.

Where do all the mass murders occur? "Gun-free zones!" Criminals aren’t stupid.

Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, Charles McCoy, and Joint Malvo aren’t stupid. Public schools, states that forbid concealed carry, and Washington, D.C., are the safest places to kill people, and most of the mass murders in our nation take place at these locations.

Like statist liberals, criminals warm to the idea of the government keeping their victims defenseless with gun control legislation.

Mao, Hitler, Stalin — the three most infamous mass murderers in history — only succeeded in their diabolic tyranny because of the tyrannical statutes that usurped the Godgiven right to keep and bear arms. Gun control is job security for criminals and tyrants.

No, my dear patients. My office will not be a "gun-free zone." I care too much about your health — and mine. Good people have nothing to fear from good people keeping and bearing arms. Only bad people need fear that.

I only wish that the state would stop trying to grant permission to Ohio’s citizens for them to do what the God of nature and the U.S. Constitution already permits them to do: keep the means of self-defense on their person.

Ever since a drug-abusing patient threatened my office staff in Portsmouth in 2000, I’ve always kept arms — under the affirmative defense of the old law, I was justified. But now I’m going to have to turn in my fingerprints and get permission from the state to do it, for fear of state sanction. When will Ohio’s government stop treating good Ohioans like criminals? It’s time we get these tax-and spend, pro-gun-control pseudo-conservatives out of office and put servants, instead of masters, at the helm, who will let us be free and make others let us be free.

Dr. James P. Johnston
Dresden

Click on the "Read More..." link below for more wisdom, from a college girl who says "I highly prize[s] respect for others, but if you attack me, you have rescinded any such respect. I will not enjoy doing it, but I have the right to fight back and, if necessary, to kill."

May 16, 2004
Columbus Dispatch

Guns help people take responsibility for selves

I strongly disagree with K.G. Green’s idea that guns are carried out of dread ("Gun law makes life in Ohio more dangerous," letter, last Sunday).

As a college student, I took a 10-week self-defense class, but I am not paranoid. Neither am I some rogue vigilante looking to break a guy’s nose for leering at me.

Why are we as a society so loath to defend ourselves, instead wanting everyone else (namely police) to do it for us? I can’t help but think back to the serial rapists the Ohio State campus area has endured. What would have happened if the first girl he’d tried to brutalize had shot him?

We all pray that we never find ourselves in situations requiring lethal force, but it does happen. Telling me I cannot have a gun to help ensure my safety is telling me that I’m not responsible enough to defend myself, and I refuse to believe that.

I highly prize respect for others, but if you attack me, you have rescinded any such respect. I will not enjoy doing it, but I have the right to fight back and, if necessary, to kill.

Tara J. Sutfin
Columbus

Dispatch readers aren't all as so smart as this doctor and this student. The writer below seems to think signs will allow her to "know" people around her aren't armed. It is likely Akron Dairy Mart shoppers were convinced of same recently, before witnessing the store clerk getting pistol-whipped during a robbery:

May 17, 2004
Columbus Dispatch

Banning guns will win businesses customers

Thank you, Ohioans for Concealed Carry, for putting together a Web site that lists those businesses that have chosen not to allow weapons on their premises.

Now I can patronize those very businesses and thank them for protecting my rights: that is, the right to enter a public facility and not have to worry about who is carrying a concealed weapon.

Susan Morelli-Wolf
Hilliard

This Akron Beacon Journal reader is under the delusion that a road-rager who bashed in a window with a crowbar will actually care enough about the law to obtain a concealed handgun license before his next violent outburst:

May 19, 2004
Akron Beacon Journal

Conceal the rage

One weeknight last year, my husband and I were headed home from dining out. We were heading south in downtown Akron, approaching a streetlight just one block from the Summit County Courthouse. A pickup truck followed by a small car was in front of us, and even though the light was green, the truck stopped, and so the car had to. I said to my husband, ``Stay back -- something's wrong'' (women's intuition). We stopped about three car lengths behind the car.

The man in the pickup, who looked to be about 30, got out, reached in the bed of the truck and pulled out a crowbar. He proceeded to walk to the small car and bashed in the front window. The car's driver got out and was yelling, "What are you doing? What's wrong with you?''

The man with the crowbar turned back and walked to his truck, opened the door, threw the crowbar behind the seat, got in and drove around the corner -- through a red light.

I only saw a few of the letters on his license plate, but gave them to the driver of the car and pointed out the police station ahead. He was so shaken, he just got in his car and drove off.

Isn't it great that, now, the fellow in the truck and those like him can carry a hidden gun? Maybe proof of anger-management classes should be part of the process of getting a concealed-carry permit.

Dianne Caudill
Norton